The Ministry for the Environment has made changes to what councils throughout the country are allowed to collect in their wheelie bins, as part of a move to standardise recycling and organics across New Zealand.
The main changes affecting the Timaru district include:
- No paper or cardboard — including pizza boxes and egg cartons — in the green bin
- Tea bags, coffee filters, paper towels, tissues and serviettes now go in the red bin
- Compostable-marked paper packaging such as coffee cups go in the red bin
- Pet poo goes in the red bin
- Newspaper goes in the yellow bin
- Aluminium foil or aerosol cans now go in the red bin
- Plant pots go in the red bin
Waste operations manager Grant Hamel said as the four-bin system was already in place, the Timaru district was well positioned compared with other areas.
"We here in Timaru are lucky.
"We are already compliant with what the ministry is aiming to have nationwide by 2030, but we have to make some small changes to what we collect.
"For Timaru district residents it is our green bin [food and organics] kerbside collection that is the most affected.
"We will no longer be able to take paper and cardboard under the new regulations as they may contain polyfluoroalkyl substances.
"We see a lot of shredded paper, paper towels and pizza boxes in our green bins — these can no longer go into there.
"Pizza boxes can go into the yellow bin, as long as all the food scraps have been removed.
"Tea bags will no longer be accepted as most tea bags in New Zealand are made at least partially out of plastic.
"Loose-leaf tea can still be put in the green bin.
"All compostable packaging has to go in the red bin as some packaging, although marketed as compostable, does not break down in our composting systems.
"For the yellow bin, one of the main changes is that we are no longer allowed to collect aerosol cans, aluminium foil or foil trays. These need to go in the red bin.
"While these changes may take a while for our community to adopt, it means that from now on the same things should go in the same bins no matter where you are in the country."
The changes only affect kerbside collections, services at transfer stations are unaffected.
