NZ Post are working with Soft Plastic Recycling and Future Post to make it easier for you to recycle your soft plastics and turn them into fence posts.
NZ Post are providing a specific courier bag (recycled of course!) that you can purchase and fill, and then book a courier for pickup, helping you recycle.
You can purchase the courier bags at the following New World Stores;
New World Aokautere – 194-200 Ruapehu Drive, Palmerston North 4410
New World Broadway – Broadway Ave, Palmerston North 4414
New World Taumarunui – 37 Turaki St, Taumarunui 3920
New World Pioneer - 179-197 Main Street, Palmerston North 4412
Yes, its not just for NZ Post packaging you can put any other soft plastic in it too as long as its clean and dry.
Things like bread bags, courier bags, bubble wrap, dry pet food bags. If you’re not sure, take the scrunch/squeeze test – scrunch/squeeze your plastic up, if it doesn’t bounce back to its shape, we can take it!
No. Any other materials including other plastics, compostable packaging, face masks, disposable gloves, or heavily soiled soft plastic are not permitted.
The courier bag is 400mm*440 mm.Soft plastic is lightweight and can be squashed down so a courier bag will take around 2-3 weeks soft plastic waste for an average household. Bags are $7 (NZD) each.
When purchasing a pre-paid Soft Plastic Recycle Courier bag, you have already paid for a courier pick-up. Simply book a courier online, and we’ll collect your pre-paid Soft Plastic Recycle Courier Bag. However, you can also drop your pre-paid Soft Plastic Recycle Courier bag into any NZ Post store nationwide.
You can purchase a bag or bags on line at NZ Post; The Warehouse/The Market
Book your NZ Post soft plastic recycle bag courier pickup here
No, the pre-paid courier is only eligible for retuning soft plastic and bags will automatically be sent to the soft plastic collection point.
The soft plastic is consolidated and bundled up ready to send off to Future Post, where the filled courier bags will be baled and then recycled by Future Post. Future Post turn it into fence posts that get used on farms, parks, gardens and wineries around NZ.
Fence posts, gate posts, letter box posts, flower beds, and more!
We’ve set up this trial in response to a lot of requests from people all around the country where we don’t have a collection service or because they are not able to get to a participating store easily.
The cost of the bag pays for a courier collection from your home or work by NZ Post, the courier service back up to Auckland, baling the soft plastic and onward transport to Future Post and the processing costs of turning the plastic into Future Posts.
We hope that people like the convenience of having a “kerbside” collection of their soft plastics via a courier service.
We thought about this a lot and tried to ensure we minimised the environmental impact as
much as possible. The pre-paid Soft Plastic Recycle Courier bag is made from 80% recycled
plastic. It holds up to three weeks’ worth of soft plastic waste for the average household. The emissions associated with the collection are offset, making it Carbon Neutral.
This is also a trial so we will continually be looking for ways to improve.
We have planned a 3 month trial with 10,000 courier bags which will be sold online by NZ Post and The Warehouse and in selected post shops, New World stores in region and The Warehouse stores in region. Each bag has a barcode so we can track how much is being recycled from different locations and of course the uptake of the service. We will report back on the trial’s performance.
Yes, if you want to purchase multiple bags (boxes of 10 bags) contact us