From 1st February 2023 all local authorities are required to separate items that have Waste Upholstered Domestic Seating (WUDS) from the rest of waste we take at the Reuse and Recycling Centre.

The items listed below contain Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) which have been used in upholstered furniture as a flame retardant to make them firesafe. The use of POPs stopped in 2019 because of the hazard they pose to humans and the environment. New upholstered furniture is still made fire safe but using a different chemical which is kinder to the environment. 

You can still bring these items to the centre but our gate staff will help you put them in a special POPs bay.

What bulky items are POPs?

• Bean bags
• Floor and sofa cushions
• Upholstered kitchen and diniing room chairs
• Office chairs
• Sofas and armchairs (including leather)
• Sofa beds
• Upholstered stools

Disposal

You cannot mix damaged POP items with non-POP items. If you have POP and non-POP items, we will dispose of everything you bring to the site as a POP unless you have kept them separate from each other.

For example: if you have a damaged POP item, such as a ripped dining chair, and a bag of clothes, you need to store the items away from each other (perhaps one in the boot and one in the back of the vehicle). The dining chair would then go in the POPs bay and the clothes would go in the textiles bay. 

If you bring both items together without separating them, we will dispose of both of them as POPs.

Where do POP items go to be disposed of?

We cannot send these items to landfill so we have to destroy them. When you bring them to the Reuse and Recycling Centre, we store them separately and will shred them in a controlled environment at our Refuse Derived Facility (RDF) in Nathan Way. Finally, we burn them.