Rubbish and recycling in Auckland city

Efficient recycling: Auckland City Council is committed to keeping Auckland clean, safe and an environmentally responsible city.

From City Scene, published on 5 April, 2009.

Dealing efficiently with rubbish and recycling is a key part of the council's commitment to keep Auckland a clean, safe and environmentally responsible city. There are a number of projects under way to support this.

Visy recycling

Auckland City Council is satisfied with the performance of Visy, the company that processes the recycling at the new material recovery facility (MRF) in Onehunga. More than 95 per cent of material put in Auckland city's recycling bins will be recycled. The remaining 5 per cent is unrecyclable materials wrongly placed in recycling bins

Concern has been expressed over a so-called "glass mountain" on the MRF site. There are several reasons why Visy is holding glass waiting to be recycled.

They include:

Visy acquired over 10,000 tonnes of glass from other sources in Auckland and sent it to the MRF for processing and subsequent sale into the aggregate market it developed. That market is now purchasing crushed glass at a rate in excess of 1000 tonnes per month.
New Zealand's only existing glass furnaces at Owens-Illinois Ltd in Penrose, cannot currently process all the glass available. Another furnace is to be commissioned next year and will require a guaranteed supply, in part provided by glass from Visy.
The amount being stored reflects the popularity of the recycling service in Auckland and Manukau cities.
The glass needs more than one pass through the sorting equipment to ensure high quality separation of the various colours. Additional equipment has recently been installed to improve the rate of processing.
Visy is currently developing new markets for recycled glass, in New Zealand and overseas, to take the additional glass diverted from landfill by the popular bin-based recycling system.

Auckland and Manukau city councils are urging residents to keep recycling as much as possible. No recyclable materials are going to landfill.

Inorganic rubbish collection

The inorganic rubbish collections are in full swing, and will continue until the end of June.

Find out when your street's collection is online or wait for your inorganic collections leaflet.

A leaflet will arrive in your letterbox approximately 10 days before the collection is due to start and will advise when you can put your inorganic rubbish on the kerbside.

If your inorganic collection falls the week following the Easter break, and you are going to be away that weekend, you can either put your rubbish out on the morning of Tuesday, 14 April in order for it to be collected.

Easter holiday rubbish and recycling dates

The upcoming Easter holidays will affect rubbish and recycling collections as follows. Both Waiheke transfer station and Great Barrier's Claris landfill will be closed on Friday, 10 April (Good Friday).
Auckland isthmus
Usual collection day	New collection day
Friday, 10 April (Good Friday)	Saturday, 11 April
Monday, 13 April (Easter Monday)	Tuesday, 14 April
Tuesday, 14 April	Wednesday, 15 April
Wednesday, 15 April	Thursday, 16 April
Thursday, 16 April (day collections only)	Friday, 17 April
Thursday, 16 April (night collections only)	No change
Friday, 17 April	Saturday, 18 April
Waiheke Island
Usual collection day	New collection day
Friday, 10 April (Good Friday)	No change
Monday, 13 April (Easter Monday)	Tuesday, 14 April
Tuesday, 14 April	Wednesday, 15 April
Wednesday, 15 April	No change
Thursday, 16 April	No change
Friday, 17 April	No change
Collections return to normal from Monday, 20 April. For more information, visit the Rubbish and recycling section online.

Composting

Auckland City Council is offering free composting courses for residents. By learning how to recycle food scraps you can make a significant difference to the amount of waste that goes to landfill.

The courses teach participants how to compost correctly, operate a worm farm and how to use bokashi systems.

The next course is in Mt Roskill on 18 April, from 10am to 1pm.

To register, call Kaipatiki Ecological Restoration Project on 482 1172.

Other courses over the next few months will be held around the city; Parnell (28 April), Otahuhu (9 May), Waiheke Island (9 May), Mt Roskill (23 May), Parnell (9 June), and Grey Lynn (27 June).

Participants also receive a $20 discount on any compost bin, worm farm or Bokashi bin bought on the day.

For more information, visit the Garden and food waste section online.

Tenders close

Tenders for the provision of refuse and recycling collections, operation and redevelopment of the Waiheke transfer station and transport of material off the island closed last Monday (30 March).

Tenders for all services were received from Clean Stream Waiheke, Transpacific Industries Group (NZ) Ltd and Metropolitan Waste Limited.

Enviroway Ltd submitted tenders for refuse and recycling collections and Envirowaste Services Ltd for operation and development of the transfer station and transport of material to the mainland.

The tenders will be evaluated in accordance with the approved procurement plan, and reported to the City Development Committee meeting in May.