Garden WastePara Māra

Te pūranga · The archive

97 ways to say goodbye.

A mark for every material: English first, te reo Māori beneath, each one routed to where it goes next. Free to download and use, with attribution to Sortere.

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Guidelines

Everything needed to apply the system correctly: the brand mark, colour, typography, icon usage, the taxonomy, and the deployment contract. Each section opens with the essentials; the full specification is a click below it.

Ngā Tohu

The brand mark

One heart, always solid, always brand red. You farewell a material like someone you’ll see again. The mark is a brand layer, not a verdict: it sits alongside the material tiles and a written instruction, never alone, and it never judges.

Full specification

On light

fill: var(--color-lyb-heart)

On dark

fill: var(--color-lyb-heart)

The mark · all surfaces

var(--color-lyb-heart)

#E5383B

Minimum size

Render at 24 px on screen and 12 mm on print, measured across the widest point of the mark. Below this the silhouette loses definition.

Clear space

Preserve clear space equal to the width of the mark on every side. No type, icon, or graphic enters this zone.

Backgrounds

Place on a solid neutral surface. The brand red passes WCAG non-text contrast on both the off-white and soft-black surfaces.

Always solid

The mark is always filled. No outline, stroke-only, cracked, or split treatments, anywhere.

Pair with a tile

In a disposal decision the mark pairs with the relevant material tile and a short written instruction. The tile names the material; the mark carries the care.

Do not modify

Do not rotate, skew, outline, recolour, or replace the silhouette. Material tiles carry material colour; the heart stays brand red.

The mark carries the brand; the sorting tiles name the materials. The tile tells the person what the thing is, the instruction tells them what to do, and the mark asks them to do it with care. Materials are routed by pathway labels, never by heart states.

Ngā Tae

Colours

A monochrome backbone with one emotional accent: the heart red. Colour never carries meaning alone. Material tiles carry Aotearoa’s agreed recycling colours, always paired with a glyph and a label, and there are no status colours.

Full specification

Core neutrals

Authority Black

#1A1A1A

--color-lyb-black

Primary text, marks, UI foreground on light surfaces.

Clean White

#FAFAFA

--color-lyb-white

Primary surface (light). Body text on dark surfaces.

Grey 100

#F0F0F0

--color-lyb-grey-100

Card and inset surfaces on light backgrounds.

Grey 300

#C4C4C4

--color-lyb-grey-300

Secondary text, hairlines, supporting rules.

Grey 600

#666666

--color-lyb-grey-600

Body text on light surfaces, captions, meta.

The heart

Heart

#E5383B

--color-lyb-heart

The brand mark and the single emotional accent. Used sparingly, never decoratively, never to carry meaning alone.

4.1:1 on #FAFAFA, 4.6:1 on #1A1A1A, passes WCAG non-text contrast on both surfaces.

Material colours

One colour per material heading. Nine are Aotearoa’s own, agreed in 2015 by WasteMINZ, the Glass Packaging Forum and councils, and read here out of the official bilingual signage rather than transcribed. Two are ours, and are marked as such: Aotearoa lets those streams share a colour with another one, which works on line art where a glyph carries the distinction, and fails on a filled tile where the colour is the whole signal.

Para · Rubbish

#ED1639

Aotearoa standard

PMS 032. The red on every rubbish bin lid in the country.

Hangarua · Recycling

#FCD006

Aotearoa standard

PMS 109. Labels the mixed recycling bin, which is a destination rather than a material, so few marks carry it.

Karaehe · Glass

#3A9FDF

Aotearoa standard

PMS 299. Light blue means glass here, which is worth knowing if you have met a system where blue means paper.

Paraopi · Organics · food

#40B93C

Aotearoa standard

PMS 361. Food scraps and compostable packaging.

Paraopi · Organics · garden

#2D3F2C

Aotearoa standard

The darker green the symbol set uses for garden cuttings.

Pepa · Paper & cardboard

#7C7A74

Aotearoa standard

Grey, not blue. Paper-only collections have used this since 2015.

Kirihou · Plastic

#F1471D

Aotearoa standard

From the Kirihou signage. Sits near hazardous, so the glyph does real work between them.

Konganuku me Taea · Metal & tyres

#231F20

Aotearoa standard

Near-black, from the Kēne signage. Cans go kerbside; tyres go back through Tyrewise.

