At Wastebusters, we are passionate about real recycling; producing clean, uncontaminated recycling which can be made into high-quality products. Dirty, mixed-up recycling is no fun for anyone, that’s why we keep our recycling streams as clean as we can and hand-sort everything.
You can drop your recycling into our site from 9am-5pm, seven days a week. We also pick up from Wānaka businesses so visit our business recycling page if your business to start recycling with Wastebusters!
Real recycling reclaims resources which would otherwise have gone to landfill, saving energy, water, raw materials, land from mining and space in landfills. see our recycling map below to see where Wastebuster’s recycling goes.
Here is a list of items you can drop off to Wastebusters for recycling – scroll down for a full breakdown (some charges may apply):
We do not take some materials because there is no reprocessor that we can send them to for recycling.
We can recycle most things that you can put in your kerbside recycling bin (please remember to clean them first!):
We can’t recycle:
Cost: $5 per crate (up to 60 litres) of household recycling dropped off.
We recycle clean, white polystyrene with stickers removed (no polystyrene meat trays please as they are contaminated with blood). We crush it in a special baler which doubles its density before sending it off to be reprocessed.
We no longer accept batteries. Wastebusters funded battery recycling for our community for many years, and we’re happy to see the service now provided free of charge by the council through the district’s transfer stations.
We recycle cell phones for free. Cellphones and their batteries contain heavy metals and brominated flame retardant plastic which may cause toxic leachate if they go to landfill. Every smartphone contains precious materials including gold, silver, copper, platinum and palladium, so throwing them in the landfill is a real waste!
Most people wanted businesses to help them reduce their environmental impact. The majority of respondents were keen to see BYO containers encouraged, a reduction in packaging, and businesses reducing and recycling their own waste.
The survey was answered by 675 people. The insights will be used in future campaigns and initiatives, to create helpful workshops and further online resources, and to target Wastebusters activities for maximum waste reduction impact.
Wastebusters accepts computers, printers, TV’s, faxes, cell-phones and computer accessories (keyboards, mice, routers etc) for recycling. There are different charges to cover the costs of responsible recycling depending on the weight and value of materials inside the item, see our E-waste recycling page for details and prices.
We recycle eco-bulbs for a donation to help cover costs. Some eco-bulbs contain mercury, so you don’t want them to end up in the landfill. During the recycling process, the tubes are crushed, elements separated and mercury is recovered.
We work with Cartridge World to recycle printer cartridges. Drop in your used printer cartridges to the Wastebuters yard and we send them off to be refilled and reused. Any obsolete or broken cartridges are recycled.
Clean, clear plastic wrap marked with a number 4 can be recycled (eg plastic pallet wrap). The wrap should have a slight stretch in it when pulled. Wastebusters does not recycle household soft plastics (e.g. bread bags).
We collect refillable glass bottles which can be washed and reused: Emersons and Speights/ABC swappa-crate, Bombay Sapphire. Keep them separate when you drop off your recycling, and we’ll make sure they go round again for another cheery, beery life.
Our glass goes to Auckland to be made back in glass bottles and jars. Closed loop bottle-to-bottle recycling is the best outcome for glass according to the waste hierarchy, and our use of coastal shipping ensures that the carbon footprint of bottles made from our recycled glass is lower than using virgin materials.
Wastebusters accepts cellphones, computers, printers, TV’s, faxes, cell-phones and computer accessories (keyboards, mice, routers etc) for recycling as well as other e-waste recycling items. There are different charges to cover the costs of responsible recycling depending on the weight and value of materials inside the item, see our E-waste recycling page for details and prices.
This year our amazing Wastebusters whānau has been busy keeping everything we can out of landfill and supporting resourcefulness in our community while also working on bringing our dream of Wastebusters 2.0 into reality.
We were humbled and absolutely stoked to take home the Wānaka Chamber of Commerce Business Awards Supreme Business Award, along with the Community Contribution and Business Sustainability awards. This success was a powerful recognition of the dedicated mahi of our entire team, giving us huge confidence for the ambitious journey ahead.
We welcomed Aviette Musin on a fixed-term contract as our new Programme Manager for Wastebusters 2.0. Her expertise provided the dedicated, focused capacity needed to accelerate progress on this strategic goal.
Funding was secured through Queenstown Lakes Community Composting Project for the Compost Collect pilot, a joint venture with our neighbours Wānaka Greenwaste that will turn commercial food scraps into valuable compost, launching in 2026. We also intensified our focus on Construction and Demolition (C&D) materials, trialling diversion methodology and securing initial partnerships to divert waste from landfill. With our current site so space-constrained, we are extremely limited in the C&D materials which can be accepted for reuse, but this work will lay the groundwork for future diversion on a bigger site.
We made a compelling case to the Council for the necessary land expansion for Wastebusters 2.0 and prepared for the MfE Waste Minimisation Fund application process to support our expansion plans.
A continued focus for us this year has been on strengthening the Wastebusters whānau and ensuring we are equipped not just for the daily challenges, but for future growth. We continued to be a Living Wage employer, reflecting our commitment to the well-being and value of our staff. Feedback from the team via staff survey results highlighted strong morale and resilience within our workplace culture with 89% saying they enjoy working at Wastebusters and 93% feeling cared for by their manager.
The district’s rapid growth brings challenges as well as opportunities, particularly the Ballantyne Road/Riverbank Road roadworks which demanded flexibility and good humour from our team and customers throughout 2024. Despite the road cones, ongoing community support ensured our Reuse Shop continued to be a first choice destination for both locals and visitors. Improved donation flows and adding new changing rooms has made the shop operation smoother and more efficient for everyone.
Wastebusters’ partnership with events continues to go from strength to strength: including the trial of a food scraps collection from vendors. And our Recycle team did the huge job of relabeling all our events recycling bins to align with national recycling colours, making it easier for event-goers to know what to do. Wastebusters recycling trucks continue to be a much-loved presence in town servicing our 408 business customers, with the team doing a great job of keeping our aging fleet serviceable, in line with our kaupapa of keeping resources in use for as long as possible.
Our Reduce team has continued to deliver exceptional impact, with more than 11,000 people engaged in person through our education and engagement in the community. The Resourceful Communities programme inspires our community to take action and builds the knowledge and know how to engage in areas like repair, low waste living and textile waste diversion. It is proudly supported by QLDC’s zero waste district’s programme which recognises the impact of community connection for zero waste action.
We were stoked to join Environment Hubs Aotearoa, and we look forward to collaborating with this network and amplifying our collective impact on environmental action and resourcefulness across Aotearoa.
We worked with an impact consultant to implement an evaluation framework and behaviour change model to better plan, deliver and measure our impact, and have begun rolling out our learnings across all our programmes.
It was a busy year in advocacy, starting with participation in QLDC’s Waste Management and Minimisation Plan process. We appreciated QLDC’s approach in bringing Wastebusters and other stakeholders in early in the process, which has resulted in a constructive plan for the next six years. Wastebusters has also made submissions on national and local level, including The Right to Repair Bill, the Container Return Scheme and the publicly notified resource consent for McDonald’s in Wānaka.
Ultimately, this year has been about delivering impact while building the foundations for a much larger and even more impactful operation, securing Wastebusters’ future for our community. The heart of our work remains resource recovery and community engagement, and we enter the next 25 years of zero waste leadership with great confidence, welcome community support and an unwavering focus.
Gina Dempster
General Manager
November 2025
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