Frequently Asked Questions

• Invercargill – Rubbish is collected weekly and recycling is collected fortnightly on the same day.
• Southland – Rubbish and recycling are collected fortnightly.
• Gore – Rubbish and recycling are collected on alternating weeks.

To find out your property's next collection day, refer to the Red bin collection and Yellow bin collection pages.

All residents in areas covered by the kerbside recycling service are given a recycling wheelie bin, and all ratepayers are charged the solid waste rate.

If you are in an area that receives the recycling service, you cannot opt out. However, you can choose not to use the service.

Excess or oversized rubbish and recyclable materials can be disposed of at one of the transfer or recycling stations throughout the district. Make sure only recyclable material is taken to a recycling station, otherwise please dispose of this material at a suitable transfer station.

Find your nearest transfer station or recycling centre on the Transfer stations and recycling centres page.

Following are some of the reasons:

• Your wheelie bin wasn’t placed at the kerbside before the collection time found here.
• Your wheelie bin wasn’t correctly positioned for collection – the bin needs to visible and accessible, and the lid must be fully closed.
• We may have tagged your bin explaining why we haven’t emptied it.
• If your collection has been unintentionally missed, we apologise for the inconvenience. Please contact your local council ASAP (within 24 hours for ICC) to arrange for a collection.

First, check to see if your bin has a tag explaining why it was not collected (e.g. excessive weight).

If you put your bin out for collection on time and it wasn't collected, get in touch with your local council who can arrange a pick-up:

• Invercargill City Council – If your wheelie bin was missed, you have 24 hours to log an Request for Service (RFS) for missed collection, or phone (03) 211 1777. If your collection falls on a Friday, you can call in on Monday before 12 noon and log an RFS for missed collection.
• Southland District Council – If your bins were missed, provided they were placed out by 7am on the scheduled collection day, please log an Request for Service (RFS) on the Southland District Council website or phone 0800 732 732 as soon as you are aware of a missed bin.
• Gore District Council – If your bins were missed, provided they were placed out by 7am on the scheduled collection day, please log in an Request for Service (RFS) on the Gore District Council website or phone (03) 209 0330 as soon as you are aware of a missed bin.

Please contact your local council for registering a new service and we will organise delivery to your property.

• Invercargill City Council – (03) 211 1777
• Southland District Council – 0800 732 732
• Gore District Council – (03) 209 0330

Please note: deliveries of wheelie bins can take up to a month to be delivered depending on availability.

A replacement wheelie bin can be arranged by contacting your local council. You may be charged a fee.

For lost or stolen wheelie bins, your council may charge a replacement fee, which includes the bin cost and delivery to your address.

• Invercargill City Council – (03) 211 1777
• Southland District Council – 0800 732 732
• Gore District Council – (03) 209 0330

Please note: deliveries of wheelie bins can take up to a month to be delivered depending on availability.

The kerbside wheelie bins are owned by your local council, but belongs to your property. Please mark your bin clearly with your address.

If you are moving from the property, leave all kerbside collection wheelie bins for the new occupants. Lost or stolen recycling wheelie bins may be charged a replacement fee, which includes the bin cost and delivery to your address.

In March 2023 the Government announced that for the very first time, there would be a consistent recycling service across the country. They set out exactly what can and can’t be recycled in your kerbside bins, so we’ll have the same recycling rules all over New Zealand.

Having standardised recycling rules will make it easier for people to use our kerbside services and get recycling right. It will also increase the quality of the materials collected, by reducing the amount that is contaminated.

For information and updates on the national standardisation programme see the Ministry for the Environment

The good news is that ICC and SDC were already mostly aligned with the new recycling list.

Please note that kerbside standardisation does not apply to Gore District Council as they do not have recycling services currently in place.

Used tyres can be taken to your local transfer station for disposal.

To find your nearest transfer station, refer to Transfer stations and recycling centres.

Instead of throwing out food that is in good condition, you can instead donate it to KiwiHarvest or put it in your compost bin at home.

To learn more about KiwiHarvest, visit it's website: Donate Food — KiwiHarvest.

Please note: KiwiHarvest do not collect previously served, left-over function meals, or food that is not fit for eating by needy whānau and people.

Refer to What goes in the yellow bin?

