Waste Management

Minimising waste helps protect and sustain our environment for future generations. Recycling and reusing materials also has economic and environmental benefits for our community.

Transfer Stations and Landfill

There are two Transfer Stations on the Chatham Islands – at Kaingaroa and Te One.

The Te One Transfer Station has ongoing improvements.

• A new waste management building with a baler for recyclable products.
• The old dump being closed, capped, and re-established in native vegetation.
• A new Mitre 12 building.

The sanitary landfill at Owenga is now operational.

When you bring your rubbish and recycling to the transfer station, we're now asking you to sort this. Check out the information below to help you do this.

General rubbish

General rubbish is anything that has no further use and can't be reused or recycled.

It needs to be sealed and under 25kg. You need to wrap sharp items. Don't include highly flammable items such as oils, fuels, hot ash, or food scraps.

Recycling

There is a recycling collection point at Mitre 12 at Te One Transfer Station to help us reduce the amount of waste that goes into our landfill.

We welcome items such as used furniture, used clothing, books, reusable timber, and building materials.

Aluminium cans are being collected for the ABC Trust and number one plastic is being sent to New Zealand for recycling.

We accept clean, rinsed, empty, and dry:

• glass
• plastic bottles and containers (1*, 2, and 5 only)
• cardboard and paper
• tin and aluminium cans
• empty gas and aerosol canisters
• reusable soft plastic bags**, bubble wrap, and shrink wrap

*Number 1 plastic includes soft drink bottles, sauce bottles, and juice bottles. It has a number one in a recycling triangle, usually on the bottom of the product.

**Your soft plastic wrappers, chippy bags, broken styrofoam or polystyrene, and heavily soiled plastics need to go into your general waste.

Other items the transfer station accepts:

• wood
• scrap metal under 25kg
• tyres
• rope
• heavy plastics
• broken appliances and whiteware like washing machines, toasters, jugs, and microwaves
• e-waste such as TVs, computers, scanners, printers, and fax machines
• batteries
• empty gas bottles
• used burnt engine oil if it's in a fit-for-purpose sealed drum or container

Re-purpose

Continue to bring your preloved reusable items to the Mitre 12 such as:

• clothing
• housewares
• books
• tools
• bric-a-brac
• reusable building materials

We don't accept:

• food scraps
• seafood/animal by-product
• contaminated liquids, fuels, and fluids
• car, truck, or motorbike bodies or any metals over 25kg
• household or commercial waste that is not bagged or sorted