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Achieving Zero Waste through Community Based Action: A study of community recycling organisations across New Zealand

1. Introduction Zero waste is a concept that everyone should subscribe to. It is often criticised as being unachievable or too costly to implement. However, in the same manner as a Health & Safety manager subscribes to zero accidents on his site rather than say a 40% accident rate. I believe we should aim for the thing we actually desire, a replication of Mother Nature with minimal environmental damage, and let’s see how near to it we get. In New Zealand 74% of councils now signed up to Zero Waste, some with deadlines as early as 2015, and several are already reporting waste diversion from landfill of 60-80%. This philosophy, and the high diversion figures, is what prompted me to apply for the Winston Churchill Fellowship. I wanted to investigate Zero Waste further to see if the UK too should be adopting a similar policy rather than a “lets just meet the targets set for us by national government” and “zero waste is impossible” attitude that many councils in the UK have. The Zero Waste Trust and local community pressure appeared to have played a major role in the take up of the Zero Waste concept by local councils. Therefore I was keen to visit the Trust to gain an overview waste management in New Zealand and meet as many of the community organisations across the country aiming for Zero Waste as possible. My tour of New Zealand was done between October and December 2006 and also took in some interesting council and private waste operations.

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2. Background to Waste Management in New Zealand Based on an interview with Jo Knight, CEO Zero Waste Trust. Contact: 09 4860734; Email: mailbox@zerowaste.co.nz; www.zerowaste.co.nz Responsibility There are around 80 local councils in New Zealand, and responsibility for waste mostly lies with these councils. Regional councils overlay local councils and have responsibility for hazardous and liquid wastes. Some regional councils have environment divisions and therefore take more interest in waste, but this varies from region to region. Some responsibility lies with national government, although much of this was devolved in 2002 with the Local Government Act. Legislation for waste is almost nil, with only the Resource Management Act impinging on waste. This act is about land use and impacts via consents for landfill. Enforcement of the Act is done by local and regional councils and, unlike the UK with its Environment Agency, there is no national environmental regulator/enforcer in New Zealand. Landfills are owned by local bodies or waste companies and are controlled by consents and sometimes local bylaws. The strictest landfill in the country is Cape Valley in Christchurch and once systems are in place for sorting more waste they aim to landfill no recyclables. Main Drivers for recycling Jo identified several main drivers in New Zealand

• Waste strategy – National government strategy “Towards Zero Waste” has 30 aims, but these are voluntary for councils to adopt. A lack of data in general on waste arisings in New Zealand has made progress towards these aims hard to measure.

• Increasing cost of landfill (and associated cost of waste for householders & business) • Education of communities – needing to do the right thing • Council bylaws – some councils that own their landfill can introduce bylaws to control what

is put in their landfill. e.g. Christchurch City Council Jo feels that legislation is now needed to build on the above and enforce recycling and reduction. Also Zero Waste Trust (amongst others) has proposed a levy on landfill to encourage recycling via a Waste Minimisation Bill which is currently being heard in parliament. Waste Minimisation Bill This is a private members bill and has been introduced by a green member of parliament. The bill introduces a number of things including a waste levy (with the funds raised to go towards waste minimisation), extended producer responsibility, an independent waste minimisation body, and a need for every company to have a waste minimization plan. The bill has gone through its first reading and has gone to select committee and is due to be revisited in December. If the bill is thrown out Zero Waste believes that it will be many years before something similar could be reintroduced. Therefore they support the bill, but hope for it to be rewritten. Pay as you throw Many councils have removed waste charges from within the rates and introduced pay as you throw systems. These range from purchasing sacks for residual refuse (typically $1.25-1.50), to annual charges for wheelie bin collections. Residual waste disposed at central refuse transfer stations or resource recovery station is also chargeable, by bag, weight or volume. In Raglan, the introduction of pre paid refuse bags dropped refuse by 58%. Major players in the Waste Industry

• Private waste management companies. There are 4-5 large companies: Waste Management, Envirowaste, Onyx, Streetsmart, Cleanaway.

• Community groups – these guys are the trendsetters • Councils • Recycling Organisation of New Zealand (RONZ) - industry body representing recyclers

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• Ministry For Environment (MfE)- generally influence via grants Background to the Zero Waste Concept The initial concept of Zero Waste came from a Robin Murray book titled Zero Waste and was pushed by the Tindall Foundation (a charitable foundation set up the owner of the Warehouse chain of shops). The Zero Waste Trust was initially funded by this foundation and part of their work has been about encouraging councils to sign up to zero waste. Currently 74% of councils are signed up, making this a grass roots movement rather than an imposition by national government. The national government is now also aiming to work towards zero waste.

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3. Visits to learn more Since my work has always been with community organizations (by that I mean not for private profit companies that have grown from their local community) my interest lies in how these groups are pushing the boundaries of Zero Waste and changing their communities in the process. I visited over 12 community groups around the country. Details of each visit are covered in this section of my report, and my observations and comparisons with the UK are summarized in the conclusion. I was lucky enough to join a bus tour of several South Island waste enterprises organised by the Zero Waste Trust. This gave me valuable contacts for the rest of my Fellowship. The tour also took in several Council and private initiatives, and these are summarized in Appendix 1. It was decided that although some of these enterprises were very informative and showed excellence in waste management, the aim of my fellowship was to look at community based action towards Zero Waste and this is what I have focused on. 3.1 TerraNova, Christchurch - The Big Boys of Charitable Recycling Host: Richard Lloyd, CEO Tel. 03 336 0080 www.terranova.org.nz; www.ecodepot.co.nz TerraNova (formerly Recovered Materials Foundation) is an independent charitable trust, started in 1997 by a Christchurch Councillor in response to the glass crisis. The trust has 5 trustees including representatives from the City Council, Chamber of Commerce, Wastebusters and Canterbury Development Corporation. Terranova specialises in reuse and recycling and developing local markets for materials. In 2005 Terranova’s activities diverted 27% of the total waste stream in Christchurch. If you take out the cleanfilling of construction and demolition wastes the proportion of waste diverted rises to 50%. TerraNova's activities include: • Processing of kerbside recyclables in a Materials Recycling Facility (MRF) • Supershed - a reuse warehouse fed from the EcoDepots • Three Eco Depots - transfer stations which include recycling centres, and a composting

