By putting the right stuff in the yellow bin, you’re making it possible for us to recycle. Remember to give your bottles and containers a rinse, make sure they are loose and put the lids in the red bin. Your recycling bin is collected every two weeks.

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The only items that can go in the yellow bin are: 

  • Clean cardboard and paper, such as newspapers, flattened cardboard boxes and empty pizza boxes (with food scraps removed). Paper must be the size of a standard envelope or larger. Smaller pieces and shredded paper go in the red bin. 
  • Clean plastic bottles, trays and containers that are larger than a yoghurt pottle and smaller than 4 litres. These are items:
    • numbered 1, such as soft drink bottles
    • numbered 2, such as milk bottles
    • numbered 5, such as family-sized yoghurt and ice cream containers
  • Clean food and drink tins and cans no smaller than 250ml. Make sure not to squash them. 
  • Clean glass bottles and jars.

It's important that all bottles and containers have the tops or lids removed and to put any lids in the red bin.

Find out more about recycling right on the Ministry for the Environment website(external link).

  • Aerosol cans. Put these in the red bin.
  • Broken light bulbs, and window glass. Wrap well and put them in the red bin.
  • Clothing, shoes, fabric or bedding. Drop these in your local clothing bin or if damaged put them in the red bin.
  • Disposable coffee cups, liquid cartons or polystyrene. Put these in the red bin.
  • Disposable nappies. Put them in the red bin.
  • Drinking glasses or crockery. Take these items to the EcoDrop or wrap them and put them in the red bin if broken.
  • Food or green waste. Put them in the green bin.
  • Gas bottles, fire extinguishers or batteries. Take these items to the EcoDrop.
  • Household appliances e.g. kettles, jugs, toasters etc. Take these items to the EcoDrop.
  • Metal items e.g. pots, pans, coat hangers, tools and machinery. Take these items to the EcoDrop.
  • Paint, automotive products, dry chemicals. Take these items to the EcoDrop.
  • Plant pots. Plastic plant pots go in your red bin, or you can take to a Mitre 10 plant pot recycling(external link)(external link) or a Bunnings plant pot recycling(external link) scheme.
  • Soft plastics, plastic film, plastic bags, or strapping - Put these items in the red bin or take them to a Soft Plastics Takeback bin(external link). 
  • Wet paper, used paper towels - Put them in the red bin.

Many other items that can't go in your yellow bin can be taken to alternative recycling schemes.

Anything else needs to go in your red or green wheelie bin, or you can drop it for free at the nearest EcoDrop.

It’s important that the only items going into yellow bins are ones that can be recycled.  

You might see our bin educators looking in your yellow bin when it’s on the street. Their job is to make sure that the bin’s contents are clean and can be recycled.

The bin educators are there to help, so please treat them with respect. If you have any questions about what goes in the yellow bins, please ask our educators.  

Putting the right clean items in the yellow bin helps to keep our recycling quality high. This means the recycling markets, where we sell our recycling, are more likely to buy it when compared to lower quality recycling.

If we lose access to any of our recycling markets, either here or overseas, it’s likely that we will have to send this material to landfill. It costs much more to send material to landfill than to recycle it.