Gisborne Selected for Technologically Advanced Recycling

Gisborne (Wednesday 4 December 2019) - Smart recycling and rubbish bins are being introduced in Gisborne as part of a national campaign to reduce litter.

The Let’s Put Litter in its Place campaign has seen more than 150 sets of bins installed in 17 regions around the country, including seven sets in Gisborne’s town and rural locations.

The Packaging Forum Litter Project Manager Lyn Mayes said Gisborne is well deserving of these Smart EYEFI bins.

“The Smart technology and features to reduce contamination that are being delivered to Gisborne, manage overflowing bins and improve ease of use and identification and each set has bins for recycling, glass and rubbish,” says Mayes.

“We trialled these bins around the country and found that they not only reduced contamination levels but our audits of the pilot bins also showed an improvement in overall behaviour. 81% of items disposed of in the yellow recycling bins and 99% of items in the blue glass bins were correctly placed. This is a fabulous result”.

Each recycling and rubbish bin have an EYEFI unit which provides an alert when bins are nearing capacity, and they’re emptied as required rather than on a schedule. As well as smart technology, the bins have been designed to make their purpose clearer for users.

Be a Tidy Kiwi Program Manager Richard Leckinger is excited to see the bins heading to the East Coast.

“One of the aspects of these new advanced bins heading to Gisborne is not only that they provide the nationally agreed colours for recycling and waste but they all have signage in Te reo Maori and English,” Leckinger said.

“Almost 80% of people have said that the colours and signage make the bins easier to use and over the past three years, we have counted litter and monitored the impact of the new bins so we are seeing a measurable decrease in litter.”

In a National Litter Field Count conducted in May 2018 by Waste Not Consulting, an average of 19.5 items of litter per 1000m2 was counted in Gisborne, compared to the national average of 30.5 items.

Mayor Rehette Stoltz says while Gisborne has a better than average litter record, there’s always room for improvement.

“It’s great to see smart technology being used to reduce litter. We will be monitoring the data and utilizing the routing technology to minimize servicing costs. I support the ‘Let’s Put Litter in its Place’ campaign and I’m pledging to Be a Tidy Kiwi and Put Litter in its Place. I’d like to see other kiwis doing the same,” said Mayor Rehette.

The campaign to take more colour coded bins into the regions has been developed by The Packaging Forum which promotes recycling under the Government’s Love NZ brand and The Auckland Litter Prevention Steering Group which manages the Be a Tidy Kiwi brand. The campaign is also supported by many councils around the country, the New Zealand Transport Agency and KiwiRail.

The installation of these bins follows the successful implementation of the technology over the past three years around the country. The campaign has also been supported by the Government, the Prime Minister and a number of celebrities (www.bandtogether.co.nz).

The $2.4 million project has received $1.72 million funding from The Government’s Waste Minimisation Fund with a national advertising and consumer awareness campaign “Let’s put litter in its place – it’s just how we do things around here,” supporting this investment in infrastructure.