facility • Eco Park - a reprocessing site for commercial wastes including construction and demolition

wastes - currently under development • Market development and education Kerbside collections and MRF This is the main focus of TerraNova's activities. The collection (undertaken by Real Recycling) services 400,000 people in the Christchurch area, including the adjoining Banks Peninsular and the adjacent districts of Selwyn and Waimakariri. Residents are provided with a green plastic crate for recyclables. Novelty gold crates were promoted for excellent recyclers. Plastics, cans and glass are comingled but residents are asked to put paper and thin card out separately in a plastic bag and larger cardboard is bundled and placed under the crate. Interestingly card milk cartons and eggboxes are asked not to be flattened in the crate as the eggboxes are reused by local farms and the milk cartons are used for growing seedlings by Trees for Canterbury project. The recycling is helped by Christchurch Council’s policy to reduce the number of rate funded refuse sacks to 26 x 50l bags per property per year. Additional sacks have to be purchased at a rate of £1.50. Materials are brought back to the TerraNova site and sorted in a MRF which processes 28,000 t.p.a The MRF is 7 years old and relies heavily on manual workers. Plastic is sorted into grades manually from a conveyor belt and baled into mill size bales weighing around 330kg. A chicane at the end of the baler helps keep the pressure on the bales ensuring they are as dense as possible. There is no local market for plastics so all are exported, mostly to China.

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Metal cans are separated into steel and aluminum by magnets in a separate area, and baled for processing.

Glass is currently sent to New Zealand’s only glass factory which is in the North Island. This is a costly process and so TerraNova are tying to develop alternative local markets. They have recently invested in a glass crushing system. This processes glass into fine grades, suitable for filtrate media (FilterCystal) or to add to concrete or flooring substances, allowing a value added product to be made. They hope to develop sufficient markets to be able to process all South Island Glass. Left: ‘Glasscrete’ flooring products

EcoDepots These are public recycling facilities and waste transfer stations. They operate a three stage system for the public. i - reusable and recyclable product drop off - no cost ii - recyclables that require manual processing of sorts - e.g. wood with nails etc - $20-30 per tonne iii - disposal - $135 per tonne. Interestingly, once over weighbridge there is an intercept lane where recyclable materials not already deposited are pulled out, but a payment has already been made. The sites have paint reuse and have discovered that mixing coloured acrylic paints always ends in battleship grey, so the site is mostly painted battleship grey! Reusing paint has saved $300,000 in disposal costs, as the waste needs to go to hazardous facilities.

Above (L to R): Eco Depot, showing drive through drop off; Shelves displaying reuse goods at Supershed Supershed Supershed is a massive (1500m2) reuse store & yard where all the reusable goods dropped off at the Eco Depots go to be sold. It has a large indoor and outdoor area, stacks of shelving and stacks of bargains. EcoPark This is a 10 hectare industrial park for waste minimisation related businesses on a cleanfill site. The vision is to have a MRF for construction and demolition materials, and processing facilities for other commercial materials such as tyres. There will be $35 million invested over 5 years in infrastructure, including a waste water system for the site (on which algae will be grown for biodiesel), and possibly an energy from waste station for residual wastes.

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The EcoPark has only been going 6 months, and as it is a cleanfill site it has consent to landfill inert materials. The site is already accepting C&D wastes which are being hand sorted into piles for reuse or processing. Mixed wastes attract a higher gate fee than separated wastes as an incentive for skip companies to separate more materials on site. Uncontaminated timber is reused as cattle tracks for farmers, or processed using a tub grinder to make a hog fuel. Gypsum (plasterboard) is added to green waste and then composted to make a soil conditioner. Metals are pulled out and sent for recycling. TerraNova are experimenting with turning tyres into ‘EcoFlux units’ which can be used as a basement fill in foundations or banking. The sides removed and the tyres are filled with rubble. By adding a layer of ‘EcoFlux units’, constructions need 30% less slab and can also put gas recovery or other systems underneath (e.g. if recovering old landfill). The current markets for tyres are mostly farmers who reuse them on silage pits. 3.2 Innovative Waste Kaikoura – Aiming for Zero Waste by 2015 Host: Ian Challenger, Manager Tel. 03 319 7148 www.zerowaste.co.nz/default.203.sm Background to Kaikoura Kaikoura is the second smallest district in New Zealand with only 3,500 permanent residents, however they get over 1,000,000 visitors per year. In 1990 the Council only had 4 years space left in its landfill. Trucking the waste and buying permission for the neighbouring Canterbury site was too expensive, so radical steps had to be taken. The Council introduced kerbside recycling collections and removed kerbside waste collections, and in 1998 signed up to Zero Waste by 2015. They are now regarded as one of the most progressive authorities. Residents have to take their materials to the Resource Recovery Centre for disposal at a cost of $2.50 per sack. There has been no increase in fly tipping as a result of this policy. Kaikoura has an 80% household recycling rate and are looking to ban plastic bags and introduce organic putrescibles (kitchen waste) collections to bring the target closer to 100%. Waste is charged in the rates; however it is separately defined as waste services. Innovative Waste Kaikoura Innovative Waste Kaikoura (IWK) is a community-council partnership that manages the Resource Recovery Centre (RRC) incorporating a Horizontal Composting Unit and the landfill site. They originated when the council subcontracted the landfill operations to WasteBusters Trust Kaikoura, and integrated the running of the recyclables forming the IWK partnership. IWK have a contract to 2015 and are now solely owned by Kaikoura Enhancement Trust (an arms length Council body). Within one year of formation IWK was diverting 55% of waste by volume from landfill through the RRC. Now it is diverting 58% (65% by volume) including commercial and C& D wastes. IWK has 4 main activities and an overall turnover of $800,000. Its activities include: • Landfill and RRC management– funded by a council contract (third of income); gate fees (a

