Auditors checking recycling bins in Ashburton last week found several pizza boxes, with pizzas inside, put out for collection.

The pizza household was given a strike and is now being monitored by auditors for further recycling breaches.

Ashburton District Council has just over 950 households on a watch list because of their bad recycling habits and in October issued 700, second strike warnings – 146 bins were removed from repeat offenders with at least three strikes.

Only plastics 1, 2 and 5 can be recycled in the yellow bin, along with newspapers and clean cardboard and tins or cans.

Council Infrastructure Services Manager Neil McCann said pizza boxes were able to be recycled as long as they had no food debris inside them.

“But it is completely unacceptable to recycle pizza boxes with uneaten pizza in them. If these had not been found by the auditor, the bin would have been emptied into the recycling truck and the food would have contaminated the entire load.

“Loads that are rejected by the EcoSort recycling centre in Christchurch end up going to landfill, which costs our ratepayers on average about $1000 a load.”

Overall contamination rates of kerbside recycling collected in the Ashburton district in October was 5.9 per cent.

Mr McCann said other unwanted items routinely found in recycling bins were dirty disposable nappies.

“With Christmas coming and the usual increase in rubbish and recycling, it is really important that people pay attention to ensuring they recycle cleanly. That means no food in yellow recycling bins, glass bottles in the green bin and all lids, of any size, in the red rubbish bin.”

You can check out how our recycling efforts are tracking at our new rubbish and recycling report page.

What goes in your bins?

The red rubbish bin is for everything that is not recyclable, including household and organic waste. The yellow recycling bin is for recycling hard rigid plastic (grades 1, 2 and 5), cardboard, paper, tins and metal cans. All recycling must be clean of food scraps and loose, not bagged. No lids are allowed in recycling. The green glass crate is for recycling glass bottles and jars. Glass must be clean. No lids are allowed in recycling.

Still unsure? Download the full list of what can go in your bins.