If your bin is deemed to contain ‘major contamination’ or material that could be considered hazardous your bin will not be collected. If you bin is not collected your bin may be tagged, identifying the item/s that were the issue. If the contamination is removed the bin will be collected in the next recycling collection as normal.

Our waste management contractor, WasteCo, takes the material to Recycle South (Southland disAbility Enterpirses Ltd) in Invercargill for manual sorting from where it is sent to a variety of places in New Zealand and overseas for processing.

There are four main reasons for your recycling not being collected:

1. It may have been put out late. Recycling bins that are placed at the kerbside after the collection time (found here) may not be collected.
2. Your recycling wheelie bin may have contained non-recyclable material (contamination such as food, organics, fabrics, etc.)
3. Your wheelie bin may not be an official Invercargill, Southland or Gore District Council bin. If this is the case, please contact your private waste collector.
4. Your bin was overflowing. For health and safety reasons, it is essential that the lid on your bin is closed when you bring your bin to the kerbside for collection.

It is not necessary to remove general labels such as on soft drink bottles, wine bottles, jam jars etc.

The main labels we would want people to remove are the full cover sleeve labels that you would find on items such as shampoo bottles, iced coffee bottles etc.

The reason for this is that the full cover sleeve obscures the type of plastic used underneath and makes it difficult for those on the sorting line to identify the type of material. Most of these types of labels should have a perforated line to help make removal easier.

• Empty and rinse all recyclables and place them loose in your roadside recycling bin.
• Take lids off all bottles and containers and put them in your recycling bin.
• Containers should be no larger than 4L
• Remove bubble wrap, polystyrene or plastic packaging from cardboard boxes – but tape and labels can remain.
• Items should be larger than 50mm x 50mm.

When the wrong material gets mixed in with the right recycling, it compromises the whole truck load. As it is very difficult to separate out and can pose a health and safety risk to the contractor, it can often mean the whole load ends up being sent to landfill.

If your bin received a contamination sticker and it was not emptied, the truck will not return until your next scheduled collection date, please remove the contamination from the bin in time for the next collection.

Plastic types 1, 2, and 5 can be put in your yellow recycling bin.

Other plastic types cannot be recycled and should be put in your red bin.

✔️ ♳ ♴ ♷ → 🟨 Put in yellow bin

❌ ♵ ♶ ♸ ♹ → 🟥 Put in red bin

We have teamed up with Phoenix Metalman to provide a drop-off point for all kinds of electronic batteries in a first for Southland.

Phoenix Metalman’s drop-off point is at 297 Bond St, right next to the Invercargill Transfer Station.

Up to 20kg of batteries can be recycled there for free, (WasteNet Southland cover this cost), while anything over will be charged for.

As well as the drop-off point, you can dispose of household batteries at the Mitre 10 stores in:

• Invercargill
• Te Anau
• Winton
• Gore

Battery types that can be recycled with Phoenix Metalman include:

• lead acid
• alkaline zinc household batteries
• lithium
• nickel metal hydride
• nickel-cadmium batteries

Please ensure batteries have no rust or corrosion, as these pose a serious fire risk and cannot be sent for recycling.

Unfortunately no.

Liquid Paperboard Packaging, also known as Tetra Pak is often used for packaging of soy and almond milk containers, as well as cartons of juice and stock.

These are not currently part of our nationwide kerbside collection scheme and therefore need to be dropped off to a local collection point.

Currently you can drop these off to The Batch Cafe: 173 Spey Street, Invercargill.

How to prepare your Tetra Pak cartons:

• Cut along the top and sides of the carton
• Open up and flatten
• Rinse out and dry
• All associated plastics such as lids and straws should stay on/in the packaging as part of the recycling process.

In March 2023 the Government announced that for the very first time, there would be a consistent recycling service across the country. They set out exactly what can and can’t be recycled in your kerbside bins, so we’ll have the same recycling rules all over New Zealand.

Having standardised recycling rules will make it easier for people to use our kerbside services and get recycling right. It will also increase the quality of the materials collected, by reducing the amount that is contaminated.

For information and updates on the national standardisation programme refer to the Ministry for the Environment.

Plastics type #1 (PET)

PET is one of the easiest plastics to recycle and therefore has good market value. It is most commonly used for soft drink and water bottles, and for a wide range of clear and coloured drink bottles. Other uses are common household items including a wide range of plastic jars, cleaning containers, personal care bottles, some meat trays, punnets for berries and tomatoes and plastic clam shells for muffins and baked goods.

