September 13, 2024 • 8 mins
After recycling was standardised in February, many people are still unaware they can't put any caps or lids in their curbside recycling bins.
A new scheme has recently launched, allowing people to bring their caps and lids into participating supermarkets to be properly recycled.
Kate ‘Ethically Kate’ Hall joined Jack Tame to give a refresher on recycling, and a bit of advice in how to make it easier.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
You're listening to the Saturday Morning with Jack Team podcast
from News Talks, that'd be time to get.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
You up with our sustainability commentator Kate Hall killeder whatever.
So back in February. It was February a that they
introduced the changes to recycling, the standardization of recycling around
the country, which I think was only about thirty years
too late, Like it just seemed like one of those
incredibly obvious and rational things that they could have done
(00:35):
to make life a little bit easier so that you
didn't have different recycling standards in different parts of New Zealand.
But when they changed, they changed the recycling standards in February,
I reckon a lot of people, and I will be honest,
including people in my household, might have been a little
bit confused about some of the things that you can
and can't recycle anymore. And I was asking people before
eleven o'clock can you recycle an ice cream container let?
(00:58):
And of course the answer is.
Speaker 3 (01:01):
No, you cannot put that on your curb side recycling,
but it can be recycled, but you can put it
in your curb side respect.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
I reckon. I reckon A majority said yes. I think
most people know that you can't recycle a milk bottle lid.
I would hope they do, so you know that one
I reckon a majority would say you couldn't recycle a
milk bottle lid, and they'd be right there. But I
reckon a majority would say that you could recycle an
(01:28):
ice cream container lid because it feels like it's made
of the same stuff as the ice cream container itself,
don't you.
Speaker 3 (01:33):
Well, totally, and even with milk bottle lids, you can
recycle those lids.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
I think it's curb side curbside.
Speaker 3 (01:42):
Curbs And we know. The reason why we can't put
the lids in is because you know, those little tiny lids,
if there's hundreds of thousands of them, they get caught
in the recycling sorting machines. That's one of the main reasons,
you know, why we can't put lids in there, so
that when people look at the ice cream container lid,
they're like, well, that's quite big. Yeah, it's not a
(02:03):
little milk bottle top lid. However, the sorting machines often
mistake those flack ice can container lids with paper and
so they end up contaminating the paper sauce. So it's
less about you know, what can and can't be recycled,
and it's more we're dealing with a mixed curb side
recycling scheme, which really isn't that isn't that great? Yeah,
(02:29):
but you know, that's what we're dealing with, and so
therefore we can't put everything into that curb side recycling bend.
There are the places that we can publis.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
Fifty five years since we put human beings on the moon, right,
and that's amazing when we send like tourists to space
these days, we have commercial engines going up to the
International Space Station, and yet we apparently can't design a
machine that won't get confused about an ice can container lid.
Speaker 3 (02:56):
I'm thinking.
Speaker 2 (02:59):
There, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, maybe I'll make a difference.
Speaker 3 (03:03):
It's tricky, but okay.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
But to your point, I'm being misleading when I say
you can't recycle them, because you can recycle them, you
just can't put them in your curb side recycling. So
what can you do with your milk bottle lids and
your ice creaming Daynalds.
Speaker 3 (03:18):
So literally, just in the last week or two, we
now have a caps and lids recycling scheme that the
Packaging Forum have launched, and yeah, is really good and
I think will actually help a lot of people go oh,
I actually can't put those in my recycling will have
less contamination in the recyclingments, which would be awesome. So
(03:39):
essentially that means at different drop off points, which are
a lot of new worlds and packing shaves. You can
find kind of your locust local place to drop them
off online, but you'll see it often. Decide where the
soft plastics is. There will be two other boxes and
one of them will be for metal lids, and one
of them will be for your plastic lids and so
(04:02):
container lids, milk bottle caps, you know it's coke bottle caps,
anything like that. You can put those lids in if
they are clean and they are dry.
