 Recycling plastic
There have been more and more calls for supermaket shopping bags to be recycled but until we had a market for them, we couldn't accept them at the kerbside.
We can now recycle clean:
plastic supermarket shopping bags
plastic containers with numbers 1 or 2 in the recycling triangle - this includes many juice and soft drink containers, most plastic milk, yoghurt and cream bottles (not pottles), plastic vegemite jars, some shampoo bottles, many household cleaning containers (e.g. washing detergent, jif) and some ice-cream containers (although not their lids)
Check that number
 Size, shape, or robustness doesn't determine whether plastic containers can be recycled or not. What does matter is its number.
Check the number contained within the recycling arrow and only put those with a 1 or 2 in your recycling crate. These numbers are often found on the base of containers but not always. It can be confusing because there are other numbers on items. These are to do with manufacturers coding and have nothing to do with recycling. The numbers in the triangle indicate the grade of plastic.
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How you can make the difference
Plastic containers (1 and 2 only)
Remove and discard all lids from containers.
Why Although they may look the same, some lids are made from a different grade of plastic to that of their containers. If different grades of plastic are mixed in the recycling process that batch can be ruined and will need to be dumped.
Rinse containers.
Why - It makes sure the container is clean and empty of all contents whether food, drink or cleaning material.
Items are sorted by hand in the collection trucks.
Containers may be stored for several weeks until there is sufficient quantity for transporting to manufacturers. Dirty items, and food or liquid left in containers smell and attracts flies wasps and vermin.
Squash and put into the crate.
Why - Plastic takes up a lot of space in both the crate and truck.
It is lightweight so squashing the containers reduces the chance of them being easily blow out of the crate
Supermarket Bags
Make sure the bags are clean and empty.
Please note: we can only accept plastic supermarket shopping bags .
Why - Contamination could result in damage to the recycling plant and affect the end product.
Put the suermarket shopping bags in the bag with your recyclable paper and tie the handles of that bag.
Why - Paper helps weigh the bags down so they don't blow around causing litter.
Place that bag (with the bags and paper) on top of the recycling crate at the kerbside as usual.
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Recycling Tips
Squash plastic containers before putting them in the crate and place heavier items like paper in a plastic shopping bag, on top.
If your crate is too full you can collect a second crate from a Council Service Centre free of charge.
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What happens to the supermarket shopping bags?
The collected bags are sorted at Recovered Material Foundation paper depot and packed into bales. The bales are sent to Christchurch company Range Industries, which has devised a process called thermo-fusion™ which turns the supermarket bags into durable plastic planks suitable for boxing, pallets and fenceposts.
A bale can contain up to 25,000 bags and weigh around 800kg. At Range Industries, that bale makes up to 1000m of plastic planking (approx. 100mm x 18mm).
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What happens to the plastic once it is sorted?
Plastic is compressed into bales and sent to national and international markets. To do this the plastic is packed as densely as possible which can result in any stray lids flying out of the baler at high speed, which can be dangerous. This is one of the reasons why we ask you to remove the lids. Most of the recycling crates in New Zealand are made out of recycled milk bottles - it takes 32 milk bottles to make one recycling crate. Soft drink bottles are made into carpets and polar fleece.
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What's in a number?
| Code/Number |
Plastic type |
Use |
Do we collect? |
 |
PET
Polyethylene Terephthalate |
Soft drink bottles, some shampoo and detergent bottles |
Yes |
 |
HDPE
High Density Polyethylene |
Milk bottles, household cleaners, supermarket bags |
Yes |
 |
PVC
Polyvinyl Chloride |
Detergent bottles, some shampoo bottles, film for eat wrapping |
No |
 |
LDPE
Low density Polyethylene |
Bread bags |
No |
 |
PP
Polypropylene |
Bread bag tags, jars, some wrapping film |
No |
 |
PS
Polystyrene |
Yoghurt and margarine containers, meat trays |
No |
 |
All other resins and mixed plastic |
|
No |
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