[acisman]

Hi Everyone

We have finally moved into our NZ house and now find ourselves surrounded by rubbish !! With all our worldly goods packed into 120+ boxes in UK and then shipped our here in the container, we decided to only unpack the bare essentials while we rented.

Having now bought and moved, today we have finished unpacking and unwrapping all the items in those 120+ boxes and now find that we have a mountain of wrapping paper, paper blankets, bubble-wrap and cardboard boxes. Even with the boxes flattened the pile is horrendous.

As our place is very rural ( 4k from Morrinsville) we do not get "town services" like rubbish collection, so now we have to find one of the firms that do rural collections and see if we can get them to shift this mountain as a one off.

The alternatives are to burn most of it ( may happen tomorrow if the wind is not too strong) or take it to the local tip. We did get rid of some boxes when we left the rental and just for your information, it seems the tips will take paper and cardboard free of charge, but they do charge for all other waste.

We left the rental on Tuesday, two days before the town collection in Cambridge. I therefore had to take 3 bags of rubbish to the tip, in bags that cost $1.40 each ( bags you have to use for rubbish collection), only to be told I had to pay a further $5 per bag to dump them.

Anyway at least we are now box free and have spend most of the day trying to find somewhere to put all these " such important" possessions. We are missing the loft already.

Pam & Dave

[Glenda]

Hi Pam and Dave,

We've bought a lot of things and are hoping our recycling centre up the road will take most of the boxes we've flattened etc. There is a tip some 10km north of us apparently which will take rubbish. Must admit that I am taking this recycling business more serious here than in the UK ... our rubbish bags are $2 each here!

:smile

[jubjub]

Our removal company have told us they can either unpack our stuff for us, or come back later and take away all the packaging, is that something you could look at, or is it too late after the move now?

[acisman]

Yes, our shipper's agent in NZ (the guys who actually brought the container from Auckland to Cambridge) did say they would unpack everything. However as we were only renting we decided not to unpack everything. The local firm ( who moved us from Cambridge to Morrinsville) were costing $90 per hour, so we decided to unpack ourselves, hence the mountain of rubbish.

The shipper's agents did offer to come and collect the empty boxes when we were in Cambridge, provided we did it within 14 days. I guess therefore that this is a standard service. Mind you as our shippers charged as £200 more to have the container load delivered to Cambridge rather than Auckland and as their agents were based in Auckland, I wasn't convinced that their offer was that genuine.

Made contact with the rural refuse collection company today and they will be delivering a wheelie bin tomorrow, so things are looking up.

Pam & Dave

[veronica]

the fees at the tip shouldn't be too high as bubblewrap plastic etc is very light. and they will do the paper and cardboard as recycling stuff for free. have you thought to put an adv in the local paper to see if anyone is moving and could use the boxes and bubble wrap, take it away for free sort of thing.

[acisman]

That is a very good idea Veronica. An excellent example of the benefits of this forum. Thank you very much. If the news is anything to go by, someone around here must be emigrating to OZ !! thou I can't understand why.


Pam & Dave

[Mildred]

Well I actually have to buy bubble wrap on a regular basis as I have a small business on ebay. As for cardboard boxes in the UK they can be a nightmare getting hold off. I often have to get on my knees to beg electrical stores for their very large boxes (big enough to put piano stools in).

Perhaps there is someone in NZ in a similar situation who would actually give you a small donation for the stuff.

[richard]

Perhaps there is someone in NZ in a similar situation who would actually give you a small donation for the stuff.

We auctioned all of our wrapping paper and boxes on TradeMe. After auction costs we made 20c but at least someone was able to put them to use.