Para Hanga Whare · Construction & demolition

#95512E

Aotearoa standard

The brown used for plasterboard and timber.

Whakamahi Anō · Reuse

#652F98

Aotearoa standard

Purple, covering reuse and reusable fabric alike.

Para Mōrearea · Hazardous

#B7410E

Love You, Bye

Ours. Aotearoa draws rubbish and hazardous in two reds 11.4 apart, which survives on line art because a hazard diamond separates them, and collapses on a filled tile. Burnt orange sits 69.8 from recycling yellow, so it can never read as a recycling stream.

I Para Pūrerekāinga · Ewaste & appliances

#0D3F77

Love You, Bye

Ours. Aotearoa draws ewaste and metal in the same near-black, at a measured difference of zero. The two go to different places, kerbside against drop-off, so on filled tiles they cannot look identical.

Service colours · at the kerb

These sat unresolved on the assumption that a council publishes its own bin colours. It does not, and does not need to, because the values are national: WasteMINZ, the Glass Packaging Forum and councils agreed them in October 2015, and Auckland implements that agreement. So the Pantone number is the official swatch, and the council’s own service brochure is the evidence it is in use. Two streams stay open because there is genuinely nothing to find: the agreement colours bin lids, and those two have no bin.

Rubbish

#EF3340

PMS 032

General waste and landfill-aligned categories.

Red is not Auckland’s value to publish. It is the national one, and Auckland implements it. Sampled from the council’s own service brochure the lid reads #E51836, the same red shifted by print. The same brochure still describes the North Shore and Waitākere rubbish bin as a blue bin with a yellow lid, which is the national colour for recycling. That inversion is the clearest local evidence of how unevenly the 2015 agreement has been rolled out.

Mixed recycling

#FFD100

PMS 109

Paper, cardboard, plastics 1/2/5, glass bottles and jars, metal packaging.

The standard Auckland recycling bin is a green body with the national yellow lid, and the brochure artwork reads #F6C719. The same brochure still describes a blue-lidded recycling bin in some areas, where blue nationally means glass.

Food scraps

#43B02A

PMS 361

Food scraps and organics-aligned categories.

The national lime green, covering food scraps and compostable packaging. Brochure artwork reads #52A537.

Awaiting official swatch

Reuse and drop-off

No official digital swatch gathered yet.

auckland-reuse-dropoff

Reuse, specialist drop-off, e-waste, and hazardous streams.

Nothing to find rather than nothing found. The national agreement colours bin lids, and these streams have no bin: they are counters, transfer stations and community recycling centres. No colour has been published because nothing carries a lid.

Awaiting official swatch

Deposit return

No official digital swatch gathered yet.

auckland-deposit-return

Deposit-return and separate collection schemes.

No colour, because there is no scheme. Aotearoa has proposed a container return scheme more than once and not legislated one, so there is no bin, no lid and nothing agreed. The mark is kept ready for the day there is.

Rubbish bin

Sources

WasteMINZ · agreed colours for bins and signage
The October 2015 agreement between WasteMINZ, the Glass Packaging Forum and councils that sets these values.
Creating signage for zero waste events (WasteMINZ, hosted by QLDC)
Page one carries the Pantone numbers for rubbish, recycling, food scraps and glass.
Your guide to Auckland’s waste services
Auckland’s own service brochure, showing the bins in these colours.

Mixed recycling bin

Sources

WasteMINZ · agreed colours for bins and signage
The October 2015 agreement between WasteMINZ, the Glass Packaging Forum and councils that sets these values.
Creating signage for zero waste events (WasteMINZ, hosted by QLDC)
Page one carries the Pantone numbers for rubbish, recycling, food scraps and glass.
Your guide to Auckland’s waste services
Auckland’s own service brochure, showing the bins in these colours.

Food scraps bin

The national lime green, covering food scraps and compostable packaging. Brochure artwork reads #52A537.

Sources

WasteMINZ · agreed colours for bins and signage
The October 2015 agreement between WasteMINZ, the Glass Packaging Forum and councils that sets these values.
Creating signage for zero waste events (WasteMINZ, hosted by QLDC)
Page one carries the Pantone numbers for rubbish, recycling, food scraps and glass.
Your guide to Auckland’s waste services
Auckland’s own service brochure, showing the bins in these colours.

