The Council credits its residents and the successful use of the clear bag system for consistently low contamination rates at EcoCentral Recycling Facility.

For the last three months the district’s contamination rates have been exceptionally low. December was 0.9%, January was 0.19%, and February was 0.54%.

Dan Harris, Chief Operations Officer, said using the clear recycling bags enables the recycling collectors to see safely at the point of collection whether recycling is contaminated. He added that contamination identification is harder to identify in areas where wheelie bins are used to collect recycling.

“Based on some reported contamination rates stated by other Councils, in the six months following Alert Level 4 lockdown if the clear recycling bags had not been used, contamination could have cost Hurunui District Council approximately $21,000.”

This means the cost of each recycling bag would increase to $1.49, instead of the current 50c.

The Council has never had any recycling rejected by the processor and sent to landfill.

“This is a stark contrast compared to other councils who are experiencing rejections from EcoCentral. We are really keen for this to continue, but naturally we can’t do it without the continued support of our dedicated communities.”

Commercial and Compliance Manager at EcoCentral, Averil Stevenson agreed.

“We put the quality down to a combination of factors; the way the recycling is collected, the additional checking by the collector and the commitment of the Hurunui residents.”

She said contaminants that lead to recycling bags not being collected are soft plastics, food waste, dirty recycling, nappies, clothes, coffee cups and plastic bottles with lids still on.

The following items are listed as recyclable in the district’s recycling bags:

• Newspapers, magazines and telephone directories
• Cardboard, greetings cards, egg boxes and trays
• Office waste paper, glitter free wrapping paper and envelopes.
• Food, drink and pet food cans
• Clean plastic bottles and containers numbered 1 - i.e. soft drink bottles (no lids)
• Clean plastics bottles and containers numbered 2 - i.e. milk bottles (no lids)
• Clean plastic bottles and containers numbered 5 - i.e. yoghurt and ice cream containers (no lids)

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