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Recycling & Refuse

The Buller district is divided into three zones for recycling and refuse. Zone One covers Westport, the areas from Westport to the Mokihinui Bridge, Westport to Punakaiki, Westport to Reefton including Blacks Point, and Reefton to Ikamatua.

Zone Two is the Karamea area, from north of the Mokihinui Bridge.

Zone Three is beyond Blacks Point including Springs Junction and Maruia.

Zone One

Zone One is a contracted approach, carried out by Smart Environmental Limited, which operates as follows:

Each eligible property has a 60 litre crate for glass recycling which is collected fortnightly.
Each eligible property has a 240 litre wheelie bin for all other recycling that is also collected fortnightly.
Refuse is collected weekly, all refuse needs to be in official Council bags.

To contact Smart Environmental Limited, please phone 03 789 6427 or visit their website www.smartenvironmental.co.nz.

The wheelie bin is for the majority of your recycling. All eligible items go straight into the bin, we no longer need you to seperate items and put them in plastic shopping bags. These shopping bags are not eligible for recycling, and need to be disposed of as refuse. Please see below for the full list of what can and can not be recycled.

The best way to improve our recycling system is following the three “R” model reduce, reuse, and recycle.

Reducing waste in the first place by saying no to unnecessary single – use items, making sound purchase decisions and avoiding materials that cannot be recycled. For example, refusing plastic straws, avoiding takeaways containers or enjoy dine-in are good practices to reduce waste.

Reusing items that can be reused like spray bottles, using reusable takeaway containers, using a reusable bottle water, using containers for storing food, purchasing bulk food without unnecessary packaging or taking your own container to the supermarket. It can include making your own biscuits and crackers, sauces, yogurt or cream cheese and making compost at home or workplace with the food waste scraps.

Recycling material properly by following the rules of our local recycling system, so that, all materials are of a clean and adequate quality allowing them to be recycled and re-used inside the country, rather than having to be sent overseas.

Kerbside Collection day

Your wheelie bin has a label on the side like the image below. This label has your address on it, a bin number – as all bins are registered to the address not the people, and the day & week of your collection. Therefore as per the label example below, this person’s refuse collection day would be every Tuesday, and their recycling would be collected on Tuesdays that are week 1. All bins received an information pack that included a recycling calendar, this is what you use to establish when to put your recycling out for collection. So if you are Tuesdays and recycling is on week 1 then you put your recycling bins out on Tuesday 2 February 2021. The next time you put your bin out for collection is then Tuesday 23 February 2021, and so on in a fortnightly pattern.

*Please note that both sides of Brougham Street in Westport are now collected on Mondays. Recycling collection in the week 1 and week 2 pattern remains the same.

If you need a recycling calendar, please click below or you can collect from Council Offices in Westport or Reefton.

2019 – 2020 Recycling Calendar (267Kb)
2019-2020-Recycling Calendar-A4(196Kb)
Bin Placement Guide (243Kb)

Refuse Bag Stockists (360Kb)

Transfer Stations

Westport Hours:		Reefton Hours:
Days	Times	Days	Times
Monday, Wednesday, Friday	9.00 am-4.00 pm	Tuesday & Thursday	1.00pm - 4.00pm
Tuesday and Thursday	CLOSED
Saturday	9.00 am - 4.00 pm	Saturday & Sunday	1.00pm - 4.00pm
Sunday	9.00 am - 1.00 pm
All Public Holidays	CLOSED	All Public Holidays	CLOSED