third) and reuse shop (the rest) • Recycling collections – including kerbside collections from housholds in the town, rural

bring sites, businesses($14 per pickup - 65 businesses in town) and event recycling. • Trees for Travellers scheme - to bring in additional income • Construction/demolition scheme – IWK operate a skip hire service and also a recycling

demolition team Landfill & Resource Recovery Centre Recyclable drop off at the RRC is free. Items for reuse are put in the reuse shop which generates enough income for 1.5 employees. All recyclables and potential recyclables are separated. Some materials (such as computer monitors) are stored in the hope that future markets may occur. Glass is crushed using a road roller and then used as cover for the landfill

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People dropping off waste have to go over the weighbridge and pay prior to dropping waste into a press where it is compacted into sheep wool bags (the NZ equivalent to polyprop bulk bags). These are then stacked as cells in the landfill. Green waste is also chargeable and is shredded and composted in a custom built Horizontal Composting Unit (HCU). The resulting material is screened and sold at $22.50 per trailer load. The HCU cost $30,000 to build locally and the mould is available for use by others. IWK now only landfill 1000t per year. This has extended the landfill by 18 years, with 6 years capacity left at current landfill rates. Their aim is to landfill only 156 t.p.a once everything is removed. It is thought that this will be comprised of nappies, female hygiene products and other similar materials.

Clockwise from Top left: IWK’s sorting line; possibly the most picturesque compost site ever?; the Horizontal Compost Unit, designed by IWK.

Kerbside Presently residents and businesses leave recyclables in plastic bags separated into plastics, soft plastics, paper, cans and card. IWK want to operate a two wheelie bin system for kerbside incorporating ZOrg the Zero Organics to Landfill programme. IWK think that organics are 25-45% of the residual waste, so getting them out will be crucial. They are considering communal underground collection units for the organics in rural areas as there is no rural kerbside collection. Trees for Travellers This is basically a tree planting scheme to offset traveller’s emissions. Trees can be bought from a website or via local tourist operators. Purchasers get a tree id and a website where they can view their tree. www.treesfortravellers.co.nz Construction/demolition These wastes are chargeable and are sorted. Their skip hire service charge $100 per skip, but $85 for recyclable skip. There is also a new initiative whereby a local pub is being demolished and a team from IWK are demolishing the building and separating the materials as they go. The supervisor has been funded by an enterprising communities grant and has 3 workers. They are hoping to replicate this further.

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3.3 Ashburton District Council and Wastebusters Trust Canterbury An excellent council/community partnership Prior to visiting the Wastebusters site we had a talk from Rob Rouse (Operations Manager, Ashburton District Council) who outlined the background to the current situation. Ashburton initially had 5 landfills and 4 waste pits for a population of 27,000, over 6,175 km2. In 1999 the Council made a waste plan. They constructed their Resource Recovery Parks in 2000/01 and introduced prepaid sacks for refuse in 02/03. Initially the whole waste management was under a single contract with Waste New Zealand, except education which was a contract with Wastebusters. However the single contract didn't work, the company did not have the sufficient networks for marketing materials and composting experience, resulting in poor quality materials and not enough emphasis placed on improving them. The Council decided to separate all the waste minimisation activities from the disposal aspects. Wastebusters now do the former and Wastes Management (a private company) the latter. Innovation in contract negotiation As neither party had done the work before, the volumes which could be achieved were unknown. Therefore the Council let a transition contract for 6 months to develop the relationships and to identify volumes to be recycled and consequently the costs. Then the council let two 3+1+1 contracts. The contracts are up for renewal shortly and Wastebusters intend to bid for all of it as they believe there is still more to be diverted from landfill. Wastebusters are currently diverting 39% (4814t) of the waste stream but this is calculated by weight of materials sent to market (unlike many authorities who calculate materials in). This costs the Council $604,000. Disposal would have been $520,000, so there is a net cost of the activity. The Council now only has one cleanfill site in its district and the waste is sent to Kate Valley landfill in the neighbouring Christchurch district. Rob was full of praise for WTC stating "you can’t write into a contract the passion and enthusiasm your community groups have ...they are essential"; and "Wastebusters have proven without doubt that they can act within statutory responsibility and offer value for money." He went on to say that "It is essential to engage with community groups where they exist." Even the local mayor was converted to zero waste through his children, who had been educated by Wastebusters at school, and he stated how important educating the community is for the future. Wastebusters Trust Canterbury, Ashburton – Excellence in community recycling Host: Sheryl Stivens www.wastebusters.net.nz/index.htm Wastebusters Trust Canterbury (WTC) is 10 years old and began with a schools waste education programme staffed by volunteers. From there it has grown to manage all of the recycling and waste education in Ashburton. It is sited on a landfill, and has 28 full and part time staff. WTC activities include: • Comprehensive schools waste education programme • Business waste programme • Processing of kerbside recyclables - the collection is contracted out by WTC • Operation of Resource Recovery Centre including construction and demolition wastes,

composting, worm farm, reuse shop and education centre Schools Waste Education Programme This is the core work of WTC and integral to implementing zero waste. WTC currently have contracts with Ashburton and Selwyn Councils for schools waste education. The programme employs 3 part time and one full time staff and is run in 70 schools, with each year group going through a different unit. Each unit is four classroom sessions, beginning with Composting in the

