The items you should not put into your recycling bin:

Plastic bags

Chip and cookie packets / Plastic Straws

Batteries

Gas bottles

Single use paper cups

Face masks and gloves

All fabrics/ Towels/ Clothes/ Curtains

Stuffed toys

Bricks

Glassware

Electrical items (Hose and wires)

Medical waste

Tyre

Paint cans

Mirror / light bulbs / window glass

Polystyrene

Food waste

Garden waste

These items either clog the machine, cause fires in the pick up trucks or can not be recylced.

What CAN go into your recycling bin:

(Please rinse items before you place them in your recycling bin)

Pizza boxes (without food inside)

Hard plastic food trays

Tins

Liquid paper board cartons

Plastic takeaway containers

Plastic cookie trays

Broken glass bottles

Glass bottles / glass jars

Plastic bottles/cartons

Cardboard

Paper / newspaper / magazines / Glossy advertising material

Egg cartons

Where can I take my soft plastics?

Some stores around Auckland have special soft plastic recycling bins that anyone can place their soft plastics into.

If you can’t find a soft recycling station near your home then please place them into your rubbish bin.

Where can I recycle my gas bottle and batteries?

Gas bottles can be taken to your local transfer station or community recycling centre

Wondering how to get ride of the other items that can’t go into your recycle bin?

Go to Auckland Council website or go here – HOW TO GET RID OF UNWANTED ITEMS

The driver quickly noticed, pulled over and quickly discharged the burning rubbish out of the truck. Fortunately, the driver and the truck came out unharmed.

The fire was said to have started by an old battery in the rubbish.

This is not the first time this has happened. In the last few months, three trucks have had a similar experience.

How can this be prevented?

Do not throw your old batteries into the council collection bin.

Any batteries you want to throw away can be safely disposed of by our team.

Why are batteries hazardous?

Batteries contain hazardous liquid that can easy catch of fire, as well as, harm the environment if they are placed in landfill and the liquid leaks out.

Can you safely dispose of our batteries?

Yes, we can come pick them up for you!

Our team ensures that your batteries are handled with care and recycled responsibly.

We can take AAA, AA and car batteries.

Ask our staff if you have a specific battery that you want disposed of today.

What happens to the batteries?

The batteries are recycled.

Most batteries contain lead and sulfuric acid which can be separated and recycled into new items.

 Sources: Stuff

However, disposing of electronics and hazardous waste in kerbside bins is dangerous and must not be done.

Why can’t you put your electronic waste and hazardous waste in kerbside bins?

1. Dangerous for the rubbish trucks

Many people don’t realize that everything that is in your kerbside bin gets crushed or compacted once in some rubbish trucks to produce more space on the truck for more rubbish to be collected before it is taken to the dump.

Therefore, if you place electronic waste or hazardous waste into your bin, and it is compacted in the truck, the hazardous waste liquid, which is flammable, can burst open and go everywhere in the back of the truck.

Electronic waste also becomes dangerous when the compression in the truck rips the wires and opens the electronics.

Both electronic and other hazardous waste once compressed can cause a fire in the truck.

That’s why these items should never be put in your kerbside bin collection.

1. Hazardous waste can cause a tip fire

You are probably thinking that you have never seen a rubbish truck on fire, so this must not happen often, therefore you don’t have to worry about it.

Although, just because it doesn’t happen often in the trucks, it doesn’t mean a fire can’t start when the waste is dumped at the tips. There have been many occasions where a fire has started because hazardous waste was placed in a kerbside bin, been brought back to the tip, dumped and a fire has started due to people not disposing hazardous waste in the proper manner.

Remember everything you put in your kerbside bin ends up at a tip and any hazardous waste or electronic waste you put in, can lead to a fire.

Dumps prevent fires by separating hazardous waste from the other rubbish and its our responsibility as a customer to do the same.

1. Recycling helps keep the waste down / build new items

Taking your electronic waste to specific recycling stores helps in many ways.