Reuse, community recycling, and transfer-station flows

Sources

Auckland Council · Recycling centres and transfer stations
Operational source for non-kerbside waste pathways.

Container return and future deposit-return pathways

Sources

Ministry for the Environment · container return scheme
Policy context for a scheme that has been consulted on but not enacted.

Ngā Momo Tuhinga

Typography

ABC Areal, everywhere: one self-hosted variable face for display, body and figures, from Regular 400 to Bold 700. There are no italics. Emphasis comes from weight. Prose is capped at a 66-character measure, and type steps change only at breakpoints with fixed weight and leading. Do not override.

Full specification

Scale · eight steps

Display

.text-display

2.8rem / 3.6rem / 4.25rem · 500 · Medium · leading 0.98

Hero statements. One per page, at most.

706 kg per capita.

Heading 1

.text-heading-1

2.2rem / 2.6rem / 3rem · 500 · Medium · leading 1.05

Page titles. Sets the top-level landmark.

One country. One system.

Heading 2

.text-heading-2

1.45rem / 1.6rem · 500 · Medium · leading 1.15

Section headings inside a page.

Know before you throw.

Heading 3

.text-heading-3

1.2rem · 500 · Medium · leading 1.22

Subsections and card titles.

What goes where in Aotearoa.

Body

.text-body

1.125rem · 400 · Regular · leading 1.45

Primary reading text. Constrained to 66ch.

Aotearoa standardised what can be recycled. Every council still communicates it differently.

Caption

.text-caption

0.875rem · 400 · Regular · leading 1.5

Meta, labels, footnotes, supporting copy.

Free for council, manufacturer and public use.

Monospace

.text-mono

0.875rem · 400 · Regular · leading 1.45

Material codes, tokens, tabular data.

PET #1 | HDPE #2 | PP #5 | AL | FE

Stat

.text-stat

3.25rem / 4rem / 4.75rem · 500 · Medium · leading 0.95

Single-number callouts. Tabular figures only.

35%

Numbers & codes

Material codes, tokens and figures are set in ABC Areal with tabular numerals. There is no separate mono face. Columns line up by default.

PET #1 · HDPE #2 · PP #5 · AL · FE

Ngā Ata

Icon usage

One icon per material or waste stream, drawn to a single geometric system and coloured by category. Icons name the material; the mark carries the care. An icon alone doesn’t tell a person what to do: pair it with a written instruction whenever a disposal decision is being communicated.

Full specification

Minimum size

Render at 32 px square or larger on screen, 12 mm square or larger in print. Below this threshold the geometry loses resolution and meaning.

Colour

Each category carries a fixed colour. Do not recolour an icon to fit a surface palette. Pair it with neutral type and let the category colour read first.

Clear space

Preserve clear space equal to one quarter of the icon width on every side. Do not crop, rotate, or place the icon inside a decorative container.

Pairing

When an icon sits next to the brand mark, align to the optical centre of the heart, not the bounding box.

Language

Icons are language-neutral. Pair with the bilingual catalogue above when a label is required.

Accessibility

Every icon must carry an accessible label in the host surface. The icon alone does not meet WCAG. It is an aid, not a substitute for text.

Te Whakarōpūtanga

Taxonomy

Three levels. Every item in the set is placed in a Category (Rōpū), named as a Material (Taonga), and routed to a Pathway (Ara): kerbside, drop-off, or special handling. The category carries the colour and the pathway; the material carries the icon and its bilingual label. The same hierarchy runs through the icon set, the lookup, and every downstream surface.

Full specification

Pathways

Every category resolves to one of three pathways. Materials never carry their own pathway independently; the category is the source of truth.

Kerbside

Collected at the kerb: the recycling, food scraps, garden, and general waste bins.

Drop-off

Returned through a drop-off point: e-waste, deposit return, reuse, textiles, and transfer stations.

Special handling

Needs a regulated or specialist pathway: hazardous, medical, and construction streams.

Translation coverage

Every material carries both an English and a te reo Māori label (100% coverage across 97 materials). The Māori labels are working drafts, checked against the Te Aka dictionary and pending iwi review.

Te Whakatakoto

Deployment

How a mark deploys on a yoghurt pot is not how it deploys on a bin lid: same icon, different contract. This is the contract between the design system and the people who apply it, across the three contexts marks appear in: product packaging, kerbside bin lids, and public signage.

