Hamilton is giving rubbish bags the sack in favour of an exciting new kerbside rubbish and recycling service starting 1 July 2020.

The new service will introduce a food scraps bin and two separate wheelie bins for collecting rubbish and recycling. The existing recycling crates will be used for glass only. This marks an important milestone in transforming Hamilton’s waste services and is the biggest change in the city’s kerbside collection in almost two decades.

The change arises from a process which began in 2016 with community consultation over a plan to improve infrastructure and services managing the city’s waste. The new service aims to increase Hamilton’s recycling rate from 29% to 50% (by weight) and divert more than 100,000 tons of anticipated waste from landfill in the next ten years.

City Waters Unit Manager Maire Porter says the new service is a transformational change to one of the Council’s most important services. “Our contract with EnviroWaste will provide Hamilton with a leading rubbish and recycling collection service that delivers what residents have been asking for – a service that’s better for the environment by making it easier for residents to recycle,” says Mrs Porter.

“The new kerbside service will increase recycling options, divert more waste from landfill and raise environmental awareness in the community.”

However, the new animal and weather proof wheelie bin service will do more than that. It will also result in cleaner streets from a reduction in wind-blown litter, while the embedded radio-frequency identification (RFID) tag will ensure misplaced bins are scanned and returned to their owner, if put out for collection at the wrong address.

Residents will never have to put all four bins out at once. Food scraps will be collected weekly and rubbish, recycling and glass fortnightly: rubbish and food scraps one week – recycling, food scraps, and glass the next.

Information booklets and collection calendars for each property will be delivered with the bins in April 2020. More information about the new smarter, greener and cleaner kerbside rubbish and recycling service and how it will help reduce Hamiltonians’ waste footprint is available at fightthelandfill.co.nz

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