Council has introduced a wheelie bin tag system that will alert residents when their recycling is not up to scratch.

The tags are attached to wheelie bin handles by the auditors checking bins ahead of kerbside collection. The tags indicate why bins have not been emptied.

Infrastructure Services Group Manager Neil McCann said 46 bins were tagged on one collection day in Allenton recently, which is disappointing given the improvement in recycling behaviour last year.

“In the past, residents would have found letters in their letterbox advising their recycling bin contained unrecyclable material. Bins will now have a tag attached, advising what the problem materials are.

“Common offending items in recycling bins include lids, tetra packs, and soft plastics.“

Residents whose bins have been tagged are requested to sort through their recycling, remove the unwanted items, and put it back out for collection again in two weeks.

Recycling can also be taken to any of the Council’s resource recovery parks if people still want to get rid of it before the next collection day.

Unwanted recycling can contaminate whole truck-loads and result in it being rejected by the facility that sorts Council's recycling. Rejected loads must be sent to landfill, creating more cost for ratepayers at an average of $2,000 per load.

The tags can be removed and recycled once bins have been correctly sorted and emptied during the next collection run.

Mr McCann said wheelie bins had been audited ahead of collection for over a year now, to help lower contamination rates. Persistent offenders could have their recycling bins confiscated; with bins being returned after an education session.

The yellow recycling bin is for hard plastics 1, 2 and 5, as well as aluminium cans and metal tins, clean cardboard and newspapers. Plastics numbered 1 includes soft drink bottles, 2 includes milk bottles and 5 includes yoghurt and ice cream containers.

Clean glass, such as clear and coloured glass bottles or jars go in the green crate.

Lids, of all shapes and sizes, unfortunately, cannot be recycled in yellow wheelie bins as part of the kerbside collection. However Council does provide a drop-off station at the Ashburton Resource Recovery Park for plastic bottle tops (eg milk/soft drinks), bread bag-type tags, aluminium can tabs and metal wine bottle tops. These are  sent to TidyKiwiNZ where they are recycled.

A battery drop-off station is also operating at the Ashburton facility for  dead batteries.