Rethinking Waste - recycling initiatives identified

Kerbside recycling is among waste minimisation initiatives back on the agenda for the Gore District Council.

The Council this week agreed to several initiatives to come out of its Rethinking Waste project. They include:

• Investigating the feasibility and community support for a kerbside recycling collection service,
• Looking at employing a waste minimisation officer, and
• Undertaking a feasibility study into a resource recovery park

In a report, Chief Executive Stephen Parry said that a lot had changed since 2020 when the Council made the difficult decision to only offer a glass kerbside recycling service in Gore and Mataura.

“At the time, we were seeing a progressive withdrawal or collapse of overseas markets, which caused the Council to question the wisdom of continuing a service where the product could only be stockpiled or sent to landfill.

“There was also the contentious recycling tender process with the then Southland disability Enterprises, which was ultimately abandoned.”

The Council was now in a position to reimagine how it would deal with waste.

“There are encouraging signs about changing market conditions, giving new hope that recycling could once again be pursued.”

The Council should also ready itself for a sharp increase in the Government’s waste disposal levy, he said.

The levy was currently $20 per tonne, but the Government has flagged an increase to $60 per tonne in 2024.

The Government had also finally given local authorities some direction on the future of waste minimisation and recycling in New Zealand, Mr Parry said.

“Once we have assessed the scope and costs of a recycling service, we will be talking to our community about what it might look like.”

The Council was already having promising talks with a Southland company that recycles glass into aggregate for use in roading, he said.

Rethinking Waste is led by sustainability and waste recovery expert Dr Niki Bould.

In her report to the Council, Dr Bould supports a simple recycling service.

She stressed that glass “must be” kept separate from other recyclables as it was heavy to transport, hard to colour sort and valueless when colours were mixed.

She recommended a kerbside collection service should focus on:

• Aluminium – such as soft drink or beer cans
• Steel tin cans – such as soups, pet food
• Plastic – such as milk bottles and water bottles

“There is no money in a tonne of dirty, contaminated materials that have broken glass throughout.

“The value in a material is its quality.”

Dr Bould also recommended the Council complete a feasibility study on setting up a resource recovery park.

She said such parks were an excellent way to educate people on how to refuse, reuse, repair, and repurpose.

“Rethinking waste and finding value in waste is essential if we are going to change behaviour.”

Besides being good for the environment, resource recovery parks also create job opportunities around repairing and repurposing.

You can read Dr. Bould's Rethinking Waste Report here.