Speaker 2 (04:13):
Right, Okay, yeah, that's cool. That's important too. Yeah, right.
So it just means another like sorting system at home.
And I know that I know that in the hall
household you have all sorts of exquisite and well considered
sorting systems. But for those of us who perhaps haven't
maybe made the kind of progress you have on the
recycling front, what would be an easy way just to
(04:35):
set up a system at home whereby you're saving these
things and then taking them in.
Speaker 3 (04:39):
So we have been recycling our caps and lids since
you know, forever, because we've been taking them to our
local recycling center. Now it's just going to be easier
because there's more drop off points. So we have a
askin container that is under the sink, and that's where
we put all our lids in. So yeah, any lids, literally,
(05:00):
any lids that goes on top, no matter what it
looks like, it's made of plastic or messil, we put
it into that container. Yeah, so just like people do
with the soft recycling, they take it to the supermarket
or you know, put it in your car, and leads
are really literally small, and so to be honest, even
though we've been taking that to the recycle center, I've
(05:21):
probably only had to do it. We obviously were trying
to try to reduce.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
Probably use it anyway.
Speaker 3 (05:31):
Yeah, not that Actually I do.
Speaker 1 (05:34):
Have a.
Speaker 3 (05:36):
Guilt, but I'm only Yeah, we've probably only had to
drop that off, you know, like once, So it's quite
good because they are small. I know that sounds like
a big deal to have another container there, but if
you think, let's go in there and you know, put
a label on it. If you have lots of people
in your home, tell them about this, you know, let
(05:57):
them know and let them know why they shouldn't put
it in the recycling because in the recycling just refresher
course number one, two and five plastics again, clean and dry,
and if they don't have a one, two or five,
do not wish cycle them into your recycling. Them is
just going to cause havoc. And you can put paper
(06:17):
in as long as it's bigger than an envelope kind
of rough size. So yeah, you have one ben for
your recycling, one bene for your caps and lids, and
you can really really good that they are going to
the right place and you're not kind of yeah, messing
up all of all the recycling systems, especially since you know,
we now have this standardized scheme, which means hopefully we
(06:38):
can actually be recycling more because our curb side bins
aren't so full of the wrong stuff.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
So okay, I'm just going to reiterate that one more time, one,
two and five that's what you can recycle, and give
give us the spiel, give us the line again on
trying not to use the stuff in the first place,
because that's probably the most important message.
Speaker 3 (06:57):
Well it is. I really I'm always here the tent
to talk about recycling, to be honest, because people ask
me a lot about it where they say, oh, you'd
be so proud of me, Am, I recycled them full,
and like, that's great that we've had these recycling schemes.
It's great that we've got this new caps and lid scheme,
but it needs to be the last resort, so we
(07:17):
need to focus on reducing it from the get go.
You know our return schemes. Actually my local New World
and Fong Flower they now have the Ballavaca glass bottle
return scheme. So instead of putting that glass bodel or
you know, a plastic bottle into your recycling bin, I
actually bring that glass bottle back to New World, pick
up the full one, and I get six dollars off
(07:40):
six bucks. Yeah, because I've paid for six dollars for
that first one. Yeah, I paid six dollars for that bottle,
and so then when I return it, yeah, So schemes
like that are awesome. So we need to be focusing
on supporting those reuse schemes, thinking about how can I
actually reduce the amount of recycling I have, and yeah,
(08:00):
using and enjoying the recycling schemes properly, but just holding
less kind of importance on recycling. I think we'd all
do much better off.
Speaker 2 (08:09):
Great message as per, Thank you so much, Kate. You
can find Kate of course on all of the social
media platforms to search ethically Kate, and I'm going to
give you that website once again. So this is the
website if you want to find out where you can
go and recycle caps and lids. It's Caps Lids dot,
Recycling dot Kiwi dot NZ. And if you don't think
you can remember that you haven't scribbled it down, don't stress.
