Friday, Feb 8, 2019
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Bin abuse ‘unacceptable’ BY SUE NEWMAN
SUE.N@THEGUARDIAN.CO.NZ
Lifting the lid on kerbside yellow recycling bins has revealed that not every Mid Canterbury wheelie bin user understands what should go in those bins and what should not. The council has started an audit of recycling collected through its kerbside service and there appear to be significant gaps in the community’s understanding of what is accepted for recycling, Ashburton District Council service delivery group manager Neil
McCann said. An initial audit was carried out across 80 bins, selected at random. These were emptied into large bags that were labelled with the bin number and address. Bags were then taken to the resource recovery park so their content could be checked. “What we found was that 20 to 30 per cent of those bins were contaminated with materials that shouldn’t be in there and we need to reduce this. Among other things we found bottles, clothing and polystyrene,” he said.
When a bin was emptied, if non-recyclable material was found, a photograph was taken and this and a letter would be sent to the property owner. The first of those letters will be sent this week. Polystyrene could not be put in the yellow recycling bin but it was accepted at the resource recovery park while used clothing belonged at charity shops or in clothing bins, not recycling bins, McCann said. For people who had moved to Ashburton from places where
wheelie bins were in use, there could be some confusion around bottles because Ashburton, unlike many areas, had a separate collection service for these by using green crates. “In Timaru and Christchurch bottles go in the recycling bin but we need to educate people that that’s not what happens in Ashburton and we’ve had quite a few people who’ve said they’re not aware of this.” While every property had been issued with a green crate, additional crates could be bought
from the council’s administration office, he said. A contamination rate of up to 30 per cent was unacceptable and the council was working with EnviroWaste to audit recycling bins to help educate and improve the quality of recycling being collected. The audits will be ongoing across all areas parts of the district where wheelie bins were in use. Repeat offenders could have their wheelie bin service withdrawn for repeat offences, McCann said.
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