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lower years, through to Zero Waste and finally Advanced Zero Waste in the final year. The unit is interactive and also sets up recycling in the schools with the children taking charge and becoming worm managers or compost managers etc. A staff member visits each school every 6 weeks to see how they are getting on and to troubleshoot. The scheme is linked to the curriculum and is so popular it is fully booked for the next year. All urban schools have recycling collections and rural schools are given wool packs (similar to polypropylene bulk bags) to collect waste which parents bring in to the RRC. Participating schools operate as zero waste schools and several have actually got rid of their residual bins. WTC believe that it was because of the schools programme that Ashburton residents did not complain when new waste minimisation initiatives have been introduced, such as charging for waste etc. They are happy to share their knowledge, and run training sessions for those who would like to run the education programme in their schools. WTC also run several community education events including the WasteFest featuring the Junk to Funk competition, which has produced some excellent products from waste. Business programme This programme has two staff (one part time) who work with businesses in Ashburton and Selwyn to audit and reduce their wastes, and introduce recycling collections. They also run a local business waste exchange. The staff visit businesses, develop relationships with them whilst introducing recycling schemes. Unusual wastes are logged and found a home for amongst other local businesses. The waste exchange is very much a face to face operation and is funded by a grant, rather than an online or telephone operation. Kerbside collections Each week a revamped bus collects recycling crates from 9000 households and businesses in Ashburton, Methven, Mayfield Mt Somers and Hinds. This service is contracted out to a local company and employs three people on the collections - a driver, runner and an on-bus sorter. The bus generally unloads 4 times per day and works a five day week. Each location is permitted to put out up to 5 crates for kerbside collection. Materials the bus will collect are: Paper, newspaper & magazines in a plastic bag, types 1 & 2 plastics, aluminium & steel cans, cardboard, milk cartons, glass bottles and jars. All containers must be clean and rinsed out, no lids. Dirty and non recyclable items are left in the crate with a sticker encouraging users to shop wisely and rinse containers before recycling. Residents are really good and they have only had 4 or 5 non pickups in a year, another sign the education programme is working!

Materials are partially sorted on the bus, which then offloads at WTC into separate containers. Each material is sorted again, to check materials and grade plastics, and baled ready to be transported to merchants such as Inner Circle (paper) and overseas markets for plastics. Local transport companies are used helping keep the $$ in the community.

L to R: The kerbside recycling bus unloading via its innovative window chutes

Last year the Council and WTC did an 8 week trial of food waste collections. Residents and one business were provided with corn starch bags and EM Bokashi and the collected waste was blended with shredded green waste and processed in a Rotocom in-vessel composting system. The trial was successful with 100% of recipients wanting it to continue and good compost produced.

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The next steps are to work out how to incorporate this system into the kerbside and invest in the equipment.

Resource Recovery Centre

Clockwise from Top left : Steel & aluminium drop off area; ReStore; Reuse yard; Plastics 1-5 public drop off area.

As well as providing a public drop off for the recyclables taken on the kerbside round, the RRC processes additional materials including all grades of plastic including shrink wrap and soft plastics. The site also takes oil, paint (for reuse) and electrical equipment. Staff at the site are encouraged to be friendly, smile and chat to customers. They have regular meetings to ensure they are up to date with where materials are going, why they need to be separated and the products that are made out of them, so they can inform and further educate the public. Reusable household items are sold in the ReStore shop, which has recently doubled in size, and this has resulted in double the turnover! Reusable fixtures and fittings, such as bathroom suites, windows, doors etc are sold in a reuse yard, along with wood, metals, plants salvaged from green waste, bits off cookers etc etc. Basically the ethos is try to resell as much as possible as that retains the highest value. Metals are separated into fractions prior to resale and now bring in around $2000 per month. Previously metals used to be sold as a job lot and only received $200 per month. Wood is sold for reuse as building material and some is chopped and sold for firewood. Chipboard is chipped and used around the site for mulching. 'Posh' firewood, i.e. good quality branches, is stacked and local wood turners buy it. Carpet is put in a pile and when a mountain has occurred they advertise it on the local radio as weed control, or mud barrier for cowsheds and let people take it away for free.

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After all that lot, if you still have any waste to dispose of you have to pay for it over a weighbridge into the landfill (run by Wastes Management), and this is where WTC still feel gains are to be made, with some people preferring to pay for landfill than take the time to recycle.

Glass is still an issue in the South Island, and WTC are currently storing it in wool bags. They have experimented with turning clear glass into tiny particles which have been used to create a novelty crystal beach and also as mulch around fruiting crops, increasing the growing season by its reflectivity. They have also secured a market for clear glass in Australia to be used as road marking beads in white lines. This market can take 10,000 tonnes of glass per year, so they are hoping it will help alleviate the various glass stockpiles around the South Island.

Composting operations

Green waste is put through a Willebald shredder. Any plants are pulled out and potted up for resale. The shredded green waste is then batch processed in windrows, which are sprayed with EM (Effective Microorganisms). The windrows operate for 12 weeks and are then lab tested before the compost is screened and bagged for sale. They reuse bags for the compost and sell it at $3.50 per sack. Oversize from the screening is used as mulch. The main market is local people and the compost is not sold commercially as the local market uses it all.

Lawn clippings and mixed loads containing lawn clippings are composted separately due to Clopyralid spray (it is a hormone spray and is banned in UK). The material is mixed with waste gypsum and EM and composted for 18 months. Tests show that this has broken down the clopyralid.

Education Centre

The Education Centre (Left) and garden are adjacent to the recyclables drop off area and are open to the public to visit and attend waste courses. The garden around the centre has all sorts of recycled goodies, from mailboxes made from microwaves to walls made from yellow pages. There is a collection of different worm farms, a fence made of old skis and even a straw bale sofa!

