Setting up a Community or Organisation Small Recycling Point

We love community centres and organisations who want to collect more recycling!

There are several community centres around the city who have already set up collection points where they consolidate and then drop to us. We’ve put together some information, hints and tips to get you started.

Frequently Asked Questions

What materials will Sustainability Trust accept? 

Details of all our collections are here.

Are there any costs involved? 

There are NO costs involved in setting up. We do charge for some e-waste items and car seats.

What checks do I need to do before dropping off to Sustainability Trust?  

Recycling needs to be separated by category; in particular: 

  • Plastic lids/Taupoki kirihou, Grade 2* - must have a number 2 in a triangle on the lid. 

  • Plastic lids/Taupoki kirihou, Grade 5* - must have a number 5 in a triangle on the lid. 

  • Metal lids/ Taupoki mētara - this includes wine bottle tops, beer bottle crowns, and metal jar lids. 

  • Small metal items/ Tūhanga mētara iti** - as long as the item is no bigger than a reusable bag, you can drop it off to us. 

  • Curtains/ Ārai** - good quality, mould-free pre-loved curtains; fabric rolls or large offcuts of fabric; tracks and hooks; rolls of white fabric suitable for lining. More details are here.

*Please note that if there is no number, it cannot be recycled through this collection process. Plastic lids need to be clean, but do not need to be separated by colour.

**Please note that items like metal and curtains soon get heavy and bulky; think about the space you have available and how often you can drop off to Sustainability Trust. 

What about e-waste and batteries?

You can collect e-waste and batteries but please note there are charges that apply.

Accepted batteries:

  • Lithium ion (eg. rechargeable batteries)

  • Nickel cadmium and alkaline batteries: AA, AAA, 9V, C, D, N

  • Zinc air (eg. camera batteries)

  • Silver zinc (eg. laptop and hearing aid batteries)

  • Other household batteries

  • Mobile phone batteries

Not accepted*

  • Leaking or damaged batteries

  • Car or truck batteries

Please tape lithium battery terminals.

What should I use for collection? 

To make your trip efficient and to save time doing any subsequent sorting, we recommend you have clearly labelled jars/boxes/bins/bags to collect the different items for recycling. This helps eliminate contamination, then you can bring them to Sustainability Trust in these containers and empty them into our appropriate bins. All our bins are clearly labelled for you. 

How do I get the materials to you? 

Simply pop into our EcoCentre on Saturdays during opening hours (9am – 4.30pm) to drop off your recycling. 

Currently we can’t offer a collection service, so we also recommend checking out if there is someone nearby also doing a collection that you can share the task with. We also recommend storing each collection up and bringing in a larger amount rather than making multiple small trips- saves both time and the car journey! 

How do I get hold of those cool signs and graphics you use?  

Use this link to download our suite of A5 signs for these recycling collections.

Can Sustainability Trust promote our recycling point? 

We sure can! We can list your recycling point on our website recycling programmes page and can also share social media posts relating to your collection point. Simply tag us in a post or get in touch with our marketing team to chat further: marcomms@sustaintrust.org.nz.

Locations we know about: 

There are some other locations across Wellington already, so you might not even need to set one up. Please check with them first to find out which recycling services they offer. Some also offer additional services that we don’t have at Sustainability Trust.

If we have missed one get in touch and let us know!

Who can I speak to if I have more questions? 

Get in touch with us on advice@sustaintrust.org.nz

Hear about the Ngaio Crofton Downs Residents’ Association Recycling Point

“Our recycling drop-offs have become quite a community event, with people of all ages and family groups dropping by! 

Our regular monthly recycling collection time is a chance for residents to pop in and drop items into different buckets for the different recycling collections. It’s simple to set up, appreciated by everyone, and makes it easy to then transport the collections to Sustainability Trust. 

We get a lot of comments about how handy it is for our residents to drop off here instead of having to go to the city with a small amount of recycling. We also get to help lots of people who aren’t sure where to start and what’s recyclable.  

We publicise through our website and Facebook, and constantly stress the need to separate the items, particularly the plastic tops, so that dropping it off is a quick and simple task. A typical collection will see 50 people pass by and dropping off around 30kg of plastics and metal caps, batteries etc for recycling. 

We are starting to see collections coming in from groups who organize themselves to feed into our collection – local businesses and groups from well outside our area. 

Most of what we collect goes straight to Sustainability Trust, to keep things simple. But the recycling days are proving so successful that we are starting to branch out and schedule other collections such as e-waste and to feed into proprietary coffee pod recycling programmes. 

Our collection days are a joint effort with the local Residents’ Association and church. We both wanted an activity that would interest all of our residents, have a nice community feel, and get us started on a bigger programme of becoming carbon neutral- this is it!”

- Ian Turk, Executive Member, Ngaio Crofton Downs Going Carbon Neutral.