Student grunt gets behind plastic’s fantastic campaign

Six students head out onto Manukau streets this week to help drive home the message about changes to Manukau City’s recycling collections.

Their mission is to help households understand that the only plastics to be collected are plastic bottles with a 1 or 2 on their base and from the kitchen, bathroom and laundry.

All other plastics belong in the rubbish bag.

All other recyclables - glass jars and bottles, aluminium cans, tins and paper and cardboard - will continue to be collected for recycling as usual.

The students will follow recycling trucks, armed with plastic bags. When they find plastics left behind by the trucks, they will place them in a plastic bag printed with Manukau City Council’s ‘recycle right’ message.

Senior policy analyst for the council, Patricia Facenfield, says they will be easy to identify as part of the campaign.

“They will be wearing bright green tee shirts – the same colour as our recycling bins – which have the city’s recycling logo on the back.”

She says the students are being employed to help communicate the ‘plastic’s fantastic’ message to people who may not have read it in local papers or seen the brochure being distributed to letterboxes.

“It’s a friendly nudge to convey to people that if the recycling trucks leave anything behind in the bin, it’s because it can’t be recycled.

“They need to take them back inside and put them in the rubbish bag for next week’s collection.”

Patricia says Manukau households have recycled with gusto since kerbside recycling began in 2001. At the latest count, 80 per cent of households were regularly putting out their green bins.

“The only changes being made are to the plastics collection. Because the markets for recycled plastics have changed, our recycling contractors can only accept plastic bottles 1 and 2 from the kitchen, bathroom and laundry.

“Remember there are no changes to glass, cans, tins and paper and cardboard. They will be collected as usual.”

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