Standard Materials for Kerbside Collections Notice 2023 (Notice No. 1)
Pursuant to section 49 of the Waste Minimisation Act 2008 (“Act”), I, the Honourable Rachel Brooking, Associate Minister for the Environment, give the following notice.
This notice is the Standard Materials for Kerbside Collections Notice 2023.
This notice comes into force the day after the date of its notification in the New Zealand Gazette. The standards commence to apply as set out below.
Two dimensional items: Flat items (e.g. a piece of paper).
Three dimensional items: Items that are not flat, having height as well as width and depth (e.g. a bottle).
Compostable packaging: Packaging that has been designed to be broken down by microbes during composting. Compostable packaging can be made from plant-based raw materials, petroleum raw materials, or a mixture of the two and may or may not be certified to international compostability standards.
Dry recycling: The collection of common recyclable packaging materials, such as glass, steel, aluminium, some plastics, paper and cardboard.
Food organics: Food scraps including food and any parts of food such as those discarded during food preparation. Includes both edible and inedible parts of food.
Garden organics: Vegetative materials discarded from gardening activities.
Liquid paper board: Cartons made from paperboard intended to hold liquids. Typically made with layers of paper, plastic and sometimes aluminium. Liquid paperboard cartons are commonly used for alternative milk products, juice and stock.
Noxious weeds: Invasive plants that are considered harmful to the environment by a Territorial Authority.
Resin identification code: Many plastic products are labelled with the ASTM International Resin Identification Coding System, often abbreviated RIC. The RIC indicates the type of plastic a product is made from. The RIC is a number inside an equilateral triangle (some products still use the older version of the RIC where the number is inside a ‘chasing arrows’ symbol).
Tethered lids: Lids which remain firmly attached to their base container after being opened and during use.
I set the following performance standards (“Standards”) for accepted materials, excluded materials, and discretionary materials for Territorial Authority managed household kerbside collection services (“Services”) under section 49 of the Waste Minimisation Act 2008.
These Standards will apply from 1 February 2024. From 1 February 2024, the Services must accept the standard materials, must not accept the excluded materials, and will have discretion over accepting the discretionary materials as specified for the Services in this notice.
The Standards apply to the implementation of Services that are set out in Territorial Authorities’ Waste Management and Minimisation Plans (WMMPs) and are in operation on 1 February 2024. For any dry recycling, food organics, or combined food organics and garden organics Services that start operating after this date, this notice will apply once the Service begins and is included in the respective Territorial Authority’s WMMP.
Hurunui District Council, Westland District Council and Clutha District Council have until 1 January 2027 to add glass to their existing dry recycling collections. Gore District Council has until 1 January 2027 to add paper and cardboard; plastic bottles, trays and containers of resin identification codes 1, 2, and 5; and aluminium and steel tins and cans to its existing dry recycling collection. In all other respects, the Services of these Territorial Authorities must comply with the Standards from 1 February 2024.
The Standards outlined in this notice apply to the Services listed below:
The Standards apply to Services managed directly by Territorial Authorities and collections that Territorial Authorities manage via a contract.
A Service is considered to be a ‘kerbside’ collection subject to the Standards outlined in this notice if it uses kerbside receptacles such as wheeled bins, crates, food scrap bins/caddies, collected bags or similar. It will be considered a kerbside collection even if these receptacles are not collected directly from the kerbside. For example, apartment blocks sometimes use a centralised on-site collection point. Such collections will be considered a kerbside Service subject to this notice if the apartment block collection is managed by a Territorial Authority and the receptacles used are the same or similar to other kerbside receptacles collected directly from the kerbside.
The following materials are to be accepted:
To meet the performance standard, Territorial Authorities must clearly list the accepted materials in public communications (website pages, brochures, social media posts, etc) about the Services affected by this notice.
For clarity, the following materials must not be accepted:
Territorial Authorities have discretion to specify whether they accept the following materials:
Refer to the Kerbside collections standard materials guidance document for further guidance on accepted, excluded and discretionary materials: https://environment.govt.nz/publications/standard-materials-for-kerbside-collections-guidance-for-territorial-authorities.