Clutha will be the first district in New Zealand to use wheelie bins made from waste milk bottles when its new recycling scheme begins next month.
About 23,000 tonnes of empty, used milk bottles are collected annually in New Zealand, and an Auckland-based company is using some of them to create "mobile garbage bins".
The Clutha District Council has taken delivery of 6000 bins, which are made of up to 65% re-constituted waste plastic from discarded milk bottles.
The council is introducing the bins as part of its new kerbside recycling scheme, which takes effect in April.
The technology was developed by a partnership between the Government, Sulo Talbot who manufactures the bins, The Plastics Centre of Excellence at University of Auckland, and Clariant New Zealand, a multi-national company specialising in plastics and polymers.
Clutha Mayor Bryan Cadogan said the council was thrilled residents would be the first in the country to use the new bins.
"It sends a powerful message to our community that recycling is more than just a feel-good service. What better way to recycle than in a recycled bin," he said.
When the council's new solid-waste contract begins next month it introduces a fortnightly kerbside recycling and rubbish collection. The new yellow-lidded wheelie bin for recyclables will be collected one week, and the existing green-lidded wheelie bin for household rubbish the following week.
The council's solid-waste management provider Delta is in the final stages of distributing the bins to households throughout the district.
