Thanks Tauranga! Together we’ve turned over 5 million kilograms of food scraps into compost that’s been used to grow new food in the Bay of Plenty and Waikato… and with your help we’ve nearly halved* the amount of household waste going to landfill since launching our new kerbside collections
Our food scraps help grow more food
Want to know more?
What happens to my food scraps and garden waste?
Being picked up by the truck is just the start of the journey. Once collected, all food scraps and garden waste collected from the kerbside in Tauranga are composted in Waikato, to be used by farms and orchards across the Bay of Plenty and Waikato.
What happens to my recycling?
The vast majority of plastics collected (numbers 1, 2 and 5) are turned into new things like food containers, detergent bottles and products for the building industry – right here in New Zealand. Bottles and jars collected in our glass recycling bins are melted down to make new ones in Auckland. Paper, cardboard, tins, and cans are recycled into new paper, cardboard and metal products.
How can I help out our drivers?
Collection truck drivers are the unsung heroes of the service and residents can make their job easier by doing a few simple things. To help them out, make sure your bin lids can close and leave 30 centimetres between bins. Ensure bins are well clear of power poles, cars and letterboxes, and put smaller bins like food scraps and glass to the right when you’re facing the road, so they’re more easily seen.
How can I remember when to put out my bins?
If you download the Tauranga kerbside collections app from the App Store or Google Play, you can allow notifications that will remind you when to put out your bins.
App Store Google Play
*Waste audits^ conducted in 2018 and 2020 showed household waste going into landfill of 187-197kgs per person each year. After our first year of kerbside collections, we now have more accurate data showing 111kg of household waste went to landfill per person per year, and while it’s not quite half, it’s nearly half, and it may have been as low as 106kg per person if the glass recycling and food scraps collections hadn’t been disrupted by Covid. So we think that’s something to say a big ‘thanks’ to our community for.
^Waste audits are conducted for Tauranga City Council by independent waste consultants using the international SWAP (Solid Waste Analysis Protocols) method to estimate the quantity and types of household waste going to landfill.