FAQs

To avoid items sticking to your bin when it is emptied, we recommend lining the bottom of your bin with large vegetable leaves, dead indoor flowers or newspaper. You can also wrap sticky, wet or smelly items in newspaper to stop them sticking to your bin.

If you’d prefer to keep your food scraps bin outside, you can use a smaller container to collect scraps in in your kitchen, such as an ice cream container, a small pedal bin, or a bowl with a plate over it. Once this is full you can then empty this into your food scraps bin. Some people also place their scraps in the fridge or freezer until the morning of their collection and then place them into the bin, to avoid smells. 

Place the handle of your food scraps bin in the upright position at the kerb to keep it locked in place. This stops items from falling out, as well as reducing smells and pests. 

Each of your bins is picked up by a different truck. To help drivers see your smaller food scraps bin, please place it on the side of bigger wheelie bins that will be seen when the driver is approaching your property and at least 30cm away from wheelie bins. Do not place the food scraps bin on top of, behind or between other bins. Once it’s been emptied, on windy days your bin may be placed on its side at the kerb.  

We recommend keeping any smelly foods such as meat in the fridge or freezer until collection day. You can also wrap your food scraps in newspaper to help keep in any smells. Cleaning your bin regularly with detergent and a brush will also help reduce any smells. 

These are taken to a commercial composting facility in Hampton Downs where they get turned into compost for gardens, putting nutrients back into the soil. 

There is no agreed New Zealand standard for compostable packaging, and no national requirements for labelling and meeting commercially compostable international standards. This means it’s very hard to tell the difference between plastic non-compostable liners and plant-based plastic liners.

Instead, use newspaper, large vegetable leaves or cut flower stems to line your bin.  

If you compost at home, keep it up! Composting is a great way to process green waste and compostable items that can’t be included in your food scraps bin, such as tissues, home compostable packaging, hair, cold ash, dust and fallen leaves. 

Note that items placed down a sink disposal unit go to the landfill, so it’s best to compost at home or to use your food scraps bin. 

To learn more about how to set up a compost, worm farm or Bokashi bin, check out our information about composting or take a workshop. We fund free composting workshops each year through Let's Compost, with $40 off your selected composting system. 

A replacement bin is available. Please refer to our fees and charges for the cost. 

The following suppliers sell tow hitch devices that may help you get your bin to the kerbside:

• Wheelie Bin Tow Hitch 
• Bin Towa 

Please note that these should not be taken as endorsement of these products. Please do your own research to satisfy yourself that you are making the correct purchase decision. 

We keep glass separate from mixed recycling to avoid the risk of broken glass fragment contaminating other recyclables, which means we can recycle more. This also makes recycling collection safer for our kerbside collectors and drivers. 

Once recyclable items are sorted and baled at our Material Recovery Facility on Colson Road, they are generally sent to the following locations: 

• Aluminium and steel cans are sent overseas for reprocessing into new metal products. 
• Glass is sent to Auckland for reprocessing into new bottles and jars. 
• Paper and cardboard are sent to a paper mill in Auckland or Hawke's Bay to make new cardboard products. 
• PET plastic containers (type 1) are recycled into new food packaging in Lower Hutt. 
• HDPE (type 2 plastics) and PP (type 5 plastics) are recycled into new products in Manawatū or Auckland.

If you would like to learn more about recycling you can arrange a tour of the Material Recovery Facility via the Sustainable Taranaki website.

There is no market for these hard-to-recycle plastics. NPDC and other councils around New Zealand are collecting only those plastic containers that can be recycled in our country – types 1, 2 and 5, which make up 85 per cent of our single-use plastic containers. You can help by checking plastic containers before you buy them and choosing only those marked as type 1, 2 or 5. 

A replacement bin is available. Please refer to our fees and charges for the cost. 

Items placed in your landfill bin get transported to Bonny Glen Landfill near Marton, and buried in the ground. 

There shouldn’t be any smells in your bin from food scraps, as they’ll be in the food scraps bin.  

If you are using disposable nappies or other incontinence products, there are some things you can do to manage the smell: 

• If possible, tip the contents of the nappy down the toilet 
• wrap the nappy into itself using the tabs and seal nappies tightly in waste plastic bags such as bread bags, before putting them in the landfill bin 
• store your landfill bin in the shade 

• make sure your landfill bin’s lid closes properly (don’t overfill it), and secure with a lid latch 
• consider using odour-neutralising products in your bin, such as cat litter or eco-friendly smell absorbers.

The following suppliers sell tow hitch devices that may help you get your bin to the kerbside:

• Wheelie Bin Tow Hitch 
• Bin Towa 

Please note that these should not be taken as endorsement of these products. Please do your own research to satisfy yourself that you are making the correct purchase decision. 

A replacement bin is available. Please refer to our fees and charges for the cost.