You can buy official Council rubbish bags at Masterton supermarkets, Moore Wilson, 161 Queen Street, Castlepoint Store and Riversdale Beach Store. Rubbish bags are $4 each and can be purchased in packs of 5 for $20.
Check the side of your wheelie bin to find your collection day. You need to put your bins and bags on the side of the road by 7:30am on your collection day and it will be collected by 4:30pm. If your bins or bags aren’t collected please call the Customer Services team on 06 370 6300.
When a public holiday falls on a collection day, collections for the rest of that week will be a day later. Rubbish normally collected on a Friday will be collected on the Saturday. Details of holiday rubbish collection will always be notified through Antenno and on our Facebook page.
Recycling Collection
Council gives each urban household a green or maroon crate for glass and a green wheelie bin with a yellow lid for all other recycling. Crates and wheelie bins are put out on alternate weeks. You can find your collection day and week by checking the sticker on the side of your bin and referring to the collection calendar (PDF, 117KB), you can find more information about what you can recycle in the kerbside recycling handbook (PDF, 3MB).
If you live in Tinui, Castlepoint or Riversdale your collection will happen on a Monday and you can put out blue MDC rubbish bags and two mixed recycling crates (green and/or maroon) each week including glass, plastic and cardboard.
Transfer Stations
The transfer station is at 1 Nursery Road and accepts household and commercial general waste.
It also accepts hazardous waste like paints, chemicals, vehicle batteries, gas bottles and e-waste in small quantities (not commercial quantities) free of charge. This waste needs to be separated from landfill so you need to let operators in the kiosk know if you have hazardous waste.
All recycling is free but it must be taken to the recycling centre and sorted.
- The Warehouse, Masterton
- Countdown, Masterton
- MDC Transfer Station, Nursey Road
- MDC Transfer Station, Nursery Road
- Wairarapa Resource Centre, King Street, Masterton
What you can bring
Household Rubbish
Electronics
- Laptops, Computers, CD & DVD Players, Routers etc.
Household Appliances and Whiteware
Car Batteries
Household batteries
Soft Plastic
Garden Waste
Paints (Not commercial quantities)
Chemicals (Not commercial quantities)
Gas Bottles
Tyres
Sawdust
Compost
What you can’t bring
Old furniture
Emergency flares
Offal
Flax, bamboo, cabbage tree leaves and ginger root – cannot be taken to greenwaste and must be disposed of as general refuse
Opening Hours
| Castlepoint 19 Jetty Road |
Wednesday Sunday |
09:00am – 12:00am 11:00am – 03:00pm |
| Riversdale 1171 Homewood Road |
Wednesday Sunday Sunday in Dec, Jan & Feb |
1:30pm – 4:30pm 1:30pm – 4:30pm 1:30pm – 7:30pm |
|
Masterton Phone: 06 377 5624 |
Monday to Friday Saturday Sunday + Public Holidays Anzac Day |
7:30am – 4:30pm 8:30am – 4:30pm 10:00am – 4:00pm 01:00pm – 4:30pm |
All Transfer Stations are closed on Christmas Day, New Year’s Day and Good Friday.
Call the Masterton Transfer Station on 06 377 5624.
FAQs
What plastics can I put in my wheelie bin?
Plastics numbered 1-2 and 5 are recyclable and include soft drink bottles, sports bottles, water bottles, milk bottles, cleaning products, and 2-litre ice-cream containers – go ahead and pop these into your wheelie bin. Plastics that have the number 3, 4, 6 or 7 on them are “disposable” plastics, we encourage you to avoid using these plastics in the first place if you can.
Plastics numbered 3, 4, 6 and 7 (disposable) include: yoghurt pots, takeaway grocery bags, squeezable bottles, hard containers, medicine bottles, plastic plates/cutlery. Unfortunately, plastics numbered 3, 4, 6 and 7 are no longer able to be recycled because of changes in the global recycling market.
Wairarapa Councils have been stockpiling plastics that can’t be recycled in the hope a market will open up internationally. Luckily, these types of plastics only make up between 3-5 per cent (based on weight) of what Wairarapa residents put in their recycling bins.
If I fill my glass crate more quickly, can I have more?
You can put out a maximum of two crates every fortnight. You must use official crates which are sturdy and safe for lifting by our contractors. If you find that you are exceeding this amount you can always drop any other recycling off at the Transfer Station free of charge.
What happens if my wheelie bin is damaged or stolen?
Damaged bins will be repaired or replaced by Council, except when obviously damaged by users (such as incorrectly towing it behind a vehicle).
If your wheelie bin is missing or stolen, please contact your council as each bin has a unique ID number that can be scanned to locate it if we find it at another location.
If your bin is stolen, your first bin will be replaced with no charge. After the first replacement bin, property owners will be charged $60 per bin for replacements.
If I sell my house can I take my wheelie bin with me?
No. The wheelie bin is allocated to the property and must stay with the property for the new owners or tenants to use.
Does it matter what colour crate I use?
No. You can use either red or green or both for glass recycling.
How far can I fill my recycling crates?
The recycling crates can’t have glass above the rim of the crate. That’s to make sure the bins aren’t too heavy to carry and glass doesn’t fall out and break when we’re emptying the bins.
Reducing your Waste
Our ability to look after our natural environment has a lot to do with reducing our waste. Check out our waste reduction page for more information, including information for event organisers and vendors about how to reduce waste.
Avoid landfills
A landfill is land where rubbish (solid waste) is compacted and buried. It should be designed and managed so that no liquid or gas can escape and harm our environment. They cost a lot of money to build and maintain. After Council has recycled, reprocessed or re-used as much of our waste as possible, what’s left is disposed of in a landfill. By reducing the amount of waste sent to landfill, we can reduce the haulage and disposal costs.
Prohibited Items Causing Landfill Fires
There has been a big increase in the number of fires occurring in landfills. Fires can start during working hours and are extinguished immediately, however those that start after hours can have devastating effects and costs.
There are three major causes of landfill fires:
- Lithium-ion rechargeable batteries
- Discarded Emergency Flares
- Hot Ashes
The lithium-ion batteries in mobile phones, tablets, laptop computers, gaming and other mobile devices has led to an increase in the number of fires occurring in landfills. When these batteries are ruptured they can explode or the thermal reaction that occurs when exposed to oxygen starts fires within the adjacent waste. There is very little capacity within NZ to recycle lithium batteries, you can read more on the Consumer website.
Emergency flares are often discarded when they pass their ‘Expiry Date’. These devices are explosive and contain chemicals that are highly reactive that can cause fires when they’re activated.
Hot ash which is more common in winter, is the third major fire starter. Ideally ash should be wet and/or left for a week before disposal.
These items are prohibited from landfill disposal.