Standardised recycling – what’s the big deal?

Published in Bay Buzz

There’s been a major change in the way Aotearoa New Zealand deals with recycling. If you live here in the Bay though, you won’t notice anything because we are ahead of the curve.

Government legislation passed last year meant from 1 February all councils’ kerbside recycling collections had to move to a standardised set of recyclables. These are: glass (bottles and jars), paper and cardboard, cans, and plastic with either the number 1, 2 or 5 recycling symbol on it. This doesn’t include anything smaller than 50mm or any lids.

Luckily for those of us living in Hawke’s Bay, this is already the case, with all four councils collecting these materials. The Hastings, Napier and Central Hawke’s Bay councils also go one step further, collecting recyclables in separate bins. This is industry best practice as it not only makes it easier for recyclers to sort the material but helps prevent contamination which can cause it to go to landfill instead.

While the legislation standardises what can be collected, it doesn’t require separate bins.

Why did central government step in?

The vast majority of New Zealanders have access to kerbside recycling services. The problem was the kind of material accepted varied from council to council. This inconsistency created challenges.

The effective messaging around recycling was next to impossible at a national, or even regional level. Information which applied to people in one district didn’t always apply to others.

This was an issue faced by government, recycling advocacy groups, and the companies making and selling products in recyclable packaging. The result was confusion – not what you want when effective recycling relies on simple, easy to follow instructions.

There was also an impact on the supply of recyclable material. Ideally, we should be processing and remanufacturing recyclables onshore, rather than sending it overseas, but investment in the infrastructure to do this isn’t likely to happen without a guaranteed supply of quality material.

It’s a bit of a chicken and egg situation, which is hopefully now being addressed.

The quality of material available for recycling was also impacted when people put things they thought were recyclable into their bins, only for it cause contamination issues.

Current onshore processing

New Zealand does have onshore processing facilities for the recyclables we collect. Here in Hawke’s Bay, Hawk Group takes all the paper and cardboard from kerbside collections to make into new, moulded fibre (a soft version of cardboard) trays for packing and transporting fruit.

Another HB company, Waipak, processes around 40 tonnes of recycled plastic per month into various bottles for food, beverages, cosmetics, and cleaning products.

Outside of the region there are plastic recyclers such as Flight Plastics, which recycle type 1 plastic, called PET, into things like new food trays. There are also a number of plastic recyclers like Astron Sustainability, Comspec, and Plastics Six NZ, among others, which recycle various types of plastic into different products.

Despite this though, a large preportion of paper, cardboard and plastic is either sent overseas for recycling or goes to landfill here.

Glass is the only material from kerbside recycling bins which is recycled exclusively onshore, with none being sent overseas. Collected glass which can’t be recycled, due to contamination or transport being unfeasible, is used in roading, drainage or filtration.

Aluminum and tin cans are highly recyclable and valuable, and while not processed in New Zealand, easily find markets overseas.

We still have a long way to go before we deal with most of our recyclables ‘in house’. The reason onshore processing is so important is because it’s key to developing a sustainable, circular economy.

We still have a long way to go before we deal with most of our recyclables ‘in house’. The reason onshore processing is so important is because it’s key to developing a sustainable, circular economy.

It’s complicated

Research regularly finds that people want to do the right thing and recycle. Unfortunately, as we all know, it’s not always a simple task. The result is something called ‘wish-cycling’ – when people put things in the recycling which they think, or hope, are recyclable, but which aren’t.

The reality is sorting recycling isn’t easy or cheap. After all, most recycling operators are businesses and need to make financial sense to keep their doors open. Recycling which is contaminated – with food, dirt or incorrect materials mixed in with it – must often be landfilled as sorting it isn’t financially viable.

A standardised system helps address contamination by giving clear guidance on what you should and shouldn’t be putting in your recycling bins.

Contamination from food is another issue as this is not only a hazard for those handling the material but means there are potentially high costs for cleaning it. The best thing you can do is clean your recyclables before you put them in the recycling bin.

Effect on waste

Despite our ‘clean, green’ image New Zealanders are some of the highest producers of waste per capita, per year in the world at 781kg – fourth behind the United States, Denmark and Luxembourg. This according to the Global Waste Index.

It’s a statistic which isn’t beyond our control to change. Consider what you put in the rubbish bin and how much can either go in recycling or a food scrap/compost bin.

There are also other recycling options other than kerbside services. Soft plastic recycling is one – where you can take clean soft plastic to collection points at many supermarkets. Another is the newly launched scheme to recycle milk and juice cartons at specific drop-off points – Sustainable HB in Hastings being one.

You can even recycle metal lids at Sustainable HB, with work underway to introduce plastic lid recycling in the coming months. In all, there is quite a lot which can be diverted from landfill.

The move to standardise recycling, alongside already implemented bans and phase-outs of problematic and difficult-to-recycle plastics means much of the packaging in your pantry can be recycled.

Part of the regulation to standardise kerbside recycling means all households in urban areas (towns of 1,000 people or more) will have food scrap collections by 1 January 2030. Urban areas with food processing facilities already in place will have this service by the start of 2027.

This move to standardised recycling is definitely a big step forward for New Zealand’s efforts to reduce waste and become more sustainable. Getting the legislation from concept to reality took some doing, so hats off to everyone involved.

Next, I would like to see improvements in the data on our waste and recycling, so we have the information we need to see what is working, what isn’t, and then make improvements. Standardising recycling can only help with this too.