Recycling FAQs.

Here are our most frequently asked questions about recycling:

Click on the question to display the answer.

    • All households in Manukau
    • Schools, preschools and marae
    • Sports clubs, churches and community organisations
    • Businesses with dwellings in residential areas and dwellings in business areas.
  1. No. Commercial and industrial businesses do not pay the targeted waste charge, so they do not receive rubbish or recycling collection services from the council.

  2. You can get an extra wheelie bin if council officers are satisfied there is a need and it will maximise recycling. Allocations of extra bins will be reviewed on an annual basis.

  3. You could wait until your next collection or, take it to one of the following free drop-off locations:

    COMPANY

    SITE

    RECYCLING

    HOURS

    Visy Recycling

    29 Victoria Street
    Onehunga

    All

    Monday to Sunday
    7.00am - 10.00pm

    Visy Glama

    44 Langley Drive
    Wiri

    Paper and cardboard

    Please call (09) 279 6463 for hours.

    EnviroWaste Wiri Refuse Transfer Station

    Corner Wiri Station Road and Langley Road, Wiri

    Cardboard

    Mon to Fri 7.30am - 5.30pm
    Sat 8.00am - 4.00pm

    EnviroWay

    Smales Road
    Entrance to Greenmount landfill

    Cardboard

    Mon to Fri 7.30am - 4.30pm
    Sat 7.30am - 12.00pm

    East Tamaki Transfer Station 33 Neales Road
    Greenmount
    All. No charges on glass bottles and jars, charges apply to other items. Mon to Sat 7.30am - 4.00pm
    Sun 9.00am - 3.00pm
  4. No. The bins are for recyclable items only. Any wheelie bins that have rubbish, nappies or other material that can't be recycled in them won't be collected.

  5. No. Please don't put any plastic bags in the recycling wheelie bin. Plastic bags found at the sorting facility will be thrown out, even if they have recycling in them.

  6. Plastic bags can easily get caught in the machinery used to sort recycling. You can take bags to supermarkets to be recycled, re-use them or use cloth bags instead of plastic when shopping.

  7. No. Put your green waste to use by starting a compost heap or worm farm. Learn more about going green by taking a free composting course.

  8. You could ask a neighbour or relative to help put the bin out. Or, if you live up a long driveway you can order a bin hitch (at your own cost) to tow the bin behind your vehicle.

    To find out more or to order a bin hitch please contact the manufacturer Sulo Talbot on (09) 968 2180.

  9. Recycling is sorted at Visy’s material recovery facility in Onehunga.

    Step 1:

    Receiving the materials: Collection trucks empty materials onto tipping floor, materials moved into the facility on a conveyor belt.

    Step 2:

    Conveyor belt moves materials to a pre-sort station where any rubbish, food waste, plastic bags and other non-recyclables are removed by hand.

    Step 3:

    A large magnet separates steel from other materials.

    Step 4:

    Remaining material are moved to a machine called a trammel that rotates, allowing smaller recyclables like glass, plastic and aluminium to fall through holes and on to other conveyor belts. Most of the paper moves through the trommel onto another conveyor.

    Step 5:

    Materials that fall through the trommel holes then pass over a vibrating screen, this works like a sieve and removes fine pieces of glass.

    Step 6:

    Remaining materials move over an air classifier, which separates the lightweight materials like aluminium cans and plastic containers from heavier glass materials.

    Step 7:

    Glass bottles are carried to storage hoppers for transportation.

    Step 8:

    Plastic containers, cartons and aluminium are then sorted into separate streams and conveyed into storage bays to be baled. These bales are then ready for delivery to re-processing plants.

  10. Once sorted the recycling is baled into groups of paper, cardboard, plastics, steel and aluminium. The bales and glass materials are now ready to be processed into new products. They are manufactured, both in New Zealand and overseas, into products such as cardboard boxes and soft drink bottles.

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