3.4 Home biodiesel project, Twizel – Waste to biodiesel Host: Emily Sancha and Eddie Stead

Emily and Eddie are two committed individuals who have started making biodiesel from waste cooking oil at home to power their cars. They collect the oil (canola and soy bean) from two local restaurants. This is heated up gently in a deep fat fryer, sieved and placed in a 250l mixing tank. Next Methanol and Caustic soda are mixed (under caution) until they dissolve to produce Sodium Hydroxide. This is added to the filtered veg oil and mixed for an hour using a pump to circulate. The mixture is left for 24 hours and separates into glycerine and biodiesel. The glycerine is taken off via a tap and can be used as a rough soap or composted. The resulting biodiesel can then be used as normal in their vehicles. In NZ there is no duty to pay on the fuel, so Emily and Eddie can power their cars for around 45c per litre. For more information the book "From fryer to fuel tank" by Joshua Tickell is recommended.

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3.5 Waitiki Resource Recovery Park, Oamaru – Community Operation Host: Marian Shore, Manager, Waitiki Resource Recovery Trust Tel. 03 434 0999 Waitiki Resource Recovery Trust (WRRT) was formed in 2001 by a group of people concerned about waste going to landfill. They have secured funding from the Council and other agencies to enable the development of the Resource Recovery Park. The RRP is situated on an old council works depot and WRRT receive a grant of around $25,000 to cover the cost of the lease from the council. Oamuru has a population of 12,000, and the site is used for domestic wastes and commercial recyclables only. Recyclable drop off is charged at $5 per m3 and residual wastes are charged at $30 m3. Residual charges include appliances as they are electrically tested and resold or taken apart for bits. Mixed loads are assessed and the staff help each customer sort their waste to maximise the recycling. This is done around the vehicle onto pallets which are then taken to the correct area for processing. The site has lots of space for dismantling items including sofas and waste electrical goods. They have a large reuse shop and C&D reuse area. WRRT estimate they are diverting 95% of everything

that comes on site, but there is no kerbside in Oamaru. The reuse store onsite was large and well organized. High quality reusable items are often sold on trade-me and this is also used to keep an eye on the traders who buy from the shop so they know if they need to increase their prices on some things! They have also come up with a silent auction for unusual/antique things (Left). Lots are displayed over a few weeks and people register their bids for each lot. As it is silent, the auction doesn’t require a hawkers license.. WRRT are currently bidding for the council contract to run the RRP and kerbside scheme, which the council recently put out to tender, so the next few months will be interesting for them.

3.6 CBEC (Community Business and Environment Centre), Kaitaia – An enterprising social enterprise! Cliff/Simon Millichamp – Business Manager Tel. 09 4081092; Email: simon@cbec.co.nz CBEC is a community benefit business whose main aim is to provide jobs for disadvantaged persons in its locality. It runs many projects including, recycling, tree surgery, conservation corps, training, enterprise development, plant nursery, dance studio space, two swimming pools and an employment agency. The Northland District has 55,000 people but spread over a very large area (12844km2), with few major townships. The Council has introduced chargeable refuse sacks available at garages, shops etc, however it does not provide a collection service for the bags due to the disperse population. Full sacks are to be disposed of at the rate-funded transfer stations around the district, or collected

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by a private operator for disposal at the transfer stations/landfill site. There is only one landfill site in Northland, at Ahipoara and this is to close in 2 years, posing a large problem for Northland Councils. Recycling at CBEC is made up of several aspects:

• Cleanstream - company incorporating a silent partner, Te Rararawa, a (Maori organization), formed to contract with the council for its Resource Recovery Centres/ transfer stations.

• CBEC recycling – kerbside recycling collections offered as a private company. • Slash Trash - education project working with businesses and schools, setting up systems

and delivering education units at schools based on the Wastbusters Trust Canterbury system.

Cleanstream CBEC as Cleanstream won a 3+2 year contract for 19 transfer stations across the north area of Northland. The area covers a population of 18-20,000 people. The contract is a combined operation and transport contract, which enabled CBEC to invest in hook loaders and other vehicles stimulating its growth. Many of the transfer stations/RRCs are very rural with limited opening hours. The rural stations tend only to accept bagged residual waste and a limited range of recycling. The three major RRCs accept most recyclables including car bodies and green waste and there are ‘Resolve’ reuse shops, at the two largest sites.. CBEC Recycling This operates as a private collection company independent of council and charges $40 per annum to pick up a recyclables crate weekly from households and businesses. CBEC collects the refuse sacks as well, and this actually helps subsidise the recycling due to bulk loads being cheaper at landfill than individual sacks. Recyclables are all brought back to Kaitaia RRC for pressing prior to transport to markets. The Council did initially have a contract for recyclables collection in Kaitaia, which CBEC ran, but this was discontinued so CBEC started their independent collections using old crates from Auckland and expanding their operation areas. Interesting lessons from CBEC CBEC bought their property and can now use it as collateral for securing loans and other finance Now that they have a good banking history they find it easier to secure investment and competitive loans from high street banks, rather than just the ethical investors. CBEC are slowly building capital items and would encourage others to take out loans if finance is missing to ensure they have the right tools for the job. They also encourage the use of ex businessmen as mentors the monitoring of contract performance rather than people to see if a job is being done well. CBEC have assisted others to secure contracts. Initially they helped Waiheke Island Recyclers by tendering for the contract with them using CBEC’s kerbside experience at Kaitaia. The Waiheke Island contract in turn helped CBEC secure the larger Northland RRC contract, showing they had good experience. CBEC have enabled Wanaka Wastebusters secure their contract. CBEC are now working together with other organisations as the ‘Community Recycling Network’ aiming to help others establish contracts. The CRN is coordinated by Wanaka Wastebusters. 3.7 Xtreme Waste Raglan – One of the original inspiration groups Host: PJ – Site Manager Tel. 07 825 0017; www.raglan.net.nz Xtreme Waste began in 1998 with a 5 person steering group. They set up the organization, which operated voluntarily for 2 years, collecting paper and card. In 2000 the group won the contract for provision of refuse collections, and introduced recycling. The company now has 23 staff and operate across the Whangaroa Distict, (radius of around 30km with 16,000 households in Raglan, plus the rural population). 70% of Raglan’s solid waste is now being diverted from landfill.

