Palmerston North households invited to take part in bin trial

Published on 17 August 2026

Do you find yourself playing recycling-bin Tetris as collection day gets closer? We want to hear from households that regularly run out of room in their recycling bin.

We're looking for 50 Palmerston North households to trial a bigger 360L recycling bin from mid-September 2026 to the end of January 2027.

Activities Manager of Resource Recovery and Sustainability, Natasha Hickmott, says the trial is about understanding what difference a larger bin could make for households that are already filling their existing 240L bin.

“We know there are households that are keen recyclers but regularly find they’ve run out of space before collection day. For some people that means storing extra recycling until the next collection, making a trip to one of our recycling drop-off points, or sometimes putting recyclable items in the rubbish because there simply isn’t enough room."

“We want to find out whether a larger bin could make recycling easier for those households, and importantly, whether that extra space actually results in more material being recycled.”

If you'd like to take part in the trial, register your interest online by Monday 31 August

Registering doesn’t automatically mean a household will be part of the trial. Fifty households will be selected to provide a good mix of homes and locations from across the city.

“We’re deliberately keeping this as a trial because we want to understand what works before making any decisions about what could happen in the future."

“Having a mix of households involved will give us a much better picture of how larger bins are used in the real world. The feedback from the people taking part will be just as important as the information we collect from their bins.”

Households selected for the trial will receive a 360L recycling bin to use until January 2027.

During the trial, we will monitor things such as how often bins are put out for collection, how full they are and whether they contain contamination.

“We want this to be a practical trial that gives us useful information about people’s recycling habits. If you’re regularly running out of room in your recycling bin, we’d love to hear from you.”

Find out how to register