Electronics can have wiring, metal and other good materials that can be recycled and reused for other items that are being produced. Therefore, instead of most of the old electronics going into landfill, the parts can be reused.

If everyone brought their electronics to a recycling place, there would be less waste, less fires, it would help us all be more environmentally friendly and we could use the resources we already have to our advantage.

What is electronic hazardous waste?

Electronic waste is anything that is electrical. Some examples of electronic waste are laptops, computers, printers, hair dryers, heaters, fans, vacuums, toasters, blenders and kettles.

What are types of other hazardous waste?

Old chemicals, poisons, oils, adhesives and paints are the main types of hazardous waste that are usually sitting around residential homes.

Hazardous waste can be spotted by looking at the can or bottle of the product and if you spot phrases such as “dangerous,” “warning,” “caution,” “poison,” or “do not dispose in household rubbish,” then your item is hazardous.

These hazardous items must not be placed into general household waste bins and instead be disposed and dropped off to the correct hazardous waste companies, where they will be disposed of in a safe and environmentally friendly way.

These other hazardous waste items are also known to burst causing fires and other problems.

What can I do with my hazardous waste?

If you are looking for a way to dispose of your hazardous waste and electrical waste in an environmentally friendly way, contact us. We will let you know if we can come, pick up and dispose of all your hazardous waste for you.

If there are some hazardous waste items we do not take, we will try to help you find a place that does.

What companies take electronic waste?

We can also come and collect your electronic waste for you.

We do not accept drop offs, therefore, if you would like to drop off your items go here or to www.computerrecycling.co.nz. 

For an estimate quote go here. 

On September 19^th one person in a Christchurch isolation facility tested positive for Covid -19 and spend 14 days in isolation.

After the 14 days and testing negative twice, the person flew from Christchurch to Auckland on September the 11^th and infected one other person on the flight.

So how did this happen?

Through contact tracing, the ministry of health believes that the first person that tested negative twice before leaving isolation contracted the sickness at the end of their stay through touching a rubbish bin in the quarantine facility.

Dr Caroline McElnay, the director of public health states “While we cannot be certain, our hypothesis is that the virus may have been transmitted to a person … via the surface of a rubbish bin, which was used by another returnee who was likely infectious at the facility.”

The cc footage at the isolation facility has shown that the rubbish bin was the common source of contact between the two people before one of them left isolation.

An intense investigation found that no other person has been infected on the flight or by the two flight cases in the community.

While this case is unique and happened in isolation, reminders of hand hygiene is being emphasised more and more.

So how does this affect you?

While you may think no one touches your private rubbish bin when you place it on the curb, this may not be the case. Many people can walk pass and touch your rubbish bin without your knowledge.

Therefore, it is important to sanitize your inside and outside bins with disinfectant wipes or spray. On top of this, washing your hands after you touch your rubbish bin is important to prevent the spread of germs.

Likewise, avoid touching the surface of public waste bins when throwing away your rubbish when out and about.

Remember if everyone washes their hands, the spread of covis-19 will decrease significantly.

Source one

Source two

New Zealand council waste bins such as the 120-litre household rubbish bins and the 240 litre recycling bins have been in most cities around New Zealand for a long time. Although, there are some places in New Zealand where you don’t need to use a specific bin to put recycling in and many places do not have organic bins just yet.

Recently two city council teams are trying to improve household waste management by taking the opportunity to introduce new bins to homes.

Waiheke Island in Auckland are introducing new 240 litre recycling wheelie bins to all residence that pay a waste charge, that do not already have one. Previously, residences were allowed to store their recycling in wooden crates, plastic bags and other storage boxes to be collected during roadside waste collection. However, now the council is discarding the old method and only collecting and empty recycling bins. This will happen before June 30^th this year.

Residence are still allowed to put their household general rubbish in special brought rubbish bags for collection. However, these bags will be changed from a red to orange colour. Also, if residence would like a 120-litre bin for their rubbish, they are encouraged to request and change to a wheelie bin.

