Car Recycling in Nelson & Tasman: Where to Take Tyres, Batteries, Oil and Old Cars (2026 Guide)

We pick up cars all over Nelson and Tasman every day, and we hear the same questions on nearly every job. "Can you take these old tyres too?" "Where do I chuck the oil from the last service?" "Is this battery rubbish or is it worth something?"

The answers are scattered across council websites, industry schemes and word of mouth, so we've put them in one place. This guide covers every part of a car that people end up needing to get rid of, from a single spark plug to the whole vehicle. It's written for home mechanics, farmers clearing out a shed, landlords tidying a section, and anyone who's just bought a house that came with somebody else's car parts.

Before you load the trailer: what each site accepts, and what it charges, changes from time to time. Check the Nelson City Council or Tasman District Council website, or phone ahead, before you make the trip.

1. What's actually in a car?

A typical small-to-medium passenger car in New Zealand weighs somewhere around 1,100 to 1,500 kg. Most of that is metal, which is why end-of-life cars are among the most recycled products in the world. Here's a rough breakdown for a typical petrol hatchback or sedan:

Figures are approximate industry averages and vary a lot between models. EVs and hybrids, for example, carry a large traction battery and usually more aluminium.

The takeaway: roughly three-quarters of a car's weight is metal that can be recycled, and many of the parts can be reused before that happens. The parts that cause trouble are the small hazardous ones: oil, coolant, batteries, refrigerant gas and tyres. That's what most of this guide is about.

2. Quick directory: where each item goes

Nelson City Council runs the Pascoe Street resource recovery centre in Tahunanui. Tasman District Council runs resource recovery centres in Richmond, Mariri (near Motueka), Tākaka, Collingwood and Murchison. Both councils publish what each site takes and its current fees.

3. Old tyres

Tyres are the item people ask us about most. Every garage and farm shed in Tasman seems to have a stack of them.

Why you can't just bin or burn them

• Burning tyres is illegal under the regional air quality rules and releases toxic smoke. It's one of the most common causes of complaints to both councils.
• Stockpiles are a fire and pest risk. Tyre fires are extremely hard to put out, and standing water in old tyres breeds mosquitoes.
• Dumping tyres is an offence under the Litter Act, and dumped tyres often end up in streams and gullies.

What to do instead

New Zealand now has a regulated product stewardship scheme for tyres, run as Tyrewise. A fee is paid when new tyres enter the country, and that funds the collection and recycling of old ones. In practice, that means you can usually drop end-of-life tyres at a participating collection site without paying again. Many tyre retailers in Nelson, Stoke, Richmond and Motueka take part. Use the Tyrewise site finder to see what's closest and whether there's a limit on numbers or types.

Collected tyres are turned into things like crumb rubber for playgrounds and sports surfaces, tyre-derived fuel, and civil engineering material.

Tyres still on a car you're selling? Leave them on. We take the car complete, wheels and all, and the tyres go through the proper channels.

4. Car batteries (12-volt)

A standard 12-volt lead-acid car battery weighs around 12–20 kg, and most of that is lead. The rest is sulfuric acid and a plastic case. All three can be recovered, and lead-acid batteries are one of the most successfully recycled products there are.

• Don't put one in the rubbish. Lead is toxic, and the acid can burn people and start fires in rubbish trucks.
• Scrap metal dealers usually pay for them, because the lead has real value. The amount depends on the lead price and the battery's size.
• Battery retailers often take your old battery when you buy a new one.
• Council resource recovery centres accept household batteries for free or a small fee.

Handling tips: keep the battery upright, carry it with gloves on, and don't let the terminals touch metal in your boot. A cracked or leaking battery should go in a sturdy plastic tub. Tell the site it's leaking when you arrive.

Small batteries from key fobs, alarm remotes and dash cams are different. Those are household battery recycling items. Many retailers and council sites have collection bins.

5. Engine oil, coolant and other fluids

A car's engine holds roughly 3 to 6 litres of oil, plus coolant, brake fluid, power-steering and transmission fluid, washer fluid and whatever fuel is left in the tank. If you service your own car, you'll build up a collection of these quickly.

Used engine oil

It's commonly said that a single litre of used oil can contaminate up to a million litres of water. Whatever the exact figure, it's a lot. And in Nelson, stormwater drains don't go to a treatment plant. They run into streams like the Maitai, the Brook, the York and Poorman Valley streams, and from there into the Haven and Tasman Bay.

• Drain it into a clean, sealed container such as the empty bottle the new oil came in. Don't mix it with coolant, fuel or solvents, because mixed oil is much harder to re-refine.
• Take it to Pascoe Street in Nelson or a Tasman resource recovery centre. Household quantities are often accepted free of charge. Check the council website for current limits.
• Some workshops will also take small amounts of oil from regular customers. Ask yours.
• Used oil filters still hold oil. Drain them overnight, then bag them and ask the site how they want them handled.

Coolant, brake fluid and other fluids

Coolant (antifreeze) is toxic and tastes sweet, which makes it a real danger to dogs, cats and small children. Brake fluid is corrosive. Keep these in labelled, sealed containers and take them to a council hazardous waste drop-off. Ask the site before you go, because not every centre accepts every liquid. Never pour fluids onto the ground, into a sump, or down a stormwater drain.