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Xtreme Waste current activities include:

• Transfer station management • Collection of pre paid refuse sacks ($1.50 per sack). • Kerbside recycling.

There is a rateable charge of $42 per household which pays for all the above. It was interesting to hear how a public consultation process was instigated when the contract for the transfer station was being formulated.The consultation enabled social benefits to be written into the contract, thereby restricting the contract to players who provided local employment benefits and other addons. Despite this, Xtreme Waste were having some problems with the council as in the last 6 years they have only had one signed contract. This year the council had still not given the incremental rise for the contract, so cashflow was becoming problematic. 3.8 Mana Community Enterprises – A social enterprise with many different facets Host: Sonia Moore Tel. 04 2375454 ; www.trashpalace.co.nz Mana Community Enterprises (MCE) is a non-profit community organisation whose primary purpose is to provide vocational rehabilitation and training for mental health consumers. They currently have 51 staff (28 of which are trainees), and many of the employed staff are mental health consumers. They have three main sites which are the focus of their activities:

Trash Palace Business Unit Vailima

Business Unit This undertakes a number of business contracts including recycling for businesses, packing, collating, envelope stuffing, small item assembly (e,g, wicks into candles), and craftwork. Vailima Based in Porirua Hospital Grounds the team carries out ground maintenance contracts for the Health Board, local companies and Government housing departments. Trainees undertake contract work for the local community section clearing, tree felling, lawn mowing, firewood delivery. There is also a native plant nursery enabling trainees to gain skills and qualifications in horticulture. Plants are sold at Trash Palace and the Vailima site. Trash Palace Based at the Spicer landfill Trash Palace sells reusable items at low cost. The site is operated in partnership with Porirua City Council who provided the buildings free of charge. The site is on the access road to the landfill, opposite the recycling area. It has lots of space and people can drop off items or park and browse at their leisure. Electrical items are tested and resold with non reusable ones broken down for parts. Trash Palace is a mecca for second hand goods and raises enough money to employ 1-2 staff members. The buildings are made from reclaimed materials, and incorporate an outdoor recycle yard, education centre and garden. A wood workshop, housed at Vailima, makes and restores furniture using material from Trash Palace. The pieces are then resold on Trade me (Ebay type site) or at Trash Palace. MCE generates income from each of the units as well as funding per trainee. The income goes towards growing the organisation and thereby enabling employment of more mental health consumers.

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L to R: MCE’s Trash Palace – exterior, yard and interior 3.9 Huruni Recyclers Huruni started out from a district residents association 17 years ago. It began with a 5 person committee of volunteers and now employs 14 people, runs three trucks and has an industrial sized press. Huruni provides kerbside and business collections to 10,000 households, plus a Resource Recovery Centre & Reuse shop. They have done this for four years paid by grant funding from the local council. The grant is equivalent to $40 per tonne, and Huruni have to access other grants to keep afloat. The cost of landfill including transport to the council is $200 per tonne, so Huruni are currently in negotiations to increase their grant and it is likely that the council will put out a contract in a few years time. Above L to R: Drop off area; sorting line; reuse store Huruni was remarkable in that all the staff and volunteers working there were incredibly happy and friendly and one can only hope their council appreciates what a good team of people they have working for them! 3.10 Central Otago Wastebusters Contact: Clair Higginson Tel: 03 4489948 Email: wastebusters@xtra.co.nz Central Otago Wastebusters (COW) started in early 2001 by borrowing a Ute and trailer from local companies and the aim of zero waste for Central Otago. They now have two trucks running 5 days a week, operating weekly kerbside collections from 6,500 households and 65 businesses, plus the

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public drop off areas. There are 15 paid staff and over 100 volunteers on their lists! The kerbside collections consist of a box for tin, glass & plastic, with paper and card bagged and bundled and placed next to the crate. Materials are offloaded into bays and then passed onto a conveyorbelt for handsorting (see Left).

COW are not contracted to the council, but paid a percentage of the landfill savings and a grant. They are integrated well with their community and educate on waste minimisation through inviting local community groups in to ‘have a go’ at sorting, visiting schools and also servicing local events with recycling. 3.11 Wanaka Wastebusters Contact: Sue Coutts Tel. 03 443 8606; admin@wanakawastebusters.co.nz This star group has gone far in a short time and mostly without much support from their council. Wanaka Wastebusters started 7years ago due to the vision of a few in the community who simply began pulling stuff from the dump. The community got behind the group and donated materials and time to construct the buildings at the current site and grants were secured for the hardstanding and equipment.

Clockwise from top left: Wastebusters site; Kerbside recycling collections; Inside the ReStore

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Initially the main shed held all the processing, shop and drop off areas. Now that building is just the shop, with the processing in a covered area out the back and the drop off area in front (see above picture). They currently have 14 FTE staff and divert 34% (57% by volume).of all Wanaka’s materials (including C&D wastes). Wastebusters runs the following activities:

• Kerbside recycling collections and processing of materials from Wanaka and the adjacent townships of Hawea, Cadrona and Luggate

• Public recycling drop off in Wanaka and they service recycling bring sites around the area • Commercial recycling collections • Reuse shop • Waste education in schools and local community

Kerbside Wastebusters successfully won the contract for kerbside recycling in Wanaka 15months ago and operate two vehicles daily. These collect plastic, glass and tin and bundled paper and card from 4,600 households. They also won the contract for processing and contract for the public drop off in Wanaka. They did compete for the neighbouring Queenstown contract but were not successful. Glass, plastic and cans are collected in black recycling crates with card and paper separately bundled. The commingled materials are dropped off into a concrete bunker, and the paper and card put into large wooden crates. A loader shifts the commingled materials into a hopper which transfers them onto a conveyor belt for hand sorting into various grades. Glass goes off the end of the conveyor and is crushed by a loader and land banked awaiting use. Commercial collections Wastebusters independently run a commercial collection round to 140 businesses charging $10 per wool fadge (approx cu.m) of materials and $2 per green sack. They would like to start addressing further waste streams in Wanaka, particularly C&D wastes, however at the time of the visit the council contract was still not signed after 15 months, which led to reluctance to begin new enterprises. ReStore The shop has around 175 visitors per day and benefits from being in a fairly affluent area so has some excellent bargains. It is well laid out and the throughput is simply amazing, with income from sales of around 150 tonnes of goods a year covering 1-2 staff members wages.

