[driver]

I've spent all weekend in the loft and back to my childhood. Oh we had some fun looking through the past.

As a result we were ruthless with what should come with us and what had to go.
Some of the stuff i'll try to get rid of at a boot fair next weekend but the rest we piled into the recycling and the rubbish.

I've read somewhere that in NZ you pay per bag. So how does that work? Do you order so many and then when they are gone buy some more?
I can't see anyone going round making notes on how many they pick up.
Are there therefore any other refuse charges after paying for the bags?
Ours is all in with the rates isn't it?
What do you do about items which do not fit into a bag? We threw out some carpet and an old suitcase.
Is it different in each region?
Hope this hasn't already been covered I did a search but nothing came up.

[lisa]

Hi

you have to buy the rubbish sacks with the appropriate council name on and they won't take anything else, I think they are about $1.25 each you can usually get them from the supermarket, when in our rental we also had a box for cans, bottles and plastic and they took newspaper and flattened cardboard as well, if you need to get rid of anything big you have to take it to the refuse station and pay.
where we are now we are out of the collection so we pay $8 an empty for a big steel bin and have to take the recycling to the depot which is open on a Fri and Sun for 4 hrs so it usually gets forgotten and builds up!!
hope this helps.

lisa

[veronica]

You get 26 council bin bags a year, a voucher comes through and you have to redeem it at either the council service centre (offices) or a designated supermarket. As Lisa says you can buy more when you run out at the local supermarket but they have to be the council ones or they will just be left outside your house.

I can only speak for Christchurch on the recycling and the way the local tip operates, but we run a backpackers here and obviously with 20 + people we generate quite a lot of rubbish and we have also been renovating and building, again a lot of rubbish. Anything that is useful and can be recycled can be left at the recycling depot as you enter the tip area, then its on to a weigh bridge. If its greenwaste (garden rubbish) its $50 a tonne or you can take the option of paying $15 for a high sided trailer slightly less for a smaller trailer down to $5 for a car load. On normal house hold garbage, building bits etc. then it is $100 a tonne. On one side of the tip is the green waste pit and the other the general rubbish. If we have house hold and green we have to do two trips. on the way out of the tip its onto the weighbridge again and pay for the weight difference.

[driver]

Thanks to you both, it sounds complicated, but I guess when you get the hang of it, it isn't.
We will have building/industrial waste as well which will probably need a skip on site or at our house. Something i've already started to look into.
It will really make you only throw out stuff which can not be re-used. We do a lot of recycling here, i'm used to separating it all out, not looking forward to making time to take it to the tip though.

[Smiler]

Hi Driver

Here in Welly we have to buy the council yellow bin bags too, but no restriction on how many you can put out. I buy them at the library for $5.ish for 5, they are more expensive in Pak and Save supermarket.

There is also a wheelie bin collection that you can do through a private company if you don't want yellow bags.

On the same day as the YB collection, recycling stuff is also collected. Paper, cardboard (folded and taped/tied together), glass, can, plastic cartons and we have a recyling box to leave out. If you miss the collection that's it until the next week.

Our neighbours have 5 or 6 boxes and I could get drunk on the alcohol fumes from the boxes on the verge;)

Haven't been to the landfill/waste site yet but from their website they sell off 2nd hand stuff that people have taken there.

I actually think that classes as shopping, so I must find out where it is....:laugh
Deborah
PS. Get your shippers to come back and collect all the shipping wrapping and boxes.

[jubjub]

It is different for each district council. Where we are you dont pay for bin bags, and they get collected as many as we need to put out each week, the recycling bins (for plastic/glass/tin) and cardboard/papers also get collected the same day.

You do have to pay to take large items to the council dump, or once a year there is what they call "inorganic rubbish week" where you can put out anything you would usually take to a dump, like old carpet, broken furniture etc (no garden waste) the streets look a bit of a mess during this time, and you find lots of scavenging going on.

Garden waste gets treated differently ,we have not quite sussed that but you either have to compost it or take it to the dump from what I can gather.

In our old area, we had to pay per bag, $1.25 each from the supermarket.

[veronica]

we are not restricted to how many we put out each week, its just that in the rates we get allocated 26 a year, after that you buys yer own.

[Simon & Emily]

once a year there is what they call "inorganic rubbish week" where you can put out anything you would usually take to a dump, like old carpet, broken furniture etc (no garden waste) the streets look a bit of a mess during this time, and you find lots of scavenging going on.



What a brilliant idea - I bet that gets you into spring cleaning mode for getting rid of clutter.

Emily

[kiwidebs]

Years ago my friend's mum always went 'scavenging' on inorganic rubbish week. My friend was soooo embarassed!! But her mum did get some good stuff. One man's rubbish etc.

Debs

[Smiler]

Slightly off topic but last week, someone left a nearly new Brio radiator style heater on the grass verge outside our house, with a big FREE sticker on it.

It's toasty warm in our house now;)

D x

[Radders]

In Tauranga, you can buy stickers that you put on each bag -about $1.20 - $1.50. They won't take bags without stickers. Or buy a bin from a company, such as environmental bins, and they pick up once a week, you also get a free recycle bin -a medium bin is about $160 for the year

[driver]

it all sounds complicated at the moment. I am sure once you've got the hang of it that it isn't.
Who tells you what you have to do?
Do you get this info from the council or the estate agent or neighbours?


Thanks again, though we're coming to Tauranga. I'm glad I asked now.

[Smiler]

Driver

Try the council website for the area you are coming to. I can only speak for Wellington but there is masses of help on the council site.

Try here http://council.tauranga.govt.nz/ if nothing else, you can email the mayor :laugh

Deborah

[driver]

brilliant link that one i went straight to rubbish collections, it even says it street by street.

Thanks smiler.

Looks like it has answers to other things too.

[Diny]

Here in Ashhurst (Palmerston North area) we have special bin bags which are provided by the council. You get 52 bags a year (paid for by your rates). They have the PN City Council logo all over them. Only rubish in these bags will be collected. You can buy extra bags at certain supermarkets, I think they're abou $8.95 for 6 !!

Of course any amount of recycling will be collected. Usually along with my council bin bag I put out several bags containing glass, plastic, paper & tin.

Also - in this area - the rubbish is all put out on one side of the road only, quite a nifty time saving idea for the collectors when you come to think about it.

Recycling is almost forced upon you over here, it took me a while to get use to not having my big black wheelie bin with endless waste disposal facilities, but it's second nature now.

Diny

[driver]

We have to recycle here, (apparently they are thinking of fining those who don't in the future) I actually quite like it and it really doesn't take that long. Glad to see they do glass from the doorstep too. We don't have that here, have to take it to a special place.
Great idea about having it all on one side of the road. The amount of binmen who don't watch where they are walking over here and just walk infront of cars is amazing.