One common misconception we often hear is that Lower Hutt’s recycling goes to landfill. While it’s true that this is the case in other parts of the world, here in Te Awa Kairangi ki Tai, we take our commitment to reducing landfill usage very seriously. So where does your recycling go?
First up, kerbside collection: Once you’ve put your recycling bins outside for pick-up, they’re emptied into a WM New Zealand truck and taken to Oji Fibre Solutions in Seaview. Here, it’s sorted by both hand and machine, before being prepared for the next part of its journey. You can see a video on the process here:
Okay, so what’s next? We try to be agile when it comes to recycling destinations and send it to the places that need it the most at the time. You can see a brief explanation of where your recycling goes here, but as of right now, here’s the run-down:
Metals
Aluminium cans and steel tins stay local and go to Macauley Metals in Seaview. Macaulay Metals is Aotearoa New Zealand’s largest privately owned scrap metal recycling business, so it’s ideal to have them in the big orange building just down the road. Here, they’re recycled and prepared to be sent off to be used in the creation of new items
Clear plastics
Clear PET 1 (polyethylene terephthalate) plastics stay local for the time being, too; they go to Pact Group’s rPET (Recycled PET) facility in Waiwhetū for recyycling. PET 1 plastics are used to make stuff like food and drink containers and is one of the easier plastics to recycle (still go to avoid it when you can, though!).
Paper and cardboard
While it’s less bad for the planet than plastic (a low bar, admittedly) given that it biodegrades, it’s still really important that we recycle paper and cardboard as much as possible. That’s why we send it to Oji Fibre Solutions’ paper mills in Tāmaki Makaurau / Auckland and Tokoroa to become recycled into new paper and cardboard. That’s the circular economy in motion!
Other plastics
Clear/natural, white-coloured milk bottles and coloured PET plastics are currently exported to Malaysia. This is a great example of why it’s best to cut down on plastics where you can – this stuff is notoriously difficult to recycle, as reported in 1 News earlier this year. For now, we send them to our partner’s sites Port Kelang (near Kuala Lumpur) and Johor to be properly recycled – NZ doesn’t yet have a site that can do this.
These sites were visited by Oji Fibre Solutions and Wellington City Council in 2018 for an examination, and the team was impressed with the operation’s sophistication. The plastic is washed, ground into flakes, and then heated and extruded into plastic pellets. These pellets are then shipped to China to be made into cable sheathing or new LDPE bags (e.g. shopping bags and dry-cleaning bags). Check out these photos to get a look at the process:
Currently, about 60% of Lower Hutt’s plastic recycling goes to Whaiwhetū, and 40% is currently exported to Malaysia.
Better than recycling
Of course, recycling should be the last thing you do. Yes, it’s very important, but reducing and reusing is so, so much better. Recycling isn't perfect, so be sure to avoid plastic when you can (getting a drink? Go with a can over a bottle), and use keep-cups / reusable containers wherever possible. Instead of using the ambulance at the bottom of the cliff that is recycling, you can soar away on the hang-glider that is reducing and reusing (we maybe got a bit carried away with the metaphor there).