Whero is red for rubbish
Published on 09 December 2021
Keep an eye out for our new whero rubbish bags — they're on shelves soon!
We're refreshing the look of our rubbish collection service to bring it in line with national waste minimisation brand guidelines.
This should make it easier for locals and tourists to know what item goes in which bin – reducing unnecessary items ending up in landfill.
These items are being phased in as stock is replaced, which means there is no cost to ratepayers.
So, what's new?
- You'll notice red rubbish bags being sold at retailers across Palmy from now
- Red bags are the same size and cost
- Green rubbish bags will still be collected
- Te reo translations are on your red bags
How are these changes being rolled out?
The national guidelines mean you'll start associating a colour with a type of item:
- Whero/red = para/rubbish
- Karaka/orange = karaehe/recycling
- Kahurangi/blue= hangarua karaehe/glass recycling
We are also excited to strengthen the use of te reo in our city by making our waste services bilingual.
Four trucks hit the streets with their new look in September, including two recycling trucks and two rubbish trucks.
The recycling trucks remain orange and will continue to pick up recycling in your orange wheelie bin.
Rubbish trucks are red, with one side branded in English and the other side in te reo.
Two blue bilingual glass trucks are also joining our fleet, with blue glass crates to be rolled out to new-build properties or when replacements are needed.
We will continue to accept the green bags for some months.
Future of our rubbish services
These changes are being introduced as upgrades to our fleet are required or when we order new stock.
Bins and crates will only be replaced for genuine reasons, but not because someone prefers the new colour. Wheelie bins and crates have an expected lifetime of about 15 years, which provides some indication as to how long these changes will take to come into effect across the city.
We understand some residents prefer wheelie rubbish bins, but please know that rubbish bags reduce the amount of waste going to landfill.
This is because the average Council rubbish bag we collect weighs 7kg, compared to 20kg for a 240 litre commercial rubbish wheelie bin. Forty-four per cent of the contents in a Council bag is rubbish, compared to 29% in a rubbish wheelie bin.
The remainder of these bags is recycling, food and green waste that we don't want to see going to landfill.
We're proud to be an eco-city and we want to make it easier for everyone to do the right thing when disposing of waste.