What goes in which bin?

From 1 February 2024, materials collected for recycling will be standardised across New Zealand.

From now on, only these things can be recycled:

• Empty plastic bottles, clear plastic trays and plastic containers numbered 1, 2 and 5 only. All lids removed.

• Empty tins and cans

• Clean paper and flattened cardboard

• Empty glass bottles and jars. All lids removed.

• Empty pizza boxes

Help us keep food waste out of landfill. All organic materials can be composted and returned to the earth, by placing them into the green Organics bin. Learn more about composting at UC here.

• Fruit and vegetable peels
• All food, food waste, food scraps and leftovers - including meat and dairy
• Coffee grounds
• Flowers and house plants 

• No coffee cups or other forms of "compostable packaging". These must be put into landfill. 
• Tea bags are no longer accepted into the organics bin. These must be placed in the landfill bin.
• Pizza boxes are no longer accepted into the organics bin. These must be empty and placed in the recycling bin.
• Food soiled paper, including dirty napkins must placed in the landfill bin.

Anything that cannot be put in another bin should be placed in the landfill bin. Treat this bin as your last resort! This includes:

• All takeaway food packaging - including those marked as "compostable" or "bioplastic". This includes coffee cups. 
• Polystyrene food containers or cups (like noodle containers)
• All lids 
• Soiled or oily paper, including used napkins 
• Takeaway cutlery - this includes those marked "compostable".
• Chopsticks
• Tetrapaks and empty drink cartons 
• Sushi containers and soy sauce packaging
• Receipts and small scraps of paper (smaller than the palm of your hand)
• Tea bags 
• Yohgurt pottles
• Soft plastic food wrappings such as pie wrappers and muesli bar wrappers
• Foil food wrap, such as chip packets
• Plastic packaging including bubble wrap
• Laminated posters
• No food or organics

You can recycle virtually all paper in this bin, provided that it is clean and non-confidential, including:

• Clean paper
• Envelopes (including envelopes with windows)
• Newspapers and magazines (including glossy ones)
• Books
• Course readers
• Exercise books
• Thin cardboard/box-board
• Printed office paper (stapled pages are ok)
• Glossy paper
• No Confidential Paper - please shred this first or, request a document-destruct bin from Cleaning Services (ext 6481).
• No small scraps of paper - nothing smaller than an envelope. 

Note:
If you notice a paper wheelie bin is full, please report it to Cleaning Services on extn. 6481.