A kerbside recycling trial for soft plastics in Nelson has been extended until mid-2027, with councillors opting to keep the country’s first scheme of its kind running for another 15 months.
Nelson City Council agreed to continue the trial at its meeting on Thursday. Since it began in October 2024, almost 16,000 bright orange bags have been collected from 1,000 households along a select route.
This amounts to 8,998kg of soft plastic. Packaging Forum chief executive Craig Miller says it means about 1.4 million bags or wrappers have been diverted from landfill and turned into around 900 fence posts.
Participating households receive orange bags that can be filled with clean, dry soft plastics, including chip packets, muesli bar wrappers, cling wrap and bread bags. Any plastic that can be scrunched is accepted, except compostable wrap. The bags are placed on the kerbside in the top of blue glass recycling bins.
Enviro NZ collects and bales the soft plastics at its Stoke site before sending them to Future Post in Blenheim. The material is then recycled into fence posts for vineyards and farms, as well as garden beds.
Nelson Mayor Nick Smith says council is covering half the cost of extending the trial, or $15,375 for 15 months.
“The rationale for extending the trial is that the most difficult part of any recycling initiative is changing household habits and finding markets for products. It would be a backwards step to stop this innovative scheme, which is working so well.”
Craig says the Packaging Forum, which operates the Soft Plastic Recycling Scheme, is pleased the council has agreed to extend the collection until July 2027.
The trial may also have raised awareness of soft plastic drop-off points across the region, with volumes lifting since kerbside collections began. Between October 2024 and the end of January this year, 47 tonnes of soft plastic were dropped off at stores in the wider Nelson Tasman region.
The most popular drop-off sites are Nelson Woolworths and The Warehouse, where about 500kg is dropped at each store every month.
“Our thanks to the 1,000 participating households, everyone using the soft plastic drop off bins, Enviro NZ as our collector and Future Post as our re-processor,” Craig says.