Plastics type #2 (HDPE)

Plastic #2 HDPE is also easy to recycle. It is most commonly used for milk and cream bottles, some ice-cream containers, juice bottles, shampoo, cleaning and detergent bottles.

♳ ♴ ♷ → 🟨 Put in yellow bin

The easiest way to check if an item is recyclable or not is to look for the numbered triangle. If it says 1, 2, or 5 and it’s from an item you ate out of, drank from, cleaned your body or your house with, you can put it in the recycling bin.

It is essential to check each item because there are no hard and fast rules around which items are type 1, 2 or 5. For example, yogurt pots can be made from plastics #5 or #6.

♵ ♶ ♸ ♹ → 🟥 Put in red bin

If the number is a 3, 4, 6 or 7 then it needs to go into your rubbish bin, or to the appropriate recycling facility, e.g. soft plastics need to go to the Warehouse or Woolworths. Sometimes plastics don’t have a number on them. These are unidentified plastics and also need to go into your rubbish bin.

It is really important to check each item because there are no hard and fast rules around which items are type 1, 2 or 5. For example, yogurt pots can be made from plastics #5 or #6 while some biscuit trays can be a #1 or #3.

Yes, you can now place number 5 plastics in your yellow lid mixed recycling bin.

Number 5 plastics include:

• Ice cream containers
• Yoghurt containers
• Margarine tubs
• Jam and honey containers
• Dips and hummus tubs

To see what plastic grade your item is check the recycling triangle at the bottom of your packaging to find the recycling number. If there is no number or you’re unsure if it can be recycled, please place in your red lid rubbish bin if no other re-use option is available.

As part of Kerbside Standardisation, soft plastics (plastics such as cling film and plastic bags) cannot be put in the recycling bin.

You can drop off soft plastics for recycling at the collection bins located at Woolworths and the Warehouse.

It’s important to only place plastics 1, 2 & 5 and other correct types of recycling into your recycling bins.

Plastics 3, 4, 6 & 7 and other non-recyclable materials will cause contamination. Although the local recycling sorting facility has staff that manually remove non-recyclables, it is only sometimes cost-effective to do this.

If the recycling loads contain a significant amount of non-recyclable plastics and other contamination, it could mean these loads will end up going straight to landfill.

We have a full-time bin inspector checking bins before they are collected. If they see non-recyclable plastics in there, you will get a sticker letting you know your bin will still be collected the first time, but if it continues, you might get a tag and no collection until only plastic #1, #2 and #5 are seen in your bin.

Whilst most of us are doing a great job of recycling, some Southland residents are not recycling correctly, and this has a huge impact on the rest of the community’s hard work in cleaning, drying and sorting their recyclables. If too much contamination gets into the truck that picks up your recycling (think of coffee cups with coffee still in them, or worse, nappies or other gross things that spread nasties onto all recycling in the truck already), then that recycling has to go to landfill rather than being sorted, sold and reused. Sometimes, it is a health risk to take that load of contaminated recycling to the sorting facility, particularly as our recycling in Southland is currently sorted by hand. We are implementing the Recycling Bin Inspections to help support our residents to recycle better.

Now that the new recycling service has been rolled out across the district, we are focusing on reducing the amount of contaminated recycling collected by our recycling trucks. Contaminated items must be sent to landfill, which creates additional waste.

Bin inspections help educate the community about what can and can’t go in their bins, and support our efforts to minimise the amount of contaminated recycling going to landfill.

Within the Gore District Council, Invercargill City Council and Southland District Council boundaries.

Bin inspections started in Invercargill City Council and Southland District Council boundaries on the 10th February 2025. Bin Inspections will start in the Gore District Council area on 17 November 2025.

Recycling Bin Inspectors are looking for materials that cannot be recycled, such as:

The inspectors will be opening bin lids and looking at the contents of wheelie bins which are on the roadside waiting for collection. The inspectors may shift the bin from side to side to get a better look at what is in the bins, however they will not be sorting through all of the material in the bins.

As long as you have not received a red tag, the recycling truck will follow shortly after the inspectors and empty your bin as usual.

Contamination can be a number of different items such as broken glass, hazardous material or bags of general rubbish. This poses a health and safety risk.