This change is in an effort to reduce plastic bag usage when storing recycling and to encourage recycle goods to be recycled and not end up in landfill. Reducing landfill waste by reusing goods is the first step to keeping unnecessary items out of landfill and being more environmentally conscience.

Waimate District in Canterbury are also in the process of making changes to their waste collection services. The council are looking into changing their rubbish bins from the general two bin system to a four-bin system.

Instead of just collecting the recycling bin and the rubbish bin, they are trying to put into place an organic, rubbish, recycling and glass bin collection system for all households that have council bins.

The final decision about the bin changes will happen on August 18^th and the new contract will be discussed on July, 1^st 2021.

This is great news for residence of Waimate District and Waiheke Island. Of course, for the rest of us that have recycling bins, we need to be more conscience of what we put into our recycling bins.

During lockdown, recycling habits have grown increasing worse, as households are throwing non-recyclables into their recycling bins.

Waste Manage Institute of New Zealand completed a report called “The truth about plastic recycling in Aotearoa New Zealand.” The report discusses kiwi’s recycling habits and how New Zealand as a whole, needs to improve our recycling.

One of the most shocking results from their study was “the average kiwi household uses 941 plastic containers or bottles per year (extrapolated, this suggests there is an estimated 1.76 billion containers per annum from all households). Of these, 41 per cent by item count could potentially be recycled, but instead end up in landfill.”

On top of this, kiwi households get confused about which plastics should be placed in the recycling bin, which results in the items ending up in landfill instead of being recycled.

This problem can only be solved if all households read the recycling chart and know what goes into the recycling bin and what does not.

Overall, New Zealand’s recycling method isn’t bad, it just needs to be improved. Kiwi households can help by learning which different recycling items need to be placed in the recycling bins and placing only recycling items in it. Likewise, city councils around New Zealand can help by making recycling bins available to all New Zealand regions no matter where they live, as they are starting to do so.

If you need any information about what goes into your recycling bin go to https://www.wasteminz.org.nzwp

If you live in Auckland, and have missed your council rubbish collection and need any rubbish removal service email us on our quote page here.

Our safety precautions

Our drivers are following the strict guidelines of level three.

This means they are always at least two meters away from any customer and team member at all times to prevent any spread of germs. After each job the driver will wash their hands or sanitize to destroy any germs. On top of this all our staff have all been provided sanitary safety gear such as, anti-bacterial wipes, sanitizer and hand soap to use before, during and after jobs. Drivers will wear gloves, masks and are provided other appropriate safety gear such as glasses, safety boots, disposable overalls so they can remove any rubbish without being at risk or putting anyone else at risk.

We encourage customers to leave their rubbish outside to be collected and to stay inside when our drivers come to collect their rubbish. If the job needs to be re-quoted onsite, our driver will call the client when they are onsite and have seen the rubbish so there isn’t any contact between the client and our driver. If the rubbish is inside and the rubbish can\’t be placed outside, our team will come in and safely remove the rubbish while taking safety precautions and keeping their distance from customers.

Also, we process payment over the phone so no physical contact is needed.

Our staff also inquire whether anyone in the household has been sick recently, or feeling sick or if anyone has been overseas and is currently in quarantine, while booking the job. If this is the case, our staff will not be able to go to that job.

If you would like us to remove your rubbish contact us on 0800 Dump Me. To protect yourself and our team members please follow the level three guidelines and keep your distance from our staff.

Hong Kong was the first to see the impact as used masks were found littering their beaches. While in Louisiana and other US states, gloves and wipes littered the streets and it has gotten so bad that people are posting photos on social media of the used sanitary products scattered on the street. People are growing increasingly concerned about the littering of the protective gear as it is a safety hazard and increasing the environmental problem, as all the protective gear is made of plastic and the litter will go down drains and end up in the ocean and be eaten by wild life causing them to choke and die.

