Ashburton District Council chief executive Hamish Riach says that the accusations made on TV show Fair Go about the district’s recycling efforts are misleading. A Fair Go episode claimed that at least 80 percent of Ashburton District’s public recycling was not sorted and ended up being dumped in landfill, which Riach says is inaccurate. However, the council’s infrastructure and open spaces manager Neil McCann says that the district’s household recycling “absolutely” goes to recycling. The show’s implication was that everything that went into recycling bins ended up in landfill, but Riach says this is not the case. The district’s kerbside recycling has had issues with contamination, but through a three-strike monitoring programme it was below 5 percent. The show’s potential to undo all the progress made in the district’s recycling habits is of greater concern to Riach.