Greasy pizza boxes, broken wine glasses, old TVs or computer, what can and can't be recycled
The amount of waste Kiwis produce spikes during the holiday season and when it comes to where we're throwing it all, many of us are getting it very wrong. "The latest we had was a samurai sword in the recycling bin and prosthetic limbs." said Parul Sood, General Manager of Solid Waste at Auckland Council. Auckland's waste increases by around 9 percent over the holiday period but when it comes to recycling, some of us are just being lazy. "If you're putting nappies and food waste in your bin, clearly that's not meant to be there." Ms Sood said.
Much of what ends up in our bins is "wishcycling", which is throwing unsuitable material into recycling bins and hoping it'll avoid the landfill. "Where you've put an X Box console in thinking someone might use it, but it can create a fire - and that entire truckload, if it's got fire, has to be dumped in a landfill." The message from Auckland Council is clear - your recycling bin is for clean household packaging only. Bottles that can be recyclable should be rinsed. In Auckland, the lid should be left on, but some councils prefer the lid off. If you can, it's best to take the label off the item you are recycling, but processing plants can remove the labels too. Pizza boxes can be recycled, even if there is grease present. "You just need to check there's no food, no cheese, grease is fine." Household items like broken wine glasses and plastics that aren't part of food packaging, can't go in your home recycling bin. But some of these items can be recycled elsewhere. Go Recycle in west Auckland, will even pay you for it. It's owner, Toni Moros will take toasters, microwaves, fridges and freezers. "Metal in particular, pots and pans, car batteries that contain lead. We pay for that sort of stuff." Ms Moros says. You can even get rid of your old computers and cellphones for free. "All the time we get people coming in asking what we can recycle and there's a lot of people surprised by what we do take." she says. So there are other options to avoid nasty surprises for those emptying your bins.
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Poll: Should the government levy industries that contribute to financial hardship?
As reported in the Post, there’s a $30 million funding gap in financial mentoring. This has led to services closing and mentors stepping in unpaid just to keep helping people in need 🪙💰🪙
One proposed solution? Small levies on industries that profit from financial hardship — like banks, casinos, and similar companies.
So we want to hear what you think:
Should the government ask these industries to contribute?
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59.5% Yes, supporting people is important!
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25.9% No, individuals should take responsibility
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14.6% ... It is complicated
Dry cleaners mt Roskill
Hello our fellow neighbors I was hoping someone would know where the old dry cleaners we had up at the lights on dominion road have moved to?? I was out of town and when I came back they were gone .... I had some items that I would really love to get back but if only I new where they moved to or how to get In Touch with the owners to see what they did with our clothes if they closed down or moved elsewhere? Any updates or news about it would be amazing neighbors. Have a great day
Even Australians get it - so why not Kiwis???
“Ten years ago, if a heatwave as intense as last week’s record-breaker had hit the east coast, Australia’s power supply may well have buckled. But this time, the system largely operated as we needed, despite some outages.
On Australia’s main grid last quarter, renewables and energy storage contributed more than 50% of supplied electricity for the first time, while wholesale power prices were more than 40% lower than a year earlier.
[…] shifting demand from gas and coal for power and petrol for cars is likely to deliver significantly lower energy bills for households.
Last quarter, wind generation was up almost 30%, grid solar 15% and grid-scale batteries almost tripled their output. Gas generation fell 27% to its lowest level for a quarter century, while coal fell 4.6% to its lowest quarterly level ever.
Gas has long been the most expensive way to produce power. Gas peaking plants tend to fire up only when supply struggles to meet demand and power prices soar. Less demand for gas has flowed through to lower wholesale prices.”
Full article: www.theguardian.com...
If even Australians see the benefit of solar - then why is NZ actively boycotting solar uptake? The increased line rental for electricity was done to make solar less competitive and prevent cost per kWh to rise even more than it did - and electricity costs are expected to rise even more. Especially as National favours gas - which is the most expensive form of generating electricity. Which in turn will accelerate Climate Change, as if New Zealand didn’t have enough problems with droughts, floods, slips, etc. already.
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