• Our guidelines

    WasteMINZ has produced guidelines to provide best practice advice to the waste industry, producers, consumers and advertisers.

Kerbside ​Organics Collection and Processing Guide

The purpose of this document is to provide information to councils designing kerbside organic collections for households in their area.


The guide includes insights gained from local and international experience, and a step-by-step framework to support councils from planning through to operating a kerbside organics service.

Technical Guidelines: Characterising ​Surplus Soil for Disposal

This guidance has been developed to:
  • ensure surplus soils are adequately sampled,
  • enable maximisation of soil reuse and minimisation of soil disposal to landfill,
  • ensure that potential physical, chemical and biological hazards from surplus soils are properly considered to allow for disposal at facilities with appropriate control measures, and
  • develop and promote a consistent approach to assessing soils for re-use or disposal throughout the country.

​Guidelines for assessing and managing coal tar contamination in roading

This guidance has been produced in response to requests to WasteMINZ from practitioners seeking greater certainty on how to identify coal tar in roading; and if present, what may be the best way to manage the contaminated material and assess the risk to human health and the environment.

​Compostable and biodegradable packaging

​Guidelines on claims about ​recyclability, recycled content, reusability and repairability

These guidelines:

  •  help organisations avoid making inaccurate or misleading claims about the recyclability, reusability, repairability or recycled content of their products, and;
  • help customers and consumers make informed pre-purchase choices with regards to the properties and post-use destinations of the products they buy. 

​Technical guidelines for disposal to land

This document has been designed to provide technical guidance on the siting, design, construction, operation, and monitoring for disposal to land and in essence 'brings together' and supersedes the following documents:
  • A Guide to the Management of Cleanfills (Ministry for the Environment 2002)
  • Landfill Guidelines (Centre for Advanced Engineering 2000)

The Technical Guidelines for Disposal to Land seek to establish 'good practice requirements' for the various landfill classes based on waste acceptance criteria.

Waste industry guidelines to manage the collection, receipt, transport and disposal of ​asbestos waste

These guidelines are for the waste, resource recovery and contaminated land sectors and they address: 
  • Collection of pre-wrapped asbestos waste from a customer’s site; 
  • Receipt of pre-wrapped asbestos waste at a transfer station; 
  • Discovery of unexpected asbestos waste at a transfer station; 
  • Disposal of pre-wrapped asbestos waste to landfill.

​Health & Safety Guidelines for the Solid Waste and Resource Recovery Sector

The solid waste and resource recovery sector is striving to move towards good practice in health and safety management. The purpose of these guidelines is to provide practical advice to help achieve this goal. The guidelines also aim to help organisations achieve the ‘bottom line’: compliance with the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 (HSWA) and associated regulations. The guidelines are developed by the sector, for the sector.

​Consent guide for ​composting operations in New Zealand

This Guide provides an overview of the key features of commercial composting operations in the context of the resource consent process, to assist with the development and implementation of appropriate and effective resource consent conditions for composting facilities.

Good practice guidelines for collecting waste on ​cycle lanes (2018)

People on bikes and cycling infrastructure can present a number of hazards to waste collection vehicle operators when they are carrying out kerbside collection activities, and in turn these operators can present hazards to people on bikes. These guidelines  address these areas and are targeted at waste collection companies, Road Controlling Authorities, territorial authorities (who operate or contract out their waste collection services), the New Zealand Transport Agency, cycling advocacy groups, roading engineers, WorkSafe New Zealand and the New Zealand Police’s Commercial Vehicle Safety Team.