Waste and Recycling Update
Did you know those old glass jars you’ve been recycling are being used to build roads, your unwanted green waste is being composted with nappies to replenish soils, and even empty agricultural chemical containers are being turned into protective covers for electric cables?
Since February 2009, when the Hurunui District Council introduced its ‘combined recycling model’ nearly 3,000 tonnes of waste material has been recycled in the Hurunui District. The reduction in our waste mountain is,Mayor Winton Dalley believes, a direct result of a number of partnerships, and innovative recycling and waste reduction projects supported by the Council that have won the support of its community.
“We needed to find a better way to not only preserve our landfill capacity as long as possible, but to also minimise the environmental impacts of an unfettered waste disposal on our district. What is pleasing to us, is the way residents and businesses have responded.
Without their willingness to buy-into the schemes now in place, we would not have achieved the success we have.”
Turning glass into roads and dry waste into mulch and fuel
Much of what has previously been considered waste in Hurunui is now recognised as valuable commodities in road making, farming, landscaping and the electrical industry. Since glass recycling was reintroduced three and a half years ago, more than 875 tonnes of bottles and jars collected through district transfer stations and from the Hanmer Springs kerbside collections, has been crushed for use in road construction throughout Canterbury.
Mayor Dalley says not only is it now being used in a worthwhile way, but ratepayers are also gaining some economic benefits in terms of reduced costs of sending the material landfill. Over 900 tonnes of ‘dry waste’ collected from transfer stations, including plasterboard and untreated timber, which would previously have been sent to landfill, has also been recycled. Once sorted, plasterboard is mulched into gypsum; untreated timber is chipped for boiler fuel; and a wide range of other recyclables including cardboard, plastics and metals are recycled locally.
Both glass and dry waste is loaded onto empty waste trucks returning to Christchurch from Kate Valley landfill. This back-loading brings increased efficiencies by minimising transport movements. Each month we also send around 13 tonnes of green ‘garden’ waste from
our transfer stations for shredding and use as a bulking agent in the composting of nappies, incontinence and sanitary items.
The compost produced is used locally to replenish and enhance soils.
For the past four years, the Council has also supported an agricultural plastic recovery programme, through its Culverden transfer station, where empty high density polyethylene (HDPE) plastic containers used to store pesticides, veterinary medicines and agricultural
chemicals can be collected for recycling.
Mayor Dalley says several tonnes of containers and drums which would previously have been discarded or stored on farms around the district have been shredded and recycled into protective covers for electrical cables.
“This is clearly a far more environmentally and economically sustainable alternative to disposal."
Because the Council is keen to stop the practice of burning and burying waste plastics on farms it also supports various “on farm collection” schemes to remove used bale wrap, HDPE 100 and 200 litre drums, polypropylene bags and vineyard net for recycling.
Looking outside the square
The Hurunui District Council constantly reviews opportunities to provide convenient ways to help residents, businesses and tourists manage their waste. Because a significant proportion of what is ending up in landfill comes from organic waste, such as garden waste and kitchen leftovers, Mayor Dalley says it made sense to find new and better ways of disposing of it.
“Sending organic waste to landfill uses valuable space and helps produce greenhouse gasses which damages the environment for future generations, when it could easily be composted.”Schools have been offered FREE start up kits and bokashi for one year to encourage Hurunui’s principal waste producers of the future to recycle their food waste.
Information on Bokashi Composting
Recycling stations for dry recyclables have also recently been installed in Hanmer Springs, adjacent to the library in Cheltenham Street, and public toilets on Chisholm Crescent, to encourage visitors and tourists to also minimise their waste
while enjoying the opportunities and experiences offered by our district. The stations, which were designed and built locally, accept all food and drink cans, newspapers, magazines, cardboard, plastic and glass bottles.
Where possible everything collected is recycled within Canterbury.
Recycling bins were also provided by the Council at the Amuri and Hawarden A&P Shows for the first time this year, in a trial facilitated by Hurunui Recycling.
A quarter of a tonne (265kg) of recyclable waste was collected providing some insight into the level of recycling that could be achieved.
The Council is now investigating the viability of providing recycling drop-off facilities at future shows and events.
The Hurunui District Council is also currently working with other Canterbury councils to develop acceptance schemes for e-waste and paint for implementation in the councils transfer stations. Mayor Dalley says the district has clearly made significant gains in reducing,
reusing and recycling in recent years.
“It is good to see that as a community we are continuing to build on the groundbreaking work of our locally based domestic recyclers. As a council we recognise the importance of facilitating and supporting opportunities for that work to continue into the future, but at the end of the day, it is up to our residents to utilise them. This is truly an issue where we are ‘working together’”.