EcoCentral – the council-owned company that sorts all the yellow bin recycling and operates three transfer stations – will temporarily suspend operations at its materials recovery facility.

Mixed paper, plastic and glass from Christchurch and Banks Peninsula households will go to landfill, instead of being recycled.

EcoCentral – the council-owned company that sorts all the yellow bin recycling and operates three transfer stations – will temporarily suspend operations at its materials recovery facility.

"This is not an ideal situation but EcoCentral is concerned about the safety of its staff and their potential exposure to Covid-19," council city services general manager David Adamson said.

ALDEN WILLIAMS/STUFF The Christchurch City Council bin inspection team could be coming to your neighbourhood next.

"The global impact of the Covid-19 crisis is also impacting on EcoCentral's ability to sell into overseas markets so the company has made the call to temporarily suspend its operations."

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There was no capacity to store the recyclable material, usually stored in yellow wheelie bins, and it would have to go to landfill until the plant resumed operations, Adamson said.

JOSEPH JOHNSON/STUFF A Christchurch recycling plant has closed to keep workers safe from coronavirus.

If people were struggling to fit all their general rubbish in their red wheelie bin during the lockdown, they could put excess in the yellow wheelie bin.

But this would be a short-term measure only.

"We're relaxing the rules for the period of the lockdown but as soon as the plant reopens we will need people to resume using their yellow bins for accepted recyclable materials only," Adamson said.

"We cannot afford to let contaminated materials into the recycling stream – every 1 per cent of contamination costs us about $75,000."

Organic material only should be placed in the green wheelie bin, he said. Bins should continue to be put out at the normal time.

Many other councils around the country have also been forced to suspend their recycling operations.