How to recycle right.
Plastic
- Bottles, trays and containers numbered 1, 2 and 5 can be recycled in your kerbside bin or at the transfer station
- They need to be clean, empty, washed and have their lids off.
- For plastics 3, 4,6 and 7,these will need to go into your red lid rubbish bin or be reused
- You can find the plastic identification number inside the recycling triangle on the bottom of most bottles and containers
- Some soft plastics e.g. produce bags, have plastic identification numbers on them however these can not be recycled in your kerbside recycling bin or at the transfer station
- Soft plastics can be collected and taken to any of the multiple Tauranga drop off locations for special recycling. This scheme is managed by the NZ Soft Plastic recycling programme. Note: Soft plastics are not accepted in your kerbside recycling bin.
Paper and cardboard
- Clean paper and cardboard only e.g. no food remaining on it
- No staples, binding or cellotape
- Shiny or matte, magazines are accepted
- Tissues can not be recycled or composted, place these in your rubbish bin
- No photocopy paper ream covers (the glossy plastic stuff)
- Flatten cardboard boxes to reduce the space in the recycling bin
- No shredded paper, place this in your rubbish bin
Tins and cans
- These need to be clean and empty
- Fold sharp lids inside the can to keep our recycling sorters safe
- Cans can either be squashed or placed whole into the recycling bin
- Paper labels do not need to be removed before recycling as these are removed during the recycling process
Glass recycling
- Clean glass bottles and jars only
- Remove lids and place in rubbish bin
- No broken glass, wrap this in paper and place in the rubbish bin
- No cookware, drinking glasses, medicinal glass, cosmetic glass, or heatproof glass (e.g. vaping containers). These products have a different melting point to normal food and beverage glass and reduce the quality of recycled glass
- No light bulbs or fluorescent tubes, wrap these in paper and place in the rubbish bin
- No window or mirror glass, wrap these in paper and place in the rubbish bin
- Household glass can be placed in the blue kerbside recycling bin, excess glass can be taken for free to the transfer station and must be colour sorted.
Download the comprehensive bin guide for a full list of items accepted in the rates funded Kerbside Collection service.
Download the kerbside comprehensive brochure (550kb pdf)