(08:32):
We we'll make sure that that website's up on the
News Talks he'd be website as well, so you can
go and follow it through there for.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
More from Saturday Morning with Jack Tame. Listen live to
News Talks dB from nine am Saturday, or follow the
podcast on iHeartRadio
You're listening to the Saturday Morning with Jack Team podcast
from News Talks, that'd be time to get.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
You up with our sustainability commentator Kate Hall killeder whatever.
So back in February. It was February a that they
introduced the changes to recycling, the standardization of recycling around
the country, which I think was only about thirty years
too late, Like it just seemed like one of those
incredibly obvious and rational things that they could have done
(00:35):
to make life a little bit easier so that you
didn't have different recycling standards in different parts of New Zealand.
But when they changed, they changed the recycling standards in February,
I reckon a lot of people, and I will be honest,
including people in my household, might have been a little
bit confused about some of the things that you can
and can't recycle anymore. And I was asking people before
eleven o'clock can you recycle an ice cream container let?
(00:58):
And of course the answer is.
Speaker 3 (01:01):
No, you cannot put that on your curb side recycling,
but it can be recycled, but you can put it
in your curb side respect.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
I reckon. I reckon A majority said yes. I think
most people know that you can't recycle a milk bottle lid.
I would hope they do, so you know that one
I reckon a majority would say you couldn't recycle a
milk bottle lid, and they'd be right there. But I
reckon a majority would say that you could recycle an
(01:28):
ice cream container lid because it feels like it's made
of the same stuff as the ice cream container itself,
don't you.
Speaker 3 (01:33):
Well, totally, and even with milk bottle lids, you can
recycle those lids.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
I think it's curb side curbside.
Speaker 3 (01:42):
Curbs And we know. The reason why we can't put
the lids in is because you know, those little tiny lids,
if there's hundreds of thousands of them, they get caught
in the recycling sorting machines. That's one of the main reasons,
you know, why we can't put lids in there, so
that when people look at the ice cream container lid,
they're like, well, that's quite big. Yeah, it's not a
(02:03):
little milk bottle top lid. However, the sorting machines often
mistake those flack ice can container lids with paper and
so they end up contaminating the paper sauce. So it's
less about you know, what can and can't be recycled,
and it's more we're dealing with a mixed curb side
recycling scheme, which really isn't that isn't that great? Yeah,
(02:29):
but you know, that's what we're dealing with, and so
therefore we can't put everything into that curb side recycling bend.
There are the places that we can publis.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
Fifty five years since we put human beings on the moon, right,
and that's amazing when we send like tourists to space
these days, we have commercial engines going up to the
International Space Station, and yet we apparently can't design a
machine that won't get confused about an ice can container lid.
Speaker 3 (02:56):
I'm thinking.
Speaker 2 (02:59):
There, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, maybe I'll make a difference.
Speaker 3 (03:03):
It's tricky, but okay.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
But to your point, I'm being misleading when I say
you can't recycle them, because you can recycle them, you
just can't put them in your curb side recycling. So
what can you do with your milk bottle lids and
your ice creaming Daynalds.
Speaker 3 (03:18):
So literally, just in the last week or two, we
now have a caps and lids recycling scheme that the
Packaging Forum have launched, and yeah, is really good and
I think will actually help a lot of people go oh,
I actually can't put those in my recycling will have
less contamination in the recyclingments, which would be awesome. So
(03:39):
essentially that means at different drop off points, which are
a lot of new worlds and packing shaves. You can
find kind of your locust local place to drop them
off online, but you'll see it often. Decide where the
soft plastics is. There will be two other boxes and
one of them will be for metal lids, and one
of them will be for your plastic lids and so
(04:02):
container lids, milk bottle caps, you know it's coke bottle caps,
anything like that. You can put those lids in if
they are clean and they are dry.
Speaker 2 (04:13):
Right, Okay, yeah, that's cool. That's important too. Yeah, right.
So it just means another like sorting system at home.
