Dear Editor, My apologies to the kids whose school holiday project became the finished piece of Infrastructure’s attempt to inform us about our roadside collection.

What a waste of money. If the government is committed to providing this service then the least they could do is show us how to do it properly. The topographical map because we all know what Rarotonga looks like from space. It's too small and has no reference marks like town, Edgewater, Trader Jacks, Muri, Rarotongan etc. things we know. Half the roads don’t have road signs so who knows where zone A, B, C starts and finishes.

It says prohibited and mixed waste won’t be collected but it doesn’t tell us what else to do with it. So, guess we will just dump it at the beach or in the bush.

Sad to see plastic food containers are a yes in general waste, couldn’t they be in recyclable plastic? It’s a white background and you put a picture of a white plastic bag and containers, can hardly see them. Not a lot of options of pictures to tell us what we can put in.

What about other things cereal packets, coffee refills, frozen veggies, peanut butter containers or is that plastic recyclable? What is not acceptable in the general waste – the picture of several things is so small who knows what they are. Big picture of Duracell batteries but not car batteries next to it. Green waste should show food scraps with a caption – compost your food and garden cuttings. It says no medical waste cardboard or polystyrene but it doesn’t say what to do with these things.

Empty plastic drink bottles are in the ‘No’ photo, but in ‘Yes’ recyclable photo a plastic beverage bottle is shown full of Coca-Cola. No other plastic bottles like dishwashing or shampoo, Janola or juice bottles. Glass bottles are full of beer, no wine or spirits bottles, are broken glasses and plates allowed? What about light bulbs? Shiny empty aluminium cans are shown but no accompanying note next to them saying clean your tins. Can’t see everyone cleaning tins to this level. Way down the bottom of the page it mentions cleaning your recyclables.

On the ‘No’ recyclables we have four different plastic chairs all in good condition but we can hardly see what the other things are that we can’t put in. No suitcases or engine parts but we can put in computers, radios, PS4 games or is that homeware? 

This really should have been done better. A picture could be worth a thousand words if done properly. Someone up top approved this and was paid to do so. It’s more confusing than it was beforehand.

Recycle rubbish

(Name and address supplied)