Photo: Supplied / Auckland Council
Sue Coutts' name has been corrected in this story.
Plans to standardise recycling have been delayed, as the cost of change is too high for some councils.
From February, almost everyone will be putting the same things in their recycling bin - paper, glass, and plastic types 1, 2, and 5.
Standardising recycling is the first step towards a new waste strategy announced by the Labour Government last year.
The Ministry for the Environment said the changes aim to make messaging about recycling clearer, as right now, no one material is collected by every council.
All councils were originally required to accept the same materials in kerbside collection from next month.
Four councils, unable to meet the deadline, have until 2027 - so standard recycling across New Zealand will have to wait.
Zero Waste Network advocate Sue Coutts says standardising recycling enables people and businesses to make the right choice.
"It means that people who are buying packaging, whether it's a household or a small business, know what's recyclable and what's not recyclable.
"At the moment, there's a lot of mystery about what's actually recyclable, and it's very difficult for people to tell whether you can recycle it in New Zealand or not."
Coutts said the change will ensure cleaner materials come to recyclers, improving efficiency.
"If you look at the sort line at a recycling centre, the main things that are coming through are the 1's, 2's and 5's, so it's a lot more effective to do a good job of recycling the main things that are coming through."
The Ministry for the Environment said standardising recycling means an extra 36,000 tonnes of waste will be recycled each year.
But, for some councils, changing recycling infrastructure was a big task.
Clutha, Hurunui, and Westland District Councils have until 2027 to add glass to their collection, while Gore District Council needs to add paper and plastic.
Eight other councils do not have a kerbside collection at all - and the new government has not yet decided whether those councils will be required to provide kerbside recycling by 2027, the ministry said.
Gore District Council manger of critical services Jason Domigan said Gore decided to only accept glass in 2020, for the same reasons now used for standardising recycling.
"There hadn't been a lot of direction, there was inconsistent recycling processes across the country. Depending on what district you were in, what you can recycle was different and confusing for people."
That complexity meant the council decided it wasn't worth continuing to offer recycling for mixed paper and plastics, he said.
A plan to introduce a three-bin system for recycling and rubbish was deferred by the council last year because of the cost, he said.
"Councils around the country are facing significant challenges around increasing costs, and the council, through last years annual plan, decided that they couldn't afford to put that additional cost on the ratepayer at that time."
'Keeping it simple is good'
Auckland City Council manager of waste solutions Parul Sood said Auckland's recycling list was slightly smaller - it was no longer accepting all types of plastics, tetrapacks, or aresol cans.
Despite that, Sood said the change is a good one that will lessen confusion.
"Keeping it simple is helpful as well, isn't it? We can get confused with, 'oh my god, does this go in? Does this not go in?' So just keeping it simple is good, and I think if you are in doubt, leave it out.
"Some parts of the country had lids off or lins on, then the different types of plastic, tetrapacks in or out, so now that it's all the same and all of us are saying the same thing, it will help with that confusion."
Sood said harder to recycle plastics, while no longer accepted for kerbside collection, were on their way to being banned anyway.
Sue Coutts said ultimately, recycling should be the last resort to reduce waste.
"If recycling is the answer, then we're asking the wrong question.
"You want to be thinking about reuse before recycling, and you also want to be thinking about whether you really needed to buy it or package it in that way in the first place."
Recycling is still a mystery for some people, she said.
"They're not really confident that it works, they don't trust the system.
"That's one of the things that this change will do - it gives everyone a consistent standard."