Glass PackagingKarāhe Takai
Only 38% of New Zealand household waste is recycled.
Ministry for the Environment. That’s well below Australia’s 63%, and one of the worst results in the OECD. OECD Environmental Performance Reviews: New Zealand, 2023.
87%
of us bin it when we’re not sure where it goes
Ministry for the Environment
~16%
of what’s put in recycling bins can’t be recycled
WasteMINZ
706kg
sent to landfill per person, per year
Ministry for the Environment
The shift
The rules fixed the home bin. The rest needs a language.
The 2024 kerbside rules were a useful start. But people meet materials long before and long after the home bin. The system needs to show up wherever a decision happens.
What is it made of?
Where does it belong?
Use the same signal everywhere.
Show what can happen next.
Your part in it · tō wāhi
Whoever you are, there’s a right call to make.
Better calls before you buy, and after. Learn a material once and you know it for life, no more guessing at the bin.
Look up a material →Choose packaging that can actually be recovered, and label it so a shopper in Kaitāia or Invercargill knows exactly where it goes.
For manufacturers →The same clear marks on every bin, so sorting is obvious at the desk, the food court, the classroom or the park.
Get the marks →Warm, bilingual bin and campaign artwork that clips onto the national kerbside rules. No procurement, no licence.
For councils →The same names and marks from the supermarket shelf through to the sorting line, so what’s collected is what can be recovered.
See the taxonomy →The marks
97 ways to say goodbye.
The full material set lives here now: English first, te reo Māori beneath, grouped into 15 practical material categories.
Showing 12 of 97 material marks.
BatteriesPūhiko/batteriesHazardous Waste
Fuel FiltersTātari Hinu/fuel-filtersHazardous Waste
ConcreteRaima/concreteConstruction
Car BatteriesPūhiko Waka/car-batteriesHazardous Waste
Fire ExtinguishersWhakamoe Ahi/fire-extinguishersHazardous Waste
Combustible WastePara Tahu/combustible-wasteGeneral Waste
Brominated Flame RetardantsPare Mura/brominated-flame-retardantsHazardous Waste
Reusable Clothing & TextilesKākahu Pai/reusable-clothing-and-textilesReuse
Reusable Clothing, Textiles & ShoesKākahu, Hū Pai/reusable-clothing-textiles-and-shoesReuse
Clothing & TextilesKākahu Katoa/clothing-and-textilesReuse
Reusable ShoesHū Pai/reusable-shoesReuse
Built on Aotearoa’s foundations
Ministry for the Environment·WasteMINZ·NZ Plastics Code
Love You, Bye clips onto the national kerbside standard and the standard bin colours, and builds on the bilingual te reo work of WasteMINZ, Para Kore and He Kupenga Hao i Te Reo Māori. It doesn’t replace them. It makes them something people want to use.
There is no “away.” Every material comes back, so let’s say goodbye properly.
Materials, with heart