Up to 1,000 Nelson households, in 140 selected streets, have become the first in the country to have their soft plastic collected at kerbside, as part of New Zealand’s first trial into industry-funded kerbside collections of soft plastic.
Enviro NZ will collect the scheme’s orange bags on separate collection trucks from council’s kerbside collection materials, bale the soft plastic collected from registered households and deliver to Future Post in Blenheim to be recycled into fence posts for local vineyards and farms, as well as garden beds.
Participating residents received their orange soft plastic recycling bags last month for the trial, which is 100% funded by industry member organisation, The Packaging Forum, and is expected to take up to six months.
The trial is being run by industry member organisation, The Packaging Forum, which operates the voluntary Soft Plastic Recycling Scheme across the country and while it is being supported by the Nelson City Council, this is not part of the Council’s regular kerbside recycling collection.
Soft Plastic Scheme Manager, Lyn Mayes says the purpose of the trial is to explore the viability of recycling soft plastic packaging at kerbside, and whether this collection model is economically viable and deliverable at scale.
‘We’re hoping to get some good data out of this trial; we know from our international colleagues and trials which have taken place in the UK and Australia that the easier you make it for consumers to recycle, the more material we collect and can place back in the recycling and circular economy,” she said.
Nelson Mayor, Nick Smith, whose household is taking part in the trial, urged his fellow participants to fill their orange bag with soft plastics and put it kerbside in their blue glass crate on collection day.
“This step up to a kerbside recycling service has the advantage of being much more convenient than taking soft plastics to a recycling bin in a store,” the Mayor said.
“My hope is that we can make a success of this 1000-home trial so a kerbside collection service can be expanded throughout Nelson and then New Zealand.”
The Packaging Forum CEO, Rob Langford says households not part of the trial are encouraged to keep utilising the soft plastic recycling bins placed in various stores.
All soft plastic placed in the kerbside trial bags, likewise in-store soft plastic recycling bins, must be clean and dry to avoid contamination.
Visit www.recycling.kiwi.nz/nelson-trial for more information on the kerbside collection trial, and what can and can’t be placed in the trial bags.
