Bin, Bag or Crate: What Goes Out at Your Kerb This Week

New Zealand kerbside services are funded in visibly different ways, and the funding model determines what you put out. Wellington City Council runs a pay-as-you-throw bag service: "Your rubbish must be in an official yellow Council rubbish bag for it to be picked up from the kerbside by our collectors" and "Wellington rubbish collections are funded through the cost of these bags". The recommended retail price is $4.22 a bag, or $21.10 for five, and the 50-litre bags carry a 15 kg weight limit.

Auckland Council charges through rates instead, but still prices by size: for the rating year beginning 1 July 2026 the annual rubbish charge is $169.04 for an 80-litre bin, $203.41 for the standard 120-litre bin and $337.62 for a 240-litre bin, while recycling is a flat $154.33 whatever size bin you have. Changing your bin size costs a one-off $40 fee. Downsizing the rubbish bin is one of the few places a household can directly cut a council bill.

Wellington's suburbs have the arrangement that catches new residents out. Recycling is collected weekly, on the same day as the rubbish — but what they take alternates: "one week: paper, metal and plastic – place in wheelie bins or clear recycling plastic bags", then "next week: glass – place clean bottles and jars only in the 45-litre green recycling crates".

So the question is not whether recycling goes out, it is whether this is a crate week. The crate has its own rules: an official council 45-litre crate, glass bottles and jars only with no lids, a limit of two crates per household, and a safety rule that decides whether it gets emptied — "the crates must not be filled with glass above the top edge. If they are, they will not be collected." A crate costs $15 from a council service desk, several libraries or the Tip Shop at the Southern Landfill.

Tauranga City Council solves the fortnightly problem in the most direct way available: "Each household has a collection day and week (either 'Week 1' or 'Week 2') which can be found on the side of your bins." Food scraps are collected every week there, and "the rest of the collections will operate across a fortnightly cycle".

If your council does the same, the label on the bin body settles the argument without opening a website. If it does not, count forward from a collection you are sure of: a fortnightly stream repeats every 14 days, so one confirmed date fixes the rest of the year.

Auckland's food scraps service is a 23-litre bin plus a kitchen caddy, collected weekly on the same day as your other bins. Availability is narrower than people assume: "Food scraps services are only available for urban residential properties in our food scraps targeted area."

Where the service exists it is not optional in billing terms — "You will still pay for the food scraps collection service through a targeted rate charge whether you accept the bin and use the service or not. If you pay property rates in an area covered by the service, you cannot opt out of the charge." Council liners are sold in rolls of 20 at a recommended $2.80 through libraries, selected supermarkets and dairies, but they are not compulsory: "Line your kitchen caddy with an Auckland Council food scraps bin liner, a paper bag or newspaper. You can also use your caddy without a liner." What may go in is covered in our food scraps guide.

Both main city councils use a 7am cut-off. Auckland: "You must put your rubbish out before 7am on your collection day. This includes: rubbish bins and bags, recycling bins and bags, food scraps bins." Wellington: "Put your rubbish and recycling out by 7am on your weekly collection day", with an upper bound most councils do not bother to state — "Please don't put collections out any earlier than 7pm the evening before your collection day."

Wellington's central city runs on a different clock entirely: rubbish collections there are "between 5.30pm and 10pm every night", and recycling is collected on Tuesday nights in the same evening window. Tauranga also asks for bins at the kerb by 7am. In wind-prone streets, Wellington additionally asks that wheelie bins are "placed where they won't blow over and that the lid is completely closed with the wheelie bin clip firmly attached".

Australian councils commonly collect straight through public holidays. New Zealand's two largest city councils both move collections instead — and they move them in different directions, so a rule learned in one city is wrong in the other.

Auckland delays: "Rubbish, recycling and food scraps collections will be one day later than usual after a public holiday, with some exceptions." For Matariki 2026 that moved a Friday 10 July collection to Saturday 11 July. The published exceptions matter if they apply to you: Aotea / Great Barrier Island rubbish days are unaffected, and the city centre roadside collections do not change.

Wellington cancels three days outright and catches up at the weekend: rubbish and recycling are not collected on Christmas Day, New Year's Day or Good Friday, and "instead, the collection is moved to the following Saturday. On all other holidays, collection days are as normal."

Auckland asks residents to wait, then check a short list before reporting: "Is it after 4.30pm on your collection day? You can only log missed collections after 4.30pm. The truck may still be coming." Then: was it out on the correct day, at the kerbside before 7am, with the lid fully closed, and is there a sticker on the bin explaining why it was not emptied?

The verification is not a matter of opinion. "Our trucks have cameras installed to check and verify missed collections", and after a report "Our contractor will view video recordings to confirm a missed collection. If the recordings show your bin was missed, it will be collected within one working day." If the footage shows the contractor was not at fault, the council tells you to take the bin back in. Wellington's threshold is earlier in the day: if your rubbish or recycling has not been collected by 3pm on your normal collection day, phone the council.

Wellington also has a bylaw with teeth. Under the Solid Waste Management and Minimisation Bylaw 2020, "fines of up to $400 can apply" if you leave rubbish out that is not in an official council bag, or fail to take back rubbish that collectors have left behind as unsuitable.

One thing genuinely is the same everywhere. The Ministry for the Environment confirms that "As of 1 February 2024, the materials collected from households for kerbside recycling are the same across Aotearoa New Zealand", namely tins and cans, glass bottles and jars, paper and cardboard, and plastic bottles, trays and containers numbered 1, 2 or 5.

Nothing else was standardised. Of the five household recycling policies agreed in 2022, the Ministry states that "only standard materials for household recycling has come into force. The Government has decided that the remaining four policies will not go ahead at this time." Containers, collection frequencies, charges and which streets get a food scraps service all remain council decisions — which is why a Wellington kerb and an Auckland kerb look nothing alike on the same Wednesday morning. For what belongs in each, see our kerbside colours guide; for the reminder that tells you which one is due, BinMinder is free.

Prices, times and rules above were read off these pages in August 2026. Council charges are set each rating year, so check the current figure before budgeting.

• Wellington City Council — Council rubbish bags (bag prices, 15 kg limit, $400 bylaw fines)
• Wellington City Council — Recycling crates (45-litre crate, two per household, fill level)
• Wellington City Council — Suburban and inner city collections (alternating weeks, 7am, holidays, 3pm missed-collection threshold)
• Auckland Council — Bins and charges (mainland) (annual charges, $40 change fee, caddy liners)
• Auckland Council — Why we collect food scraps (weekly collection, targeted area)
• Auckland Council — Public holiday collections (one day later, 7am, exceptions)
• Auckland Council — Report a missed collection (4.30pm rule, truck cameras)
• Tauranga City Council — When to put your bins out (Week 1 / Week 2 on the bin)
• Ministry for the Environment — Improving household recycling and food scrap collections (1 February 2024 materials standard; four policies not proceeding)