Council is encouraging households to be recycling champions over the Christmas and New Year period, when volumes of rubbish and recycling typically increase.

Glass bottles and jars should be rinsed clean and put in the green crate, while the yellow-lidded wheelie bin is for recycling that includes hard plastics 1, 2 and 5, cardboard and paper (but not shredded paper). Soft plastics cannot be recycled in your yellow bin.

The wheelie bin with the red lid is for rubbish and items that can’t be recycled as part of the kerbside collection.

Infrastructure and Open Spaces Group Manager Neil McCann said the holiday season often saw more contamination in kerbside recycling because visitors didn’t know the district’s recycling rules.

“We do things differently here so if you have family and friends staying over the holiday break then doublecheck the recycling bin when you put it out.

“If your recycling bin isn’t emptied, then it’s because our audit team has found items that can’t be recycled.”

Some common problems seen at Christmas included foil and plastic wrapping paper, ribbons, bows and tinsel being put out for recycling.

Mr McCann said these could not be recycled, and nor could things like Christmas hams or leftover food, which are also regularly found in recycling bins at Christmas time.

Try the tear test - if you can’t easily rip it, it’s likely to have a plastic coating so put it in the red bin, along with plastic toy and gift packaging. If you’re still not sure, check it out on binitright.nz.

Pizza boxes with leftover food in them cannot be recycled. Lids can be recycled at your nearest resource recovery park, but not in kerbside bins.

Mr McCann said it was good to see most residents following the recycling rules year round.

“When rubbish contaminates recycling, it means the whole lot has to go to the landfill, which in turn costs ratepayers more money.”

Rubbish and recycling services over Christmas and New Year 2023-24

There is no kerbside rubbish and recycling collection on Christmas Day so Council will be collecting everyone’s wheelie bins one day later than normal that week. Monday’s collection moves to Tuesday, and Tuesday’s collection to Wednesday, and so on throughout the week; Friday’s collection will take place on Saturday.

Kerbside collection services are as normal from Monday 1 January, even though it is New Year’s Day.

Resource Recovery Parks

The Ashburton Resource Recovery Park will close at 12pm on Sunday 24 December, and be closed on Christmas Day and Boxing Day. It will be open and operating normally from Wednesday 27 December to Sunday 31 December.

The resource recovery park will also be closed on New Year’s Day, Monday 1 January. The facility will be open on Tuesday 2 January and resume normal hours.

The Methven green waste dropoff will be closed on Sunday 24 December.

The Rakaia Resource Recovery Park will be closed on Monday 25 December and on Monday 1 January.