The Council is trialing soft plastic packaging and battery recycling in collaboration with The Soft Plastics Recycling Scheme, Ā Mua, Upcycle and Earthcare Environmental.

Council soft plastics collection bins are now in place at the recycling stations in Featherston and Greytown, the Martinborough transfer station, and at the Ā Mua reuse centre in Featherston.

As soft plastics are not able to be collected from kerbside collections at present, this is the next best thing.

Soft plastics include bread bags, fresh produce, packaging for toilet paper, cereals, courier packs, lightly foiled packs, biscuit and chippie packets, bubble wrap, garden potting mix bags, dry pet food bags – basically, anything that can be scrunched into a ball.

Please note the transfer stations do not accept compostable or plant-based plastics.

A free battery recycling scheme will also begin shortly in South Wairarapa, in collaboration with e-waste recycler Upcycle (www.upcycle.co.nz).

This is great news for the environment, given the damage leaking batteries do to our soil and water.

Battery buckets are being placed at each of our recycling stations and Ā Mua for small household batteries from devices like TV remote controls, torches or hearing aids.

Car batteries or damaged batteries are not accepted. A full list of what is acceptable will be at the drop-off sites and on our website recycling page. You can also find instructions on taping the top of lithium and lead acid batteries to avoid short circuits.

The end use for soft plastics and batteries through the recycling process is exciting. Each full soft plastics bin makes one fencepost, bollard, or vegetable garden post made by Kiwi company, Future Post, and components from the batteries will be separated for re-use, recovery, and re-processing.

Both trials will run for a year, but we hope to move forward as a community and make South Wairarapa a leading region for waste reduction and environmental sustainability.