New Zealanders are overconfident, but well-intentioned when it comes to recycling.
That's according to a new study, released as part of Recycling Week.
Newshub can reveal the biggest threat to the country's recycling efforts is a new trend called "wish-cycling".
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Ninety-four percent of New Zealanders are still making simple mistakes; things like not cleaning an item properly, which could then contaminate the entire collection.
"There's an element of laziness unfortunately," David Alley of Reclaim Recycling said. "It's such a quick decision when we dump something, put it in the bin; we don't actually think about the effects of it."
The research found 37 percent of Kiwis are putting plastic bags and soft plastics in their recycling bin, and 58 percent don't remove leftover food from pizza boxes.
"A big problem in the industry is wish-cycling," Alley said. "A lot of people are really wanting to put something in the bin in the hope that it will be recycled, when in actual fact it's contaminating the recycling bin."
The advice is don't waste your waste, and be certain before you pick a bin.
Newshub.
