Published: 20 Sep 2018

Residents of areas of Geraldine, Temuka, Pleasant Point, Winchester and Cave need to mark their address on the side of their bins prior to the start of the bin tagging process.

They will then need to put out all their bins on their usual collection day for three weeks when they are notified with a leaflet in their letter box.

Ruth Clarke, Waste Minimisation Manager for Timaru District Council says that it’s important that people identify their own bins, and put all the bins they have out, even the one that’s not being collected that week.

“Our tagging team will be working independently from the person emptying the bins, so it’s important that the bins are left out all day. Ensuring that we can tag as many bins as possible on the first day ensures we can get the project done quickly and efficiently.

“If you have an extra bin that you may have acquired during a move or at some other time, it’s also a good opportunity to put that out. We will check the number of bins allocated to the property and we can either remove any extras for free or offer people the opportunity to pay for any extra bins they may have.”

The RFID tags being attached to the bins are about the same size as a plastic bottle cap and will enable our trucks to check in real time whether a bin is at the correct property before emptying it.

Once the system goes live in the collection area, if there’s no tag, or the bin is in the incorrect location it will not be emptied and marked for return to its rightful owner or removal at a later date.

More information on the project, including maps of the initial roll out areas, can be found at www.timaru.govt.nz/binmuster

Last updated: 24 Feb 2021