Where your recycling goes

Glass (blue crate)

Glass is sent to VISY in Auckland, where it is further sorted for colour, and re-processed into new glass bottles and jars.

Watch this video to find out more about glass recycling in New Zealand:

Mixed recycling (yellow bin)

Recycling collected from the kerbside is taken to a Materials Recovery Facility in Seaview, where materials are sorted and prepared for marketing to end-user manufacturers.

Once it has been sorted it is sent to the following places:

Cans

Cans are sent to metal recyclers Macaulay Metals in Seaview, Lower Hutt.

Paper and cardboard 

Paper and cardboard go to OJI Fibre, which then identifies markets for the product.

Plastics

• Clear Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET 1), goes to Flight Plastics in Lower Hutt.
• Naturally coloured High-Density Polyethylene (HDPE 2) like 'clear' milk bottles and detergent containers go to Palmerston North where it is washed and turned into re-processed pellets. The raw material is then turned into items such as wheelie bins.

What happens at the recycling plant?

The Materials Recovery Facility in Seaview relies on a range of processes to sort materials, including mechanical systems, people hand-sorting products on conveyor belts, and an automated optical sorter that sorts products based on color, size, shape, structural properties and chemical composition.

This video shows what happens to your recycling at a Materials Recovery Facility. There are many different types of recycling plants in New Zealand, and this is an example of just one facility:

Green (garden) waste

Green waste is taken to Composting NZ in Kapiti, where it is composted.