Wellington’s kerbside recycling is hand sorted
While we do have sorting machinery, our city’s recycling is also hand sorted by the team at Oji Fibre Solutions facility in Seaview. Please be mindful that other people will handle whatever you put in your recycling bag.
Many people believe all recycling is sent overseas or all sent to landfill. This is a misconception. If the recyclables are clean, they will be sorted, baled and sold with the majority of our recyclables staying in NZ for processing. Get more information on where your recycling goes.
If in doubt, throw it out (but check our directory first)
Even though recycling is hand sorted, people often think that putting incorrect items in recycling will be fine because it will be sorted out. But by including non-recyclable items, we make the fast-paced sorting job more difficult, hazardous, and increase the chance of contamination in the bales at the end.
If an unwashed recyclable item or something like a dirty nappy is put into your kerbside bag, it can contaminate other recyclables in the truck or at the facility (which then need to be landfilled) – not recycling properly can thwart the efforts of people who do.
To stop the chances of putting the wrong thing in, you can use our handy search tool to find out what is the right way to dispose of an item.