Tidy Kiwis love to recycle and reusing everything we can is an important part of keeping our country, and world, beautiful.
However, there is often confusion about what can and can't be recycled and it's easy to make mistakes. From February 1, everyone in New Zealand will have to follow identical guidelines for what items can and cannot be placed in their kerbside recycling bins.
Here are some of the easiest mistakes to make when it comes to recycling, updated to include items that will and won't be recyclable come February 1.
Not recyclable
Scrunchable plastic; a good general rule of thumb is that if you can scrunch the rubbish into your hands and it decreases in size then it's a soft plastic and not recyclable. These low-density Polyethylene plastics are super common and include a lot of what our food comes in, including bread, pasta, rice, cereal, and biscuits. However, soft plastic can often be recycled at the supermarket in green recycling collection bins.
Glad wrap and sandwich bags are made of the same plastic and shouldn't go in the recycling.
Milk and juice cartons cannot be recycled as they are made of liquid paperboard, which means oat milk cartoons need to go in the red-topped bin.
Single-use paper cups and compostable cups, the ones you most likely get your coffee in, must be disposed of in your red-topped bin.
You also shouldn't be putting the lids on these cups in the recycling, nor should you be recycling lids from any bottles, be they from wine, beer, milk, or soft drink bottles. Lids can damage sorting machines and are very difficult to find a recycler for.
Straws also cannot be recycled as they are too small.
In fact, any items smaller than 50mm should stay out of the recycling, including bread tags or spice containers.
Sour cream and cream cheese containers are made of a plastic that cannot be recycled in New Zealand.
Aerosol cans can no longer be recycled from February 1 onwards. They can be difficult to recycle because they are made of a few different materials.
Receipts are too small to be recycled and often get stuck in the sorting machine. You can chuck these in your compost instead.
Household glassware is not recyclable, whether it's broken or not, so needs to go into the rubbish.
Another easy thing to miss is that anything put in your recycling bin must not be bagged. The plastic bags clog up recycling machinery so recyclable items should be placed directly into the bin.
Recyclable
Broken glass bottles and jars are recyclable, but councils advise people to take care when placing them in the bin.
Many people think pizza boxes should not be put in the recycling bin, but they can be, within reason. Confusion often comes around what level of food contamination is acceptable. A little grease staining and the odd crumb of cheese is fine.
Single-use plastic takeaway containers can go in the recycling, just make sure they're clean.
While scrunchable plastic should be avoided, plastic biscuit trays are most often made of recyclable plastic.
You can put your knowledge to the test on Auckland Council's Recycle Right test.