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4. Conclusions There are many comparisons and contrasts one can draw between community recycling in New Zealand and the UK and these are summarized in the following table. My observations and assumptions are generalizations based on my experiences gained in the UK and through visiting organizations in New Zealand and so may be subjective. Materials recovered Community recyclers (and local councils) in NZ often deal with

the whole range of plastics, from 1- 5, finding viable markets for the materials in China and around. NZ also has an attitude of take it and store it till we can find something useful to do with it. In the UK space pressures, high costs of landfill and higher volumes do not lend itself to risking this sort of situation often and groups are more inclined to turn materials/items away.

Social entrepreneurship Whilst recycling social enterprises are becoming more common in the UK, traditionally groups have been grant funded. In NZ there appears to be a higher degree of contracting with local authorities and running of income generating services, most commonly business recycling services. It is thought this is due to the lack of grant funding available in NZ.

Volunteering Similar to the UK many groups benefit from a high degree of volunteers and often have to rely on these due to lack of funds to pay employees.

Specialist staff In NZ there are few training courses which are waste related so the majority of staff learn on the job.

Activities In the UK the majority of community recyclers are furniture reuse groups. In New Zealand the majority of groups operate Resource Recovery Centres and/or kerbside recycling collections. There are very few community composting operations in NZ with only some of the groups running RRCs processing green waste. Food waste is only just getting onto the agenda with some councils investing in closed systems to process the waste along with green waste. Low tech solutions such as the use of worm farms are more common, which legislation in the UK prevents.

Waste volumes These are significantly smaller due to the NZ populations. Nationally NZ landfills 3.4 million tones per year, whilst the UK landfills 27million tonnes. However the disperse nature of the communities in NZ present their own problems with high transport costs affecting the types of materials that can be economically recycled. This is especially shown by the stockpiling of glass which continues around the South Island.

Monitoring The UK is miles ahead when it comes to measuring the volumes of waste and setting targets etc. The NZ waste strategy lacked teeth mostly because NZ doesn’t know how much waste it generates There are few weighbridges and many cubic metre estimates. The whole system lacks in consistency with councils recording things in different ways. Therefore an 80% recycling rate whilst impressive can actually only mean 40% of the materials have been sent for recycling.

Recycling rates When the kiwis introduce a system then the public does seem respond well and high recycling rates are achieved in a short time period, often without substantial investment. In the UK systems are often introduced in a piecemeal fashion and residents need incentivising to use them.

Legislation Little legislation in NZ means it is easier to set up and establish waste enterprises. Resource Consents are needed and these can take time and be costly to obtain, however once up and

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running businesses are subject to a lot less control. Council relations As in the UK, relationships between groups and their council are

often very strained. Councils often treat their community organisation as just another contractor, not recognizing the additional benefits to the community an operation brings or the lack of profit margin to absorb economic downturns. Lack of communication and also trust on both sides can lead to reluctance to forward plan and invest in new infrastructure.

Motivation One of the things that struck me in NZ was how enthused and motivated most of the staff at these enterprises are. As in the UK, one or two movers and shakers move the scene along and support one another.

National Government The NZ government and Ministry for the Environment have no real plan when it comes to waste management. There are strategies but these lack teeth and action plans for implementation. Central/local government devolutions have not helped this process meaning waste planning across districts is difficult, yet often necessary. Conversely in the UK, EU and UK legislation and national targets are the driving force and can result in schemes being implemented to meet targets rather than being the best environmental option.

Capital assets As in the UK, few groups own any property or equipment. Many groups have leases on Council properties, sometimes at a reduced rate, sometimes at the full rate. Groups such as CBEC who do own their own property have grown and prospered because of it and have been able to take risks in expansion that would not have been available to them had they not had some equity.

Competition The private waste management companies in NZ are only just beginning to switch onto recycling and this is because councils are now letting recycling contracts. This has created opportunities for community recyclers in the past. However the gap is now closing with councils letting full blown contracts requiring lengthy negotiation. Community organisations are often too time poor or experience poor to successfully win them, a situation mirrored in the UK. As in the UK, a Community Recycling Network has been set up to help overcome this with groups who have been successful at winning contracts mentoring others through the process.

The success of implementing zero waste policies should be apparent from recycling rates and landfill diversion figures. Overall recycling rates in NZ varied quite widely, with the lowest being 27% in Christchurch and the highest 80% in Kaikoura. These figures are not directly comparable to UK data due to the differences in calculation. In New Zealand, recycling rates are generally measured as all things diverted from landfill in respect to the total waste landfilled in an area. In the UK, recycling rates are measured as the amount of waste recycled & composted (so not including reuse) as a proportion of the ‘household’ waste landfilled (this includes any commercial waste that is collected by an authority, but not commercial and C&D wastes collected by private waste management companies). An example of this is found in Timaru District (see Appendix 1.6) which has a 74% recycling & compost rate from its kerbside collections (household & business wastes) but a 42% recycling rate overall. Even so, in some of the more populated areas of NZ, the figures were not as high as I had expected from areas with a zero waste policy (around 40% rather than 60-80%). This throws up issues for the UK which is intensely populated in comparison. High recycling rates were found in the smaller population areas of NZ, and where the community had greater involvement with the recycling organisation. So it could be argued that if recycling was further localized and integrated into the

