Major change to Taupō recycling

The Team from Neighbourly.co.nz

At the beginning of this year, China stopped accepting plastic waste. As a result, Taupō District Council will no longer be taking plastics with the code 3-7. This will begin on October 1. Contractors will put a message in the bin if you have recycled 3-7 plastics. Cans, bottles and some plastics will still be accepted, but the rest - such as yoghurt pottles, ice cream containers, shampoo bottles - will be considered rubbish.

These codes - 3-7 plastics - have been recyclable since 2006, so Taupō residents had become used to putting these plastics into the recycle bin. That process had seen them able to divert about 34 million containers from landfill.

Taupō District Council say, "Look at the plastic to find the triangle with the number on it. We will accept 1-2 plastics, 3-7 will need to go into a refuse bag. People need to think about what they purchase, consumers can drive the change in the market, we want you to go in and think about alternatives."

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Image: Stuff