Ngaio Crofton Downs Residents Association

Saturday 7 February 2026 will be our first recycling day of the year – 10am to noon at Ngaio Union Church, Crofton Road.

Below is a refresher on the items that we collect, and a couple of reminders to make the programme more enjoyable for the volunteers:

How to recycle with us: Just bring your recycling down to us between 10am and 12 noon, at Ngaio Union Church in Crofton Road. It is quicker for you if your collection is sorted before you arrive.

The list of the things we recycle is below – and we have a couple of guidance points or requests:

• Plastic caps – anything that is a plastic lid or cap is accepted, any type of plastic and no sorting by plastic type is required.
• Type 2 and type 5 plastic items – these must have the recycling symbol on them with the correct number. They must be seperated into the two collections, as they are sent to two different processing streams.
• Tetrapacks – these must be opened flat, clean and dry. This is how the processor wants to collect them, to avoid contamination. We are now insisting on this as it is surprising how many that are not opened flat, are hiding an unpleasant surpise inside.

Koha – the service is free – but we do have a Koha collection. All Koha is being put back into recycling, and pays for either tip fees or Terracycle boxes for the blister packs. Please note that the WCC collection for items like car and household batteries is at the city landfill transfer station, and there is a fee for drop off. The boxes in which we send the blister packs to Terracycle cost $430 (see https://shop.terracycle.com)

What we take each month includes:

• All plastic lids together – no need to separate into different plastic types – but must be lids or caps only.
• Small plastic items marked with the type 2 recycling symbol, and separated.
• Small plastic items marked with the type 5 recycling symbol, and separated.
• Metal Lids etc –including for eg Crown caps, metal screw tops, sparkling wine wires, metal jar lids, ring-pull caps. We can also include aluminium foil or baking trays in this collection, but please scruch them into a tight ball, which helps with smelting.
• Tetrapacks – opened flat, rinsed and dry
• Household and hearing aid batteries.
• Oral care products and packaging from Colgate (is sent back to Colgate). Does not include electric toothbrush heads).
• Used shaving products – please no safety blades at this stage, they are dangerous.
• Curtains – must be mould free so they can be re-purposed.
• Wool – balls of wool which Crafty Volunteers, can use in their knitting for charity.
• Aluminium coffee pods from Nespresso – these are taken to the Nespresso recycling on Lambton Quay
• Empty medicinal blister packs
• Rubber bands from delivered The Posts – which are returned to The Post

Additional Collections

Each month we have one additional collection so plan ahead for these collections for the rest of the year. The February collection will be of other small metal items. To see the complete schedule for 2026, follow this link – Recycling Schedule for 2026:

Each month this year at our recycling collections, we will also have a collection of other items that we will collect. We don’t collect these items each month to make management of the programme more simple, and make our drop off to the recycling stations more efficient.

Below are the additional items that we will be collecting each month, and the dates (first Saturday each month):

I get asked what actually happens to the blister packs, and why is it so expensive to process.

The expense is because the blister packs are sent to Australia for processing, and it is an expensive process. The value of the end product itself is not sufficent to cover all costs of recycling.

Our blister packs are sent to Terracycle for processing – and they have a great page which describes the recycling process, with a short video if you scroll to the borttom.

Follow this link if you want to learn more about recycling blister packs – How TerraCycle recycles blister packs.

And here to follow the recycling process through a plant in Japan – Blister Pack Recycling System

Te Toi Mahana have a resource consent application with Wellington City Council to replace existing flats at 2 Thatcher Cr with 23 affordable housing units. These will comprise one block of 2 double bedroom units, and one block of 21 single bedroom units.

They will be consulting with local residents at Ngaio Union Church on 4 February from 5.30 to 7.30pm. This is an opportunity to hear about the planned development, about Te Toi Mahana’s housing programme, and ask your questions of the developer.

Te Toi Mahana is the largest provider of affordable housing in Wellington, working in partnership with Wellington City Council and our mana whenua partners. It has the goal to own and manage an additional 500 affordable homes over the next ten years.

The WREMO information page, with a link to register through Eventfinder is here The event is on our website – https://www.wremo.nz/news-and-events/calendar/ngaio-emergency-response-practice/

A new WCC initiative shows Wellington local election candidates answering questions in an online video format to help voters make a more informed voting decision this election.

All candidates were asked the same questions, and were videoed in the same setting at the Council Offices. You can watch all videos along with their candidate statements online at wellington.govt.nz/candidates.