Christmas is well-known as a time of excess. An abundance of food is eaten, extra beers are consumed, a plethora of toys and gadgets flow into households – and out flows the excess packaging.
David Stephenson, who is the Tasman District Council’s team leader for stormwater, rivers and waste, says that at this time of year there is a higher “put out” rate for recycling, with paper, plastic and glass streams all increasing in volume.
He says that the collection trucks need to empty more often, and the staff also have to navigate the complication of busier roads and kerbsides.
“Extra visitor vehicles sometimes [make] bin access and vehicle movements more difficult for the collection drivers.”
He describes a perfect yellow-lidded bin as containing only paper, cans and plastics stamped with 1, 2 or 5. The containers must be rinsed clean, and it helps if dimpled meat trays from those summer barbeques are given a tap to remove extra water.
Paper, if it can be easily torn, is fine to go into the recycling bin, including wrapping paper that has the same texture as a brochure. David says that toy and present packaging is often an unlabelled plastic, PVC or EPS (expanded polystyrene), none of which is kerbside-recyclable.
Lids cannot be processed through the roadside recycling scheme either, as they clog the machinery, and need to be binned instead.
“It’s especially important to rinse your milk and cream bottles at this time of the year, and to make sure your pizza box is scraped free of any remaining cheese or sauce,” David says.
He also has a plea for caffeine lovers.
“Please don’t put your coffee cup or any compostable packaging into your bins – we can’t recycle these!”
A special request is made to the region’s flood of Canterbury visitors, who David wishes to remind that we have a separate crate for glass, and that it does not go in the yellow-top bin as they do in Christchurch.
And when it comes to those blue glass bins, don’t fill them above the line, lest the contents spill onto the ground and break.
“Our contractors are lifting up to 800 bins a day,” David says.
Either keep some bottles aside for next time, purchase a second bin, or head directly to a Resource Recovery Centre to drop them off, free of charge and open every day except Christmas and New Year’s Day.
Batteries are a no-no in both recycling and rubbish bins, due to fire risk. Again, an RRC is the place for these – no charge.
And although it is the season to have wishes granted, please don’t be a “wish-cycler”.
“Please don’t put things in the [recycling] bin that you wish were recyclable but aren’t,” David says.
“As an industry we’re always looking for opportunities to recycle more, but at the moment if it’s not listed as recyclable on our website, then unfortunately it’s not.”
The Tasman District’s recycling days will be one day later than normal in the two weeks after Christmas and into the New Year.
“We’ll be giving all our staff a well-earned break, and so Monday collections will be on Tuesday, Tuesday on Wednesday and so on,” David explains.
In the two weeks following Christmas, the Monday collections in Nelson will be delayed by a day, with all other collections going ahead on their scheduled days.
