Answers to your questions

I would like to sign up / become a member. How do I do this? 

Become a member

I would like to be a drop off point. How to do I make this happen?

Become a drop-off location

I would like to be a processing partner. How to do I make this happen?

become a partner
The Caps and Lids Recycling Scheme is a voluntary, member-funded product stewardship scheme run by The Packaging Forum.
 
The Scheme is designed to divert plastic and metal lids from landfill, to be recycled. Caps and lids are no longer collected at kerbside recycling (following the September 2023 announcement by the Ministry for the Environment re the standardisation of kerbside collections).  Despite the plastic and metal being a valuable material, they have been included in the list of excluded materials.
We have designed this Scheme to ensure as many caps and lids as possible are collected, recycled and therefore diverted from landfill.

The metal caps will be sent to metal recyclers in New Zealand for processing and recycling; and the plastic lids will be collected, locally granulated, washed, and dried then sent to Australia to be sorted and reused to make a range of new products including wheelie bins, flowers pots, slipsheet and cable covers.

The Scheme operates in a way to ensure all material collected is processed and recycled into a new product.

Yes! We can only accept caps & lids so please remove the cap / lid from each container beforehand (the container can likely be put directly into kerbside recycling). Every cap and lid needs to be clean and dry.

There are locations all around the country you can find a location here

The bins are for metal and plastic caps & lids only. There are two bins, one for metal only and the other for plastic only. The material must be separated.
 
Do not put any glass, wood or any lids made from any other material into the bins as they will reduce the value of the materials and make it difficult to recycle.
 
We cannot accept coffee cups or their lids. We also cannot accept pumps or trigger tops.

We are taking a managed rollout approach in order to best manage our network’s capacity so, at the outset, we are prioritising registered waste and recycling hubs. Any organisation can become a Scheme member however.

At this stage, no. We are asking everyone to drop off their caps in the official collection boxes at specific locations throughout New Zealand which you can find here. These agencies will then send those boxes directly through to the processors once those boxes are full. This is because we have a set network for this initiative in place and, importantly, there are separate bins for plastic and for metal caps – so by doing this we can correctly ensure the caps & lids are sorted and clean before they are tipped into the bigger collection bins.

It is really important that the plastic and metal lids are not mixed.

Crown caps (e.g. bottle caps), jar lids, ring pull caps, wire from sparkling beverages, metal screw top lids.

No, metal tabs are attached to aluminium cans which are already captured and recycled through kerbside recycling programmes, so we don’t need to include these.

Plastic hinged caps (flip top cap), screw cap lids, plastic milk bottle lids, drink bottle caps, plastic ice-cream container lids, plastic yoghurt, and dip pottle lids (not peel off film), supplement pottle lids.

We cannot collect the lids off disposable coffee cups as these are often made of non-recyclable material.

Our focus is on promoting a sustainable circular economy and in reducing the use of virgin material extraction. Recovering valuable materials, such as these caps & lids, not only ensures less waste to landfill but we have the ability to recycle them in to new, consumable products.

The Caps and Lids Recycling Programme is a voluntary, member-funded product stewardship scheme run by The Packaging Forum. It was launched in September 2024 by the Forum and is 100% funded by members and provides sustainable, end-of-life solutions for packaging, particularly caps and lids which cannot be accepted at kerbside. This programme is also supported by the Forum’s stakeholder partners – NZ Food and Grocery Council, Plastics NZ, NZ Association of Metal Recyclers.

All caps & lids can be recycled through the programme. Just make sure they are clean and separated into the plastic and metal collection boxes. Check out where you can recycle and locations here

I would like to sign up / become a member – how do I do this? Link

I would like to be a drop off point – how to do I make this happen? Link

I would like to be a processing partner – how to do I make this happen? Link