Air-conditioning gas

Car air-con systems contain refrigerant gas that's a powerful greenhouse gas, and in older cars an ozone-depleting one. It must be recovered with proper equipment by a certified technician. Deliberately venting it is an offence. When a car goes to a proper wrecker, the gas is recovered as part of the depollution process.

6. Hybrid and EV batteries

Nelson Tasman has plenty of hybrids and EVs on the road, and the early Toyota Priuses, Aquas and Nissan Leafs are now reaching the end of their lives. Their big traction batteries are a completely different thing from a 12-volt battery:

• They're high-voltage and can give a dangerous shock even when the car seems dead. Don't try to remove one yourself.
• Transfer stations don't accept them. They need specialist handling and transport.
• They often still have value, either for reuse in home energy storage, for rebuilding packs, or for the materials inside them, such as nickel, cobalt and lithium.

The simplest route is to sell the whole vehicle, battery included, to a buyer that handles hybrids and EVs. Our guide to what a hybrid or EV with a dead battery is worth goes into the details.

7. Scrap metal, panels and spare parts

If you've been pulling a project car apart, you probably have piles of steel panels, alloy wheels, brake discs, a radiator or two and some old wiring. Most of it is worth something.

• Sort before you go. Scrap dealers pay different rates for different metals. Clean aluminium (alloy wheels without tyres, for example), copper wiring and brass radiators pay more than mixed steel. A magnet helps: if it sticks, it's steel or iron.
• Bring photo ID. Under the Secondhand Dealers and Pawnbrokers Act, licensed scrap dealers have to record who sold them what. That's one of the main protections against metal theft, so don't be offended when they ask.
• Catalytic converters contain precious metals and are worth more than most parts. Because they're a common theft target, a reputable buyer will want to know where yours came from.
• Usable parts such as engines, gearboxes, headlights, seats and wheels are worth far more as parts than as scrap. Try listing them online, or offering them to a local car club or a wrecker. Every part that gets reused means one less new part made and shipped to New Zealand.

8. Plates, child seats, e-tags and the bits people forget

• Standard number plates stay with the vehicle when it's sold. When a car is deregistered at the end of its life, the plates are cancelled. Don't sell or reuse them.
• Personalised plates are yours, not the car's. Transfer them to another vehicle or put them on hold through plates.co.nz before you sell, or they'll go with the car.
• Toll and parking accounts, e-tags and eRUC devices: remove them and update your account. Otherwise someone else's trips may end up on your bill.
• Child car seats have an expiry date and shouldn't be reused after a crash. Some retailers and community programmes run car-seat take-back schemes, so ask before you put one in general waste.
• Dash cams, phone mounts, chargers and cables: take them out or recycle them as e-waste.
• Gas bottles, jerry cans and aerosols that live in the boot need to be removed. These are fire risks at the crusher and at transfer stations.

9. Recycling a whole car

This is the part we know best. When a car has reached the end of the road, whether it's failed its WOF, been written off, or just stopped running, here's what responsible recycling looks like:

1. Ownership is checked and transferred. A legitimate buyer checks your ID and completes the NZTA change of ownership, so you're no longer responsible for the car. We won't take a car from someone who isn't its owner. Our abandoned car guide explains what to do if a car isn't yours.
2. Depollution. Fuel, oil, coolant, brake fluid and refrigerant are drained and captured. The battery and tyres are removed for recycling.
3. Parts recovery. Good engines, gearboxes, panels, lights and wheels are tested and resold, keeping other Kiwi cars on the road for less.
4. Deregistration. The vehicle is deregistered with NZTA, so it can't be put back on the road without proper checks. You may be due a refund of unused rego or RUC.
5. Metal recycling. The stripped shell is crushed, shredded and separated, and the metals go on to be made into new products.

It costs you nothing and takes about 20 minutes on your driveway. In most cases you're also paid for the car, because its metal and parts have value. Our 2026 scrap car price guide shows what to expect, and what happens to your car at a Nelson wrecker covers the yard side in more detail.

What about taking it to the tip? Transfer stations aren't set up to take whole cars, and you'd be paying to dispose of something that's worth money. Leaving it on the section isn't free either. Every month outside means more rust, more rodent damage and a lower value.

10. Why it matters in Nelson Tasman

We live in one of the most beautiful parts of the country, with Abel Tasman, the Waimea Inlet, the Haven and Golden Bay on our doorstep. Many of the region's streams run through suburbs and farmland before they reach the sea. The Waimea Inlet in particular is one of the largest enclosed estuaries in the South Island, and it collects runoff from Richmond, Brightwater, Wakefield and the Waimea Plains.

A leaking car on a lawn, a bucket of oil tipped behind the shed, or a stack of tyres that eventually burns all end up in that water and air. None of these problems is large on its own. But across a region of more than 110,000 people and more vehicles than households, they add up.

The good news is that doing the right thing is usually free, and sometimes it pays.