Rubbish and recycling collection

There are private rubbish and recycling collectors licensed to operate in Kāpiti.

If you are interested in becoming a waste collector or operator, see Waste business licences.

Low Cost Bins and Waste Management also offer a greenwaste wheelie bin collection, and some collectors offer short-term contracts for holiday home owners. Please visit collectors’ websites for more information about their services.

Frequency

Collectors offer a range of rubbish bin sizes (80–240L) and rubbish collection frequencies (weekly, fortnightly or pay as you go) to suit your needs. Recycling collection frequency will depend on your collector, either:

• a weekly collection of a mixed crate
• a weekly collection, alternating between your mixed recycling wheelie bin or your glass crate (so each is collected once a fortnight).

You can also deliver recycling at no cost to one of our transfer stations. We also accept other materials, as outlined in Recycling and safe disposal.

Choosing not to have a collection service

If you choose not to have a bin service, you can dispose of:

• waste at the Ōtaki or Otaihanga transfer stations for a fee 
• recycling at a transfer station, free of charge. Check out what can be recycled in Kāpiti.

Help in deciding

If you need help figuring out your best options for waste minimisation and rubbish disposal, email our Waste Minimisation team, or call us.

Contact your collector to check your collection day. For public holiday changes, check our Public holidays page.

Collections start at 7am on your collection day. Rubbish and recyclables are collected by different trucks, and collection times may vary from week to week.  

Wheelie bins and recycling crates must be on the kerbside before 7am on your collection day.

If you're in Kāpiti on weekends/holidays only, remember you're only allowed to put your rubbish and recycling out after 1pm the day before your collection day.

If waste is put out too early, it can lead to neighbourhood pollution, and Council may issue warnings or fines for this. If it isn’t possible to wait till after 1pm to put your rubbish out, please take your weekend rubbish and recycling to the transfer stations at Ōtaki or Otaihanga. 

Please ensure that your bins never obstruct footpaths or private driveways.

Rural properties may not be in an urban collection area, where providers are required to provide a collection service. It's up to the collectors whether they provide services outside the urban collection area, so it may still be worth contacting the collectors to find out whether they will collect from your property.

If you’re not able to find a collector able to service your area, you have the following options:

• plain rubbish bags or larger amounts of general waste (eg, car boots, vans, trailers) can be dropped off at Ōtaki Transfer Station or Otaihanga Resource Recovery Facility for a fee
• recyclables can be dropped off free of charge at any one of the district’s transfer stations
• Agrecovery and Plasback provide rural recycling services for many different horticultural and agricultural products. Some items are collected for free.
  • Agrecovery collects chemicals, containers, and plastic drums. Call 0800 247 326 for more details or visit agrecovery.co.nz.
  • Plasback collects silage wrap, crop protection netting, plastic bags and drums, and twine. Call 0508 338 240 or visit http://plasback.co.nz/ for details.

Businesses, schools and other organisations need to arrange a commercial recycling collector to have recycling collected from their properties.

It is often cheaper to have recycling collected than to have general waste collected, which means that by recycling, and reducing the amount of general waste, schools and businesses can save money. 

The four collectors that offer commercial recycling collections in Kāpiti are listed above under Kerbside collectors. Recyclables can also be dropped off for free at one of the district’s three transfer stations.