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What Goes in Each Recycling Bin at Work? | Hygiene Direct

Date: 22-10-2026
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Most recycling mistakes at work come from not knowing the rules. This guide sets out what goes in each bin, based on the Ministry for the Environment's standard materials list.

One caution first. That list is a standard for household kerbside collections run by councils. It does not apply to private waste companies that collect independently, so your own contractor may accept more or less. Treat the list as a solid baseline, and confirm with your contractor.

What goes in mixed recycling

Everything here needs to be clean. Containers that held liquids, pastes or similar need to be empty and rinsed.

  • Paper and cardboard: clean paper and cardboard, including pizza boxes. Remove the food scraps, although grease stains are fine.
  • Plastic bottles, trays and containers marked 1, 2 or 5: this includes meat trays, margarine tubs, fruit punnets and suitably sized yoghurt pottles, as long as they are marked 1, 2 or 5.
  • Aluminium and steel tins and cans.
  • Glass bottles and jars: empty, clean and unbroken. Some councils and contractors collect glass in a separate bin or crate, and the Ministry encourages that because fine glass shards can contaminate paper and other recyclables.

What does not go in mixed recycling

Item

Why it is left out

What to do instead

Soft plastics, such as bags and wrap

They tangle in sorting equipment

Soft plastic drop-off points at supermarkets and other locations

Loose lids, caps and tops

Too small to sort; large flat lids contaminate paper

Keep tethered lids attached. The Packaging Forum runs a caps and lids scheme

Aluminium foil and foil trays

Hard to sort and often food-soiled

Rubbish

Aerosols

Most NZ recycling plants cannot safely compact them

Check your contractor or local transfer station

Drink and milk cartons (liquid paperboard)

A composite of different materials

Carton drop-off points, where available

Plastics marked 3, 4, 6 or 7

Limited markets, and they can contaminate better plastics

Check for drop-off schemes, for example for polystyrene

Plant pots, paint containers and hazardous substance containers

Often dirty or hazardous

Garden-centre, paint and hazardous container take-back schemes

Items smaller than 50mm, or containers over 4 litres

Too small or too big for sorting lines

Transfer stations and resource recovery centres

Plastic-lined or foil-lined paper, such as most disposable coffee cups and some receipts

The lining contaminates paper recycling

Rubbish

Shredded paper

Not on the standard list

Check with your contractor

What goes in a food scraps bin

Only food scraps and garden organics go in a food scraps or FOGO bin. The standard excludes:

  • Paper towels, hand towels and serviettes.
  • Newspaper and shredded paper.
  • Food-soiled cardboard, such as pizza boxes.
  • Compostable plastic or fibre packaging.
  • Tea bags, because most contain plastic.
  • Sawdust from treated timber, animal waste and ash.

Councils decide whether compostable bin liners are accepted in food scraps collections, so check before you buy them.

Quick answers for common workplace items

Item

Where it usually goes

Used paper towels and tissues

Rubbish. They are excluded from food scraps bins and are not clean paper

Disposable coffee cups

Rubbish, because they are plastic-lined

Pizza box with food removed

Recycling

Pizza box with food still in it

Rubbish, or remove the food and recycle the clean part

Empty drink bottles marked 1, 2 or 5

Recycling, empty and rinsed, with loose caps taken off (tethered caps stay attached)

Empty tins

Recycling

Glass jar

Recycling, in the glass stream if you have one

Cling wrap, chip packets, bubble wrap

Soft plastic drop-off or rubbish, never recycling

Make it easy for staff

Put the short version on a sign at each station, and keep the full list for your induction. Our guide to reducing recycling contamination at work has more ideas, and our guide to setting up recycling stations shows how to lay them out.

Browse our recycling bins and signs and accessories, or open a trade account with Hygiene Direct for bulk pricing.

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