No, bin inspectors will not be issuing fines. For bins that contain wrong items, tags and flyers with information are placed on the bin and in letterboxes to let residents know what the issue was with their bin. They will then need to remove the contaminant before their next recycling collection date.

No, the Recycling Bin Inspection Programme is free for residents.

Inspections will be occurring regularly across the Gore District Council, Southland District and Invercargill City areas. Inspectors will review recycling bins on your regular collection day if they are in your neighbourhood.

No, the Recycling Bin Inspectors cover all of Gore District Council, Southland District and Invercargill City, so they will be travelling around helping resident recycling correctly. You may get a couple of visits and then nothing for a while whilst they visit your further away neighbours.

No, if a property’s recycling bin is inspected and found to have too many non-recyclable items in it (we call this contamination), it will be given a red tag and will not be emptied.

If your recycling bin has received a red tag, please remove the contaminant and dispose of it into your rubbish (landfill) bin. The tag left on the recycling bin will tell you what items need to be removed from your recycling bin. Once you have removed the items, put the bin out on the kerbside for the next scheduled collection.

To learn more about recycling refer to the Recycling section.

No, please don’t squash these. This increases the risk of these items getting mixed in with paper and cardboard recycling on the sorting machine.

No, don't put your recycling into bags – please keep it loose. We can’t process your recycling if you bag it, and it will be considered rubbish.

No, please do not put your drink cans back into the box that they came in. Please keep them separate and squash the box but not the cans.

If your bin has too many non-recyclable items (contamination) it can mean that your recycling will end up in the landfill instead of being sorted, sold and reused. If the contamination is bad enough it can mean a whole truck-load of recycling ends up in the landfill, which is an incredible waste of resources, and costs the rate-payer a lot of money, so please, only place recyclable items in your bin.

We use specially designed trucks to automatically collect recycling from yellow-lidded bins. Unfortunately, when a household uses their recycling bin as a rubbish bin—disposing of items like old food, liquids, nappies, dead animals, or dog waste—it can contaminate an entire truckload of clean recycling. This means the entire load often has to be sent to landfill instead of being recycled, which is a costly outcome for ratepayers. The costs are driven by disposal and transport expenses such as landfill tipping fees, government waste levies, and additional processing costs for rejected loads. Contamination also results in lost revenue from the sale of clean recyclables, further increasing the financial burden.

In 2023/24, trucks with contaminated recycling that had to go to landfill cost ratepayers $339,604.

All the recycling collected in your yellow-lidded mixed recycling bin is taken to the recycling facility in Invercargill. It is then hand sorted into the different material types, baled and sent to either New Zealand or offshore companies.

Plastics 3, 4, 6 and 7 have no value on the plastics recycling market, so the materials cannot be sold, and we do not collect them (sales of recycling items help keep the cost of your kerbside collection service down). Also, on the 1st of February 2024, the Ministry for the Environment (MfE) mandated nationwide kerbside recycling standardisation. This initiative aims to unify what items can be recycled across the country to reduce confusion and contamination, improve recycling rates, and enhance the value of recyclable materials. The standardisation focuses on specific materials such as plastics marked 1, 2, and 5, glass bottles and jars, paper, cardboard, food tins, and drink cans. It is projected to divert an additional 36,000 tonnes of recyclable material annually from landfills, equivalent to 30 kg per household.

Plastic or metal lids, caps and trigger sprays can’t go in your recycling bin because when they are put in the sorting machine, they become mixed up with other recyclables such as paper and cardboard, thereby contaminating that product.

They can also fall through the sorting belts and damage the machinery, slowing and adding expense to processing. Furthermore, as of the 1st of February 2024, MfE standardised kerbside collections and stated that plastic or metal lids, caps and trigger sprays cannot be collected at kerbside and will be treated as contamination.

Yes, if you can easily remove tape and staples from cardboard, please do so.

No. When a container has a lid that can’t be removed (e.g., does not unscrew or is partially attached such as a steel can with lid still attached), these can be put in your yellow-lidded mixed recycling bin.

Most labels don’t need to be removed before recycling the container. If it is easy to do so, please remove loose soft plastic labels, such as those on plastic drink bottles. Please remove aluminium foil from around glass wine bottle tops if possible.

If it’s easy to do this, yes, please do.

Unfortunately, the tags are not recyclable. Paper or cardboard cannot be used as it is not durable enough to withstand our weather.