USA and Hong Kong are not the only places that have been affected due to Covid-19. Rubbish collection drop off sites in Waterloo and Cambridge in Canada have been shut down and will finally be reopening on May 4^th. Whereas Bangkok has seen a 15% rise in plastic waste due to people spending more time at home and buying delivery services with plastic packaged fast-food due to Covid-19. Also rubbish collection services in Brussels, Belgium has been disrupted due to storage of staff because of the outbreak resulting in some waste not being collected.

So how did Covid-19 affect New Zealand’s waste? As kiwis, we were lucky that our rubbish, recycling and scrap bin collections were considered essential, so we haven’t had any problems with disposing of our usual household rubbish. However, Auckland Council announced on the 1^st of April that covid-19 had affected the process of disposing of paper and cardboard waste produced and disposed of by households. Auckland’s paper and cardboard waste will be dumped into landfills until further notice rather than being recycled. This is due to changes in the international trade and buying of processing paper recyclables. (Source)

As well as paper and cardboard being placed in landfill, the Auckland council inorganic collections are being postponed from the 26^th of March, and no bin removals, exchanges or minor repairs will be done until further notice.

Also, the Waitakere Refuse and Recycling Centre has decreased its hours to the public and is only accepting refuse and green waste.

Here’s where we can help! Our team can come pick up and clear any rubbish and garden waste that you have accumulated over the level 4 period. Whether it’s the inorganic collection, a single item, green waste or hazardous waste, we can dispose of it for you. Just send us an email or call us on 0800 386 763 for an estimated quote.

Sanitize Surfaces

One of the most important steps to decreasing the spread of germs is to sanitize items that are used often by multiple people. These items can include door handles, computer keyboards and mouse, shopping carts, light switches and tape handles. Many of these items go months without getting cleaned and the germs build up over time and spread from surface to surface by each person that touches them.

To kill 99% of germs, make sure you use anti-bacterial wipes or spray to clean surfaces. Do this at least once a week or whenever the surface is dirty.

Wash Your Hands

Each person must take individual responsibility by washing their hands, so that germs don’t spread and other people don’t get sick. Each person should wash their hands or sanitize their hands after touching public surfaces, using the bathroom or when you touch your face and blow your nose.  If you feel like your hands are dirty, take time out of your busy schedule to wash your hands for 20 seconds at the least!

Do a Declutter

Most people don’t think about this step, as they may not realize that having a lot of stuff around the house is a problem. However, the more objects you have piling up, the more dust and dirt sits around the house and on the objects.

On top of this, you are more prone to wipe down surfaces and vacuum rooms if there aren’t many items to move out the way. Also, the fewer items you have in your house the easier it is to see when the place gets dusty and dirty.

To solve this problem, declutter your home by donating items that you don’t want anymore, that are in good condition to the Salvation Army, Red cross or SPCA charity second hand store. Before you donate items, wipe them down with an antibacterial wipe so you don’t spread germs and wash clothes before donating them.

To prevent dust living on items around the house and getting you sick, wipe down surfaces with a damp microfiber cloth or disinfectant wipes. Also, vacuum at least once a week to collect any dirt that was tracked inside by your shoes and to get pet fur off the carpet.

Remove Old Waste and Junk

Got old rubbish, junk and broken items sitting around the house or outside? Old microwaves, fridge and broken dishwashers? Removing these items are essential to keeping your environment clean and germ free. Leaving rubbish piled up for a long time attracts rats, ants and cockroaches, especially if its old food waste. As a result, these pets will spread diseases. The best thing to do to prevent pests is to get your rubbish, junk and broken items removed.

That’s where we come in and help! If you have any rubbish you need removed or old broken junk, call us now or fill in our quote me page! We can come and lift and remove all your junk, rubbish and hazardous waste from your house or business, resulting in a safer, cleaner environment for your family and staff members.

Don’t let germs scare you! Just take the necessary steps to prevent the spread of germs. Wipe surface, declutter, remove rubbish, clean once a week, and stay at home if you are sick.

If you want to know more about the coronavirus and how to stay safe during this time, go to health.govt.nz for all the information and updates.