Waste Management ends kerbside recycling in BOI

The collection of kerbside recycling in and around the Bay of Islands will end on Thursday 31 July, the company responsible for the service has confirmed.

Waste Management NZ has advised the council that it will end kerbside collections of recycling at the end of the month (in Kerikeri, Paihia, Haruru and Kawakawa), but will continue to collect household rubbish from kerbsides as normal.

The council does not and has never run kerbside collections for either rubbish or recycling.

For many years, the kerbside collection of rubbish in the Far North has been undertaken by two commercial companies – Waste Management NZ and Northland Waste. Of the two, Waste Management NZ also collected recycling in urban areas of the Bay of Islands. Both companies operate these services on a commercial, user-pays basis independently of the council or ratepayer funding.

Separate from kerbside collections the council does have a network of 16 refuse transfer stations – where nearly all recycling is accepted free of charge. The council also operates 11 community recycling centres that are free to use and accept plastics, glass, food and aluminium tins, paper and cardboard. Over the years Waste Management NZ and Northland Waste have been contracted to operate the council’s network of refuse transfer stations and community recycling centres – with Northland Waste operating northern facilities and Waste Management those facilities in the southern parts of the district.

In October 2024, Northland Waste was awarded a multi-million dollar, 10-year contact by the council to manage all council transfer stations and recycling centres in the Far North. The combined contract represents a cost saving for Far North ratepayers. The savings are due to the ability to spread the cost of assets needed (such as bins, trucks, balers etc) across a 10-year span.

Kerbside collections are a completely separate service to running transfer and recycling stations. Any kerbside service that continued after the awarding of the council facilities contract were provided independently as user-pays service, by a private company. For example, kerbside collection of recycling in Kaitāia by Northland Waste will continue as usual.

Any queries about the kerbside recycling collection in the Bay of Islands area should be directed to Waste Management.