Sex toy, dirty nappies: What Marlborough residents try to recycle

Used nappies, vapes, hypodermic needles and even a dildo are just some of the things Marlborough resdients have tried to recycle in the first month of having wheelie bins.

But the biggest headache for the council’s waste team isn’t the downright dirty, but the items that could – and should – be recycled, if only they were rinsed properly.

The icky items mean about a quarter of the region’s new yellow bin collection has gone to landfill.

And the council knows which routes have the worst offenders, and has warned “bin audits” are on the way.

The kerbside collection of council wheelie bins started on July 1, with rubbish and recycling collected on alternate weeks.

Households also had a separate 55-litre crate for glass, which was emptied fortnightly.

Kerbside collection was also extended to service more areas, and now covered Blenheim, Picton, Renwick, Seddon, Rarangi, Grovetown, Spring Creek, Tuamarina, Havelock and Rai Valley.

The service was being delivered by a new contractor on behalf of the council, WM New Zealand, formerly known as Waste Management New Zealand.

Both Marlborough District Council solid waste manager Mark Lucas and WM New Zealand Marlborough branch manager Paul Withers said they were confident recycling would no longer end up being sent to landfill, which had happened with the previous contractor.

Staffing issues sometimes meant recycling had to be collected by the rubbish truck. That company even tried to hire workers from overseas to fill the gaps.

However, the new system meant people had to sort through every item put in the recycling bins.

“We’ve got people actually here having to handle this, and having to deal with it,” Lucas said.

Eight sorters worked through the recycling as it passed on a conveyor belt at the recycling centre on Wither Rd. This was then bailed and sent to various spots around the country to be reused.

Anything not recyclable went to the end of the conveyor belt and dropped into a bin, which was sent to landfill.

This was costing ratepayers about $13,000 a month, Lucas said.

Looking at a pile of recycling that had just been brought in, Lucas spotted nine items that could not be recycled.

“It doesn’t take long, as you can see, to make a [contaminated] pile,” he said.

Given collection was spread out over different days, they knew which residents put the most non-recyclable material in their recycling bins.

At the moment, the worst offenders were in the Picton Week 2 area, which was mainly households east of Wairau Rd, and southeast of Waikawa Rd, with collection on a Tuesday.

“This data is now starting to come through, then we can start to target these areas with bin audits, which we will be doing,” Lucas said.

Withers said he had high expectations when the service started.

He said in Gore, only 4% of recycling was contaminated when they first started servicing that community, “but it deteriorated over time”.

“Twenty-five per cent is probably middle of the pack at the moment,” he said.

Withers said they had a great team working on the service. About 30 jobs had been created, including 10 truck drivers and transfer station operators.

He said there were a few teething issues, such as lids being left on glass jars and some bins being too full.

But Withers said the main message was that plastic items marked with the recycling code of 1, 2 or 5, could be recycled, provided they were clean.

The council’s website also clarified this. Steel and metal cans were also acceptable but should be rinsed, and newspaper and other paper was also accepted. Cardboard, including pizza boxes, were also allowed, but had to be clear of food scraps.

Soft plastics were not allowed, and could be taken to a collection point at a supermarket.

Cups, plates, toys, oil containers and polystyrene were also not allowed.

And sex toys were also not OK, Lucas said. They had to be handled by the workers, and some also contained a lithium battery which was a fire risk. In fact, toys of any kind were not able to be recycled.

LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.

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