Kerbside Recycling Service: What You Can and Can’t Recycle
What’s accepted
- Clean plastic bottles, trays and containers with resin identification codes 1, 2 and 5 (see below for exceptions.
- Clean paper and cardboard, including glossy magazines, egg cartons (also great for home composting) and pizza boxes (grease stained is OK but no food waste). Staples are OK (although if there are lots and you have time to remove this does help).
- Clean, unbroken glass jars and bottles made from ‘container glass’ (eg, not heat resistant glass, drinking glasses, light bulbs, etc). Please don’t overfill the crate or it won’t be collected.
- Aluminium and steel tins and cans
What’s not included (please keep these items out to ensure that recycling doesn’t get contaminated)
- Anything that has food or liquid in it
- Soft plastics and plastics 3, 4, 6 and 7
- Any container bigger than 4 litres or smaller than 50mm at their widest point
- Any plastic container not clearly numbered 1, 2 or 5
- All lids
- Plastic containers used for hazardous substances (for example paint or plant pots) not accepted
- Compostable containers (bio plastic or fibre products including single use cups and lids)
- Aluminium foil or trays
- Shredded paper or paper items smaller than a standard envelope
- Plastic lined paper products such as receipts from tills
- Liquid paperboard (eg, juice and plant milk cartons)
- Aerosols
- Batteries – they can cause serious fires! Check alternatives here
Soft plastic recycling in Nelson Tasman
The Packaging Forum’s soft plastic recycling scheme is back up and running in the Nelson/Tasman region. Drop-off points are now available at the following stores:
- Countdown in Nelson, Richmond and Motueka
- The Warehouse Nelson, Richmond and Motueka
- New World Stoke and Motueka
All soft plastic collected will go to Future Post to be recycled into fence posts and garden beds.
(Remember – plastics must be dry, clean and easy to scrunch in your hand. Examples include food wrappers, bread bags, biscuit trays etc.)
Please don’t put soft plastics in your kerbside recycling bin as this can’t be processed by our sorting equipment.
Information for glass recycling
- Only official blue glass crates will be collected. No other containers will be collected.
- Broken glass will not be collected.
- Overfilled blue glass crates will not be collected. Crates should be filled no higher than the lip of the crate, contents flush with the top.
- When the crates are overfilled the bottles can fall and break, risking injury to our collection team and others.
- The weight of the container must not exceed 14kg.
Learn more about the Packaging Forum’s soft plastic collection trial.