And I know that I know that in the hall
household you have all sorts of exquisite and well considered
sorting systems. But for those of us who perhaps haven't
maybe made the kind of progress you have on the
recycling front, what would be an easy way just to
(04:35):
set up a system at home whereby you're saving these
things and then taking them in.
Speaker 3 (04:39):
So we have been recycling our caps and lids since
you know, forever, because we've been taking them to our
local recycling center. Now it's just going to be easier
because there's more drop off points. So we have a
askin container that is under the sink, and that's where
we put all our lids in. So yeah, any lids, literally,
(05:00):
any lids that goes on top, no matter what it
looks like, it's made of plastic or messil, we put
it into that container. Yeah, so just like people do
with the soft recycling, they take it to the supermarket
or you know, put it in your car, and leads
are really literally small, and so to be honest, even
though we've been taking that to the recycle center, I've
(05:21):
probably only had to do it. We obviously were trying
to try to reduce.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
Probably use it anyway.
Speaker 3 (05:31):
Yeah, not that Actually I do.
Speaker 1 (05:34):
Have a.
Speaker 3 (05:36):
Guilt, but I'm only Yeah, we've probably only had to
drop that off, you know, like once, So it's quite
good because they are small. I know that sounds like
a big deal to have another container there, but if
you think, let's go in there and you know, put
a label on it. If you have lots of people
in your home, tell them about this, you know, let
(05:57):
them know and let them know why they shouldn't put
it in the recycling because in the recycling just refresher
course number one, two and five plastics again, clean and dry,
and if they don't have a one, two or five,
do not wish cycle them into your recycling. Them is
just going to cause havoc. And you can put paper
(06:17):
in as long as it's bigger than an envelope kind
of rough size. So yeah, you have one ben for
your recycling, one bene for your caps and lids, and
you can really really good that they are going to
the right place and you're not kind of yeah, messing
up all of all the recycling systems, especially since you know,
we now have this standardized scheme, which means hopefully we
(06:38):
can actually be recycling more because our curb side bins
aren't so full of the wrong stuff.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
So okay, I'm just going to reiterate that one more time, one,
two and five that's what you can recycle, and give
give us the spiel, give us the line again on
trying not to use the stuff in the first place,
because that's probably the most important message.
Speaker 3 (06:57):
Well it is. I really I'm always here the tent
to talk about recycling, to be honest, because people ask
me a lot about it where they say, oh, you'd
be so proud of me, Am, I recycled them full,
and like, that's great that we've had these recycling schemes.
It's great that we've got this new caps and lid scheme,
but it needs to be the last resort, so we
(07:17):
need to focus on reducing it from the get go.
You know our return schemes. Actually my local New World
and Fong Flower they now have the Ballavaca glass bottle
return scheme. So instead of putting that glass bodel or
you know, a plastic bottle into your recycling bin, I
actually bring that glass bottle back to New World, pick
up the full one, and I get six dollars off
(07:40):
six bucks. Yeah, because I've paid for six dollars for
that first one. Yeah, I paid six dollars for that bottle,
and so then when I return it, yeah, So schemes
like that are awesome. So we need to be focusing
on supporting those reuse schemes, thinking about how can I
actually reduce the amount of recycling I have, and yeah,
(08:00):
using and enjoying the recycling schemes properly, but just holding
less kind of importance on recycling. I think we'd all
do much better off.
Speaker 2 (08:09):
Great message as per, Thank you so much, Kate. You
can find Kate of course on all of the social
media platforms to search ethically Kate, and I'm going to
give you that website once again. So this is the
website if you want to find out where you can
go and recycle caps and lids. It's Caps Lids dot,
Recycling dot Kiwi dot NZ. And if you don't think
you can remember that you haven't scribbled it down, don't stress.
(08:32):
We we'll make sure that that website's up on the
News Talks he'd be website as well, so you can
go and follow it through there for.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
More from Saturday Morning with Jack Tame. Listen live to
News Talks dB from nine am Saturday, or follow the
podcast on iHeartRadio
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