What can go into your Council rubbish bags?

Do you accept the challenge? All waste, even recycled materials, will have an impact on our environment. Let’s produce as little rubbish as possible. This “What Goes Where” for rubbish and recycling will help you make sure that your household waste products end up where they need to.

What should go in to your Council rubbish bag

Some items cannot be recycled and will need to be disposed of appropriately. Below are some examples of items that can go in your Horowhenua District Council rubbish bag:

• Food waste: Currently there are no food waste collection services in Horowhenua. Food scraps can be home composted, placed in a worm farm, or disposed of through our Council Kerbside Rubbish Collection service. Our Food Waste Minimisation page contains some helpful resources for those interested in reducing their food waste.
• Number 3 plastics: Clear food wrap, shower curtains, PVC pipes
• Number 4 plastics: Coloured sauce bottles, squeezy bottles, bread bags, other plastic wraps
• Number 6 plastics: Small yoghurt / dairy pottles, disposable cups, food containers, polystyrene packaging
• Number 7 plastics: Sports bottles, baby bottles, some car parts, medical & dental equipment
• Clothing and shoes (poor condition, wet, stained, torn)
• Crockery and cutlery (poor condition, broken)
• Cardboard that is wet, has food stuck to it, or is coated (such as takeaway coffee cups) cannot be recycled.
• Disposable plates
• Fabric (poor condition, wet, stained, torn)
• Facemasks
• Glass (broken) - wrap in newspaper and place in your Council rubbish bag.
• Light bulb (broken, halogen, incandescent, LED) - wrap in newspaper and place in your Council rubbish bag.
• Makeup
• Mirrored glass - wrap in newspaper and place in your Council rubbish bag.
• Perfume bottles - wrap in newspaper and place in your Council rubbish bag.
• Plastic bags
• Plastic wrap / Gladwrap
• Polystyrene
• Pyrex glass (poor condition, broken) - wrap in newspaper and place in your Council rubbish bag.
• RAT tests 
• Rubbish (household)
• Soft plastics
• Takeaway cups (coffee, soft drinks)
• Tissues / paper towels (used)
• Toys in poor condition (mixed material / wood / hard plastic)
• Videos, CDs and DVDs (poor condition, broken)
• Window glass (broken) - wrap in newspaper and place in your Council rubbish bag.

Please do not put the following in your Council rubbish bag:

• Batteries (Batteries are one of the major causes of landfill fires and need to be disposed of appropriately)
• Fluorescent lights
• Hazardous Waste / Household chemicals
• Items over 10kg

You can find more information about what the plastic recycling numbers mean and how to dispose of them, on our 'What do plastic recycling numbers mean?' page.

Recycling Tips

Waste Tip - Leave small items out of recycling

Keep items smaller than 5cm out of recycling and place in a rubbish bin instead.

Christmas Waste Tip - Wrapping paper

Ditch the traditional ribbons and metallic and shiny paper wrappings. It can’t be recycled and goes to landfill. Use 100% paper wrapping and discard it in your recycle bin. Or choose reusable packaging.

Waste Tip - Don't crush your cans

Squash your can crushing habits! Crushed aluminium drink cans end up in the landfill as recycling processing plant machinery cannot recognise them as recycling.