Coat hangers and takeaway cups found in Porirua’s recycling
An audit of Porirua’s recycling has confirmed contamination is occurring regularly.
This month, recycling ambassadors have been out around the city on recycling days in their electric vehicle. During the first two weeks of inspections, four collection days exceeded the 14 per cent contamination threshold, meaning that recycling load must go to the landfill. The highest day of contamination was 33 per cent.
So far a total of 3773 bins have been inspected and 13 per cent of those were contaminated.
The recycling ambassadors will continue to check recycling as the start of Porirua’s 3-Strikes Process nears on 28 February – once this begins, if we find non-recyclable or contaminated items in your bin, you’ll get a warning sticker. If you receive two warning stickers and a red card, you could lose your bin.
The main problem reported by the ambassadors is general household rubbish all mixed in together, Porirua’s Manager Water & Waste, David Down, said. “Nearly two-thirds of the contaminated recycling bins found during the audit so far has general household items in it, such as takeaway and coffee containers, polystyrene, plastic food containers, dirty nappies, tissues and food wrappers,” he said.
“We’ve also had really odd items like basketballs, coat hangers, handbags and chipboard. Things like this mean that other potentially valuable recycling material is ending up in the landfill.”
A common mistake is leaving lids on bottles.
“Please, remember to remove your lids from all plastic and glass bottles and jars. Anything smaller than a credit card can’t be recycled – it is too small to be processed correctly,” Mr Down said.
It is important Porirua gets its recycling right, so we have sent flyers to all Porirua residents, explaining the 3-Strikes Process in detail. There is also a short video on our website explaining how to recycle correctly, and you can always ring our contact centre on 04 237 5089 to ask questions.
Similar initiatives are occurring in other cities, including Hamilton, Christchurch and Dunedin
⚠️ DOGS DIE IN HOT CARS. If you love them, don't leave them. ⚠️
It's a message we share time and time again, and this year, we're calling on you to help us spread that message further.
Did you know that calls to SPCA about dogs left inside hot cars made up a whopping 11% of all welfare calls last summer? This is a completely preventable issue, and one which is causing hundreds of dogs (often loved pets) to suffer.
Here are some quick facts to share with the dog owners in your life:
👉 The temperature inside a car can heat to over 50°C in less than 15 minutes.
👉 Parking in the shade and cracking windows does little to help on a warm day. Dogs rely on panting to keep cool, which they can't do in a hot car.
👉 This puts dogs at a high risk of heatstroke - a serious condition for dogs, with a mortality rate between 39%-50%.
👉 It is an offence under the Animal Welfare Act to leave a dog in a hot vehicle if they are showing signs of heat stress. You can be fined, and prosecuted.
SPCA has created downloadable resources to help you spread the message even further. Posters, a flyer, and a social media tile can be downloaded from our website here: www.spca.nz...
We encourage you to use these - and ask your local businesses to display the posters if they can. Flyers can be kept in your car and handed out as needed.
This is a community problem, and one we cannot solve alone. Help us to prevent more tragedies this summer by sharing this post.
On behalf of the animals - thank you ❤️
Poll: Would you rather: Christmas in summer forever or winter forever?
Just a bit of a fun poll to get you thinking.
If you had to live out your Christmas days, would you prefer it was a summer Christmas or a winter Christmas?
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62% Summer
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36.5% Winter
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1.5% Other - I'll share below
Worst Xmas ever?
There's a a lot of planning that goes into Christmas day and sometimes things just don't go to plan. But it can be a good thing - a family mishap or hilarious memory that you can laugh about in Christmases to come.
Whether you burnt the dinner or were stranded at an airport...
Share your Christmas mishaps below!
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