The system is literal, not moral. It tells a person where something goes, never whether they are a good or bad citizen. When the mark on the pack matches the mark on the bin, nobody has to guess: the match is the instruction.

Full specification

The matrix · nine canonical deployments

Rows are the context the mark appears in; columns are the preparation level it calls for.

Packaging

Straight in

Glass bottle

Pouaka karāhe

→ Glass recycling

Prep first

Yoghurt pot

Pouaka kākama

→ Rinse · remove lid · mixed recycling

General waste

Soft plastic

Kirihou ngohengohe

→ Landfill

May be recyclable at soft-plastic drop-off.

Bin lid

Straight in

Organics bin

Ipu para māori

→ Food scraps and garden waste only

Prep first

Mixed recycling

Ipu hangarua

→ No lids · rinse all containers · flatten cardboard

General waste

Landfill bin

Ipu para

→ Everything else

Signage

Straight in

Transfer station

Whakawhiti tūnga

→ Accepted materials, no preparation required

Prep first

Hazardous drop-off

Tukunga morearea

→ Bring in original container · seal lids · never mix chemicals

General waste

Street bin

Ipu tiriti

→ Landfill

Use recycling stations for bottles, cans, paper.

The sizing contract

Three reproduction contexts, three minimum sizes. The mark must be reproduced at or above the minimum for its surface, paired with the label at the weight and size below. No exceptions for shelf-talkers or promotional collateral.

Context	Min mark size	Label type	Label size
Packaging (front-of-pack)	10 mm	Manrope 500 uppercase	8 pt
Bin lid	40 mm	Manrope 600 uppercase	18 pt
Kerbside signage	100 mm	Manrope 600 uppercase	36 pt

Clear space

Every mark holds a minimum of 25 per cent of its own height as breathing room on all sides. No type, no illustration, no border crosses that zone. On bin lids the zone widens to 40 per cent to absorb weathering and oblique viewing angles.

Colour reproduction

Marks are CMYK-safe across the category colours. Pantone spot equivalents are available in the print pack for jobs that spec a spot hit. Avoid screen-only RGB values on physical substrates; they will drift on uncoated stock.

File formats

SVG for any digital surface. CMYK EPS for offset print. PDF for tradepub and signage fabrication. Raster PNG is provided for completeness but discouraged: it does not scale and will pixelate on large-format kerbside signs.

Licence

The marks are adopted from Norway’s Sorteringsmerker. Attribution is extended to Sortere and should appear in the colophon or imprint of the finished piece. Confirm terms with LOOP before commercial or large-scale production.

Prep pictos

Level 2 deployments require a preparation step before the material enters its correct pathway. The prep library is a small set of pictos that attaches to the mark to describe what needs to happen; it will grow to six or eight covering the most common kerbside prep actions. Three are in production now.

Rinse

Horoi

Before any food-contact container enters mixed recycling. A thin film of residue is fine; visible sauce is not.

Remove lid

Tangohia te taupoki

When the lid is a different material or size from the body. Small lids jam MRF sorters and are filtered to landfill.

Flatten

Papatahi

For cardboard and paper cartons. Flattening preserves kerbside volume and keeps optical sorters accurate.

Bilingual pairing

Aotearoa is a bilingual country. English and te reo Māori are equal carriers of meaning attached to the same visual mark. The icon is never translated; it is shared. The words underneath are paired, not ranked.

English occupies the primary (upper) block, te reo Māori the secondary (lower) block: same size, same weight, rendered at slightly reduced contrast against the primary. The visual weight is equal: do not shrink the te reo block, set it in italic, or set it in a lighter weight.
Both language blocks attach to the same icon. Never translate the icon itself, never produce a separate Māori-language set. One mark, two labels.
Where space is constrained (a 10 mm front-of-pack mark on a sachet), set English only and place a small MI footnote mark pointing to the full bilingual label on the back-of-pack. Never drop te reo from the system; always make it reachable.

This specification is versioned and updated as the system grows. Last reviewed April 2026.

97 ways to say goodbye.

Guidelines

The brand mark

Colours

Core neutrals

The heart

Material colours

Service colours · at the kerb

Typography

Scale · eight steps

Numbers & codes

Icon usage

Taxonomy

Pathways

Categories

Translation coverage

Deployment

The matrix · nine canonical deployments

The sizing contract

Prep pictos

Bilingual pairing