Hamiltonians who recycle right were recognised for doing their part to fight the landfill during Recycling Week.

Recycling Week was celebrated throughout Aotearoa New Zealand from 16–22 October.

Hamilton City Council’s Resource Recovery and Sustainability ‘recycling fairies’ were searching for Hamilton’s recycling champions by lifting the lids on residents’ yellow recycling kerbside bins out for collection last week in Fairfield, Hamilton East, Glenview, St Andrews and Dinsdale.

Throughout the week the fairies attached green ‘recycling champion’ tags to more than 400 kerbside recycling bins. These bins contained clean and correct recyclables (paper, cardboard, plastics, tins, and cans).

Council’s Sustainable Resource Recovery Unit Director Tania Hermann said the team was pleased to see so many residents were recycling right and said residents were also happy to be rewarded for their efforts.

“The team really enjoyed the engagement with the residents and found all the conversations to be positive and engaging,” she said.

“We were pleased to reward four households with family passes to Waterworld for their efforts.”

Hermann said while many people were doing well with recycling, the most common problem they found in recycling bins was dirty items.

She encouraged residents to wash out all food containers, bottles, tins and cans before recycling them, as food waste left behind can contaminate other materials and make them difficult to recycle. She also urged people to remove and discard lids from all recyclable bottles and containers.

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“These two really simple actions can have a positive impact for the people who sort through the recyclables by hand at Hamilton’s recycling sorting centre,” said Hermann.

“To learn more about recycling right, check out the resources on the Fight the Landfill website. The bin sorter tool makes recycling easy – it tells you which items belong in which kerbside bin.

She said recycling ‘how to’ booklets in various languages are also available on the website.

Meanwhile, Council’s Waste Minimisation Educator Belinda Goodwin also holds workshops to teach people how to recycle right and reduce waste to landfill.

Businesses, schools, or community groups can book in a session with Goodwin at the Enviro NZ Education Room in Te Rapa. She will take sessions on the road for those who can’t make it to the Education Room.

Check out the Fight the Landfill website for educational resources or if you want to learn more about kerbside services and how to recycle right at home, work or school.

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