What's in our rubbish?

At an Ordinary Council Meeting on 21 April 2026, Council received the Solid Waste Analysis Protocol (SWAP) Audit 2025 report following a kerbside rubbish audit in November 2025. The last SWAP was completed in 2022.

The audit looked at the contents of 159 red rubbish bins from across the Waimate District over a three-day period to understand what we’re throwing away that could be diverted from landfill.

Here are the key areas where we can improve:

• Food scraps, garden waste and other organic material made up 33.5% of the total kerbside rubbish. While this is down from 40.1% in 2022, 26.1% was material that can go in the green organics bin.
• Plastics accounted for 16.5% of rubbish. Of this, 2.3% was rigid plastics (1, 2 and 5) that can be recycled via the yellow bin, and 8.3% was soft plastics (bags and film) which can’t go in the yellow recycling bin, but can be taken to soft-plastic drop-off points in Oamaru (Woolworths, The Warehouse, Waitaki Resource Centre).
• Batteries are still ending up in bins. The audit found 117 batteries in the sample, indicating around 927 per week may be incorrectly disposed of. Batteries pose a fire risk – free drop off is available at the Waimate Resource Recovery Park.
• Paper made up 7.6% of rubbish, with 3.5% recyclable via the yellow bin (such as clean and flattened newspaper, office paper, envelopes, magazines and cardboard).
• Metals made up 4.8% of total kerbside rubbish, with 1.3% recyclable via the yellow bin (steel and aluminium cans). Scrap metal can also be dropped off at the Waimate Resource Recovery Park for free.
• Glass made up 3.4% of rubbish with 2.2% being bottles and jars which can be recycled via the blue crate (rinsed with no lids).

What this means for our district

The audit shows that 35.5% of total kerbside rubbish could potentially be diverted from landfill, equating to 4.58 tonnes per week.

We’ve made positive progress but there are still clear opportunities for improvement. Making full use of the green organics bin, yellow recycling bin and blue glass crate, and using battery and e-waste drop-off points helps conserve natural resources, reduce methane emissions and lower disposal costs. These savings flow through to rates.