Gold star for you: New Zealand council puts stickers on bins of best recyclers

Recycling rates soar in Christchurch after council rewards the best households and confiscates bins of laggards

A recycling scheme in New Zealand modelled on rewards familiar to kindergarten children has seen tonnes of additional recycling head to the sorters every week, instead of landfill.

Following the coronavirus lockdown in March and April, Christchurch city council saw recycling rates plummet, with material from only 48% of recycling trucks able to be processed in June due to frequent contamination issues, the result of poor sorting by residents.