The bin tag is not recyclable. However, if this is the only thing in your recycling bin that is not recyclable, you will receive a green tag to say, “great” and some minor feedback asking you to not put the tags in the recycling bin.

Our recycling bin inspectors will photograph the contamination in the bin that has caused concern and resulted in the leaving of the red tag, and therefore your bin not being emptied. You can contact us to discuss the issue. Our goal is to educate, not punish, so we’ll work with you to understand and if possible, resolve concerns.

No, the Bin Inspection Programme is covered under existing waste management budgets.

The recycling bin inspectors are here to help you recycle materials that can be recycled and to ensure non-recyclable materials don’t get into the recycling stream. If they find non-recyclable materials in recycling bins, then they will leave advice on what is wrong and what you can do to improve the materials in the recycling bin. If a property’s recycling bin is inspected and found to have too many non-recyclable items in it or if there is significant contamination, it will be given a red tag and will not be emptied.

The recycling bin inspectors will make follow-up checks, leaving letters with advice. If a property’s bin has a high level of non-recyclable materials (significant contamination) and has received 3 red tags over the course of a calendar year, the recycling bin will be removed, and the service will be suspended until the resident signs a Reinstatement Agreement Form to reactivate the service. Part of the agreement of getting the bin back will be that the bin is continued to be checked by Bin Inspectors.

Your recycling bin was removed due to repeated contamination with non-recyclable items. Before removal, we tagged your bin twice to notify you of the issue and sent you a warning letter.

If your bin has been taken away, you will receive a letter in your mailbox explaining why. The letter includes a Reinstatement Agreement Form, which you must complete and sign to confirm that you will only place recyclable materials in your yellow-lidded bin. The form also provides guidelines on what can and cannot go into your recycling bin.

To have your bin reinstated:

• Complete and sign the form.
• Return it to WasteNet using one of the following methods:
  • Post: Fold the form along the green lines so the self-addressed section is visible, then mail it back.
  • In-person: Drop it off at one of our service centres (GDC, ICC or SDC).
  • Email: Scan the completed form and send it to wastenet@icc.govt.nz.

Once WasteNet receives your signed form, your bin will be reinstated and returned to you.

If your bin is removed, a letter will be put into your letter box. One side will explain why your bin has been removed, on the other is a Reinstatement Agreement Form. If you cannot find this letter, then contact WasteNet by emailing wastenet@icc.govt.nz or if you live within:

• Gore District Council boundary, you can call the GDC call centre: (03) 209 0330 or 0800 GoreDC
• Invercargill City Council boundary, you can call the ICC call centre: (03) 211 1777

1. Southland District Council boundary, you can call the SDC call centre: 0800 732 732 or (03) 211 2500

If you provide an email or physical address, then we can email or post a form out to you.

Avoid strikes by ensuring only recyclable items go into your yellow bin.

To find out what goes in your recycling bin, refer to What goes in the yellow bin?

Our recycling bin inspectors will photograph the contamination in the bin that has caused concern and resulted in the leaving of the red tag, not emptying bin or the removal of your bin. You can contact us to discuss the issue. Our goal is to educate, not punish, so we’ll work with you to understand and if possible, resolve concerns.

Contact WasteNet on wastenet@icc.govt.nz

1. If you live within the Gore District Council boundary, you can call the GDC call centre: (03) 209 0330 or 0800 GoreDC
2. If you live within the Invercargill City Council boundary, you can call the ICC call centre: (03) 211 1777
3. If you live within the Southland District Council boundary, you can call the SDC call centre: 0800 732 732 or (03) 211 2500

No, the Bin Inspection Programme is designed to provide education to households about using the service provided by your Council. If your bin has been removed, it means there have been ongoing issues with non-recyclable materials in your yellow-lidded bin, despite previous guidance. Our goal is to support proper recycling practices, and we encourage you to review the information provided to ensure your bin can be reinstated.

No, your property already has a red-lidded rubbish bin, which is serviced regularly. If your recycling bin is removed, we encourage you to follow the steps to get it reinstated.

You can contact WasteNet on wastenet@icc.govt.nz, or get in touch with your local council:

• Invercargill City Council: phone (03) 211 1777
• Southland District Council: phone 0800 732 732 or (03) 211 2500
• Gore District Council: phone (03) 209 0330 or 0800 GoreDC