Image: Annalily in front of the window wall made from upcycled window frames by our volunteers

Auckland Council’s Waste Minimization Fund has granted Matuku Link $4750 towards a trial for the project we’ve called “Small lids, big dents”. Recently, the rules on what you can add to your curb recycling bin have changed. Only items with a printed 1, 2 or 5 are accepted. This means the lids of tin cans and glass jars shouldn’t go into the recycling bin anymore. But what to do with those small items? Or with your toothbrush, or juice carton? This led a couple of us, including our educator Rebecca Bowater and local hub co-coordinator Tamsin Norman, to come up with this ‘collection point’.

The idea behind this project is to give people in the Waitakere River Valley an easy option to drop off their small recyclables. As there is only one way in-and-out, and Matuku Link is on that road, people will be going past on their way, which makes this an ideal “quick stop off & drop off” location. Most drop off locations for the items we propose to recycle are much further away and not worth making a special trip for (pens, lids, blister packs etc), nor do people want to save them up until they have enough to make it worthwhile.

At Matuku Link we have volunteers helping out every Tuesday, and most come from outside the Waitakere River Valley. They have offered to, once in a while when a box is full, take this box and bring it to a drop off point on their way. This means it doesn’t require extra driving or adding a carbon footprint to the recycling. We have interviewed several resource centres and their main issue is dumping of non-recyclable materials. Therefore we want our Recycle Station inside the gate, which is open during working hours and a staff member can answer questions and oversee recycling submitted. We’re also open every third Sunday of the month.

As we are an education center, we also will include information on the panels on what to do with items we do not accept: where to bring them and why.

This recycling station will be part of our regular Education Program we do with over 1500 students per year. If schools are interested and this project is successful, we can advise them how to start their own, share the design of the posters and the station.

What we’re planning to accept:

  • Liquid Paperboard (akaTetra Pak)

We can easily collect liquid paperboard cartons, such as Tetra Pak. For details on the drop-off process visit https://www.saveboard.nz/drop-off-cartons  We’ll need to have information reminding people to cut, wash and dry before putting them in the bin. A volunteer would need check that they are all cut and washed, then drive these out to south Auckland.

  • Plastic Lids Small Zero Waste Box 25 x 25 x 46 cm – cost is $222 per box

Lot of people are asking how to recycle plastic lids as you can no longer put them in your general recyling bin. TerraCycle have a box for plastic lids This is a paid service where we purchase boxes that have postage pre-paid. Once full we just post them at any post office. The postage does run out at some point so may need to send off even if it isn’t full yet. We would need to ensure the boxes are stored in a dry place. Might need a plastic box for outside and cardboard stored inside.  Bottle Caps – Zero Waste Box™ (terracycle.com)

  • Metal Lids and Small Metal Pieces

We can recycle metal lids and small metal items through our local scrap metal yard. This option is cost-free and may even provide us with a small return. These would need to be dropped off and potently sorted.

  • Power Cords and Various Cables

Although this is a viable option, I feel collecting power cords and different cables might be logistically challenging due to sorting and storage requirements. We can discuss whether to include these in our program later. Goes free of charge to the scrap metal yard.

  • Blister Packs (medication) and pencils, pens, markers – Small Zero Waste Box 25 x 25 x 46 cm $216

Blister packs can be recycled through TerraCycle. Similar to general plastics (see above), we will need to purchase a postage-paid box for collection. The box has a limited usage period (either six months or a year), after which it needs to be sent back. Blister packs (terracycle.com)

  • EcoStore Products:

This is an easy addition to our recycling plan. We can set up a container for EcoStore bottles. Need to check they are clean and dry before storing. Again a volunteer would need to drop them off.

  • Soft plastics:

This is accepted at Woolworth/Countdown stores and is easy to collect and give to a volunteer to drop off at their local store – we have had several offers to do so already.

  • Food scraps:

We have two large compost bins for our own food scraps and garden waste (not weeds!) next to our nursery. As most people in the valley will have their own composting system, we don’t think there would be much need for a food scraps collection point, but we’ll do a survey later in the project and can add it if there is a need.

We decided against batteries because of the fire risk, but will add the opportunity to drop off batteries (and light bulbs and polystyrene) at local Mitre10 and Bunnings (and some libraries). This and other opportunities for recycling will be on the information boards.

We hope this will reduce the number of small recyclable items in the general waste… we’ll evaluate after one year to see if it’s worth our, and our volunteers’ time to collect these items.

Thank you Rebecca, Tamsin and Katherine for organising this, thank you to our Build Team Volunteers who will be building the “bus shelter structure” and thank you Auckland Council for the funding!