Recycling and Rubbish Services on Upcoming Public Holidays
Thursday, 10 May 2012
The Council's refuse and recycling collections will be carried out on their usual collection day on the upcoming holidays:
- Queen's Birthday, Monday 4 June 2012 (week 2 recycling)
The Council's transfer stations are open on Queen's Birthday.
Southbrook Resource Recovery Park
Thursday, 10 May 2012
The new Resource Recovery Park ( the larger, expanded recycling centre and the ReSale Store) have continued to be very popular. Recycling quantities are still up on last year’s figures, and the ReSale Store is being well supplied with household goods, and is well patronised by customers. It’s certainly worth popping into the shop to pick up a bargain.
We now separate out recyclable paint at the household hazardous waste drop-off and this is sent to Otaki to be re-made into Enviropaint. The 'e-Scrap' drop-off is being made good use of by our customers – this is for electronic items such as computers, cell-phones, toasters, vacuum cleaners, televisions, heaters and so on. These are sent to Metalcorp for recycling. There is a charge for older style (CRT) television sets and computer monitors (the charge is dependent on size) but everything else is free.
Only 'charged' materials such as refuse, greenwaste, hardfill, tyres, plasterboard, non-recyclable expanded polystyrene foam, and commercial volumes (more than 1.5 cubic metres) of recyclable expanded polystyrene foam need to be brought over the new weighbridge, past the kiosk - customers are now charged by weight, which is a much more equitable system than the old 'per vehicle' charge used to be.
There is more space for customers to make greenwaste disposal easier, but we are finding some non-acceptable materials creeping into the loads. We cannot send contaminated greenwaste to our composters – it goes to Kate Valley landfill – so we do ask customers to only drop off the materials on our ‘accepted’ list at the greenwaste area.
We are working on setting up a recycling scheme for window glass, and will provide an update once that is ready to start.
Waste Management Plan Review
Thursday, 10 May 2012
The Council has completed its Waste Assessment and has reviewed the 2009 Waste Management Plan, and has prepared a draft Waste Management and Minimisation Plan which is not out for consultation. The Council’s Waste Assessment has shown that our District appears to be producing less waste than the national average, although that may be because we don’t have a significant industrial and commercial sector contributing to the waste stream.
The assessment confirmed that organic waste (garden and food wastes) and waste from construction and demolition are the ‘big ticket’ items now that the kerbside recycling and transfer station upgrades have been implemented. The draft Waste Management and Minimisation Plan will present a range of options relating to landfill diversion (for example diversion of organic waste for beneficial use, and improving access to recycling services for rural residents) which the Council proposes to investigate in the next few years.
Refuse and Recycling Kerbside Collections
Friday, 16 December 2011
More people are filling their recycling bins to capacity with the onset of summer and (hopefully) finer weather, which is all good for our recycling figures, so thank you all for recycling!
The below graph shows how much the new wheelie bin service has increased total kerbside recycling tonnages since its introduction in April 2010 – the increase has ranged from between 15% and 24%, and averages out to be 18% higher than the same period during the previous year.
The unfortunate side effect of the increase in recycling has been that a few bins are being over-filled so that the bin lids can’t be shut over the contents. Remember, the lid of your bin must be fully closed to ensure it gets collected. To fit more in your bin, you could flatten your cardboard boxes and place them in vertically so that they don’t create an air gap. Also, paper is heavier than many people think – if your bin is only half full of paper, it will still probably be heavier than our 70 kg weight limit, and your bin won’t be emptied.
You can drop off excess paper, large amounts of cardboard, or any extra recycling that you can’t easily fit in your bin, for free at the Council’s Southbrook Resource Recovery Park at 284 Flaxton Road.