Palmerston North City Council is progressing plans for a 12-month soft plastics recycling trial, which looks set to begin in July.
Council’s Community Resilience and Sustainability Committee has approved the trial, with the proposal to now go to the full Council for final approval.
Once confirmed, the 12-month trial will begin in July, with free drop-off points available across the city.
Committee Chair, Councillor Lorna Johnson says the decision reflects strong community interest.
“Our community has been asking for this for years and I know they’ll really value us putting it into action,” she said.
“It’s a trial, so we can test it and see how it’s taken up. Similar programmes have worked well in other parts of the country, and this trial gives people a practical way to keep more waste out of landfill.”
The trial would accept everyday household soft plastic packaging such as bread bags, chip packets, frozen food wrappers and shopping bags.
Delivered in partnership with the Packaging Forum’s Soft Plastics Recycling Scheme New Zealand, the material collected will be recycled within New Zealand into new products, supporting a circular economy.
The trial requires a capital investment of $82,600 for a storage shed at Awapuni Resource Recovery Park, along with an annual net operating cost of $28,000. The shed will be funded through existing budgets, so there will be no additional impact on rates for this capital cost. If the trial does not continue beyond 12 months, the shed will be repurposed, Council said in a statement.
Elected members agreed the environmental benefits and strong community support make the trial worth exploring.
