Feilding’s Rubbish Under the Microscope
Last week, Manawatū District Council teamed up with Precycle NZ to carry out a Feilding Blue Rubbish Bag waste audit. Select blue bags were chosen at random to be set aside, opened and inspected by Precycle NZ to determine what was in the bag.
Precycle NZ are local specialists in waste auditing and analysis, helping communities better understand what’s really going to landfill.
The audit, known as a Solid Waste Analysis Protocol (SWAP) assessment, helps Council learn exactly what’s in our rubbish. The goal is to identify items that could be recycled or diverted instead, guiding new services and targeted education campaigns so we can keep as much as possible out of landfill.
From our last SWAP audit, we discovered that 38% of blue bag contents were organics, such as food scraps and green waste, presenting a big opportunity for waste reduction.
This year’s audit revealed a few surprises. The weirdest find? A whole deer carcass! The most popular trend? Plenty of Popeyes takeaway packaging. Clearly Feilding has been taste-testing the new arrival to the region.
The full results from the 2025 audit will be released soon, so keep an eye out to see what we’ve learned, and how together we can continue to reduce our waste footprint.