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community, higher recycling rates could be achievable in the UK In summary, the goal of Zero Waste was certainly apparent in all of the community organisations I visited and they were busy educating and raising awareness on the issue. This was also true of several of the Council operations (see Appendix 1). There were no specific targets set by national government, however to them 40% household recycling (UK target by 2015) would just not be good enough! The UK is now reaching some very successful recycling rates (40-50%) for household waste, particularly in smaller, more rural areas. Yet many feel that this is as high as we can go without employing very expensive technologies such as Mechanical Biological Treatment or Incineration. My experiences in NZ show that high diversion rates are possible without such methods, and I believe that employing a zero waste philosophy throughout the community is integral to success, because ultimately unless you aim for it, you will never achieve it.

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Appendix 1 – Council and private initiatives 1.1 VITA NZ Ltd, Christchurch – Underlay Recycling. An excellent example of “closing the loop”. Host: Davis Flynn, General Manager Tel. 03 963 9863 www.vita.co.nz VITA are a private company and manufacturer of polyurethane foam, foam products (including foam underlay), and furnishings incorporating foam (mattresses, sofas etc). The have just started to include post consumer foam in their underlay. In the past VITA’s foam underlay has been solely made from offcuts from the foam and furniture making process. Foam is chipped up and blended, with a chemical added make a roll which is peeled to varying thicknesses to make the underlay. VITA collect offcuts from their customers and also import offcuts to make their underlay. Therefore they are keen to take post consumer foam from furniture and are willing to pay 40c per kilo. The foam must be clean and dry with no fibre products, staples or nails. VITA will pick up volumes over 100kg (3-4 m3) from any of their distribution points across NZ. The Zero Waste Trust have been the driver in making this deal and have found that foam can be stripped from an average sofa in 2-3 minutes, with a simple Stanley knife, yielding 7.5 kilos per sofa on average. They are looking into incorporating mattress foam into the collections, but currently VITA doesn’t want this for perceived hygiene reasons.

Above (L to R): Post consumer foam waiting for shredding; the finished underlay product 1.2 Southbrook Transfer Station, Waimakariri DIstrict Council, Rangiora – A council initiative Host: Kitty Waghorn, Solid Waste Asset Engineer Tel. 03 313 6136 Waimakariri are aiming for Zero Waste by 2030. They collect glass, plastic, milk carton, paper, card and supermarket bags from the kerbside and the service covers 75% of the district population. In addition to these materials, green waste, waste oil, car batteries and expanded polystyrene are all accepted at their transfer stations. The transfer station we visited services 5000 properties in the area. Kitty stated the importance of putting the weighbridge after the recyclable area if not charging for recyclables. They didn't do this and people have to back track after they have dropped off their recycling.

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Waste was dropped off into a largish transfer area, where it was then loaded into compactor skips for onward disposal. Some materials, especially metal, were drawn out by hand if there was time, however this was not always the case and we noticed a lot of recyclables being compacted for landfill. The main amount was from a private bin collector, who used the transfer station and obviously did not offer recycling! The site is about to be developed into a Resource Recovery Centre with more facilities. 1.3 Pines Resource Recovery Park, Selwyn District Council – A council initiative Host: Dave Hock, Solid Waste Manager Tel. 03 324 5841; www.selwyn.gov.nz Selwyn District has 34,500 residents, spread in various townships across a district of 6492km2. Selwyn has recently introduced a new 3 stream kerbside scheme offering 240 litre organics bins (including food wastes), 60 litre recycling crates and 240l/80l/60l residual bags/bins. Customers can pick and mix different bin sizes and each option is priced accordingly. Selwyn DC pricing schedule 06/07:

Uniform annual charge (compulsory) $20 p.a 60l recycling crate (compulsory) $52 p.a. 240l garden & food waste bin (optional) $195 p.a. 60l rubbish bag (optional) $1 each 80l rubbish wheelie bin (optional) $95 p.a. 240l rubbish wheelie bin (optional) $320 p.a

The kerbside recyclables are run into Terranova in Christchurch, a 2 hour round trip. The organic and residual collection materials go to the Pines facility for composting/compaction. The Pines RRP is the only facility in the Selwyn District with public drop off for recyclables, organics and general refuse. Residual waste charges are $135 per tonne over the weighbridge. The waste is compacted and taken to Kate Valley landfill over 2 hours away. Organic materials are composted through the Hot Rot system. The system cost $1.25million to build and commission. It is a modular system and one module can process 2000t.p.a. The system requires only one personnel and can be operated remotely by the loader.

1. Materials are fed into the conveyor, through a Zego shredder, then onto a second conveyor system which allows the operator to divert material to mulch or compost.

2. Materials for composting then enter the Hot Rot system, which is an enclosed horizontal unit with rotating shaft.

At full capacity this system goes from material to product in 16-20 days. The system can handle poultry and animals. Selwyn is only processing around 500t.p.a at present as they haven’t rolled out organics across the entire district yet. However it does seem a pretty pricey system!

L to R: Zego shredder; ‘Hot Rot’ in vessel compost system; resulting product.

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1.4 Mackenzie District Council Resource Recovery Park, Twizel – A Council initiative Host: John McGartland Tel. 03 4350630; www.mackenzie.govt.nz In 2002 Mackenzie DC decided not to renew their landfill resource consents and are aiming for zero waste by 2015. The council run 3 Resource Recovery Parks which service the 4000 permanent residents (2,800 households) in a district spread over 7450km2 with three urban towns. There is also a big intake of holiday homes owners over Christmas (who don't pay rates). The kerbside collection is contracted out and is a weekly three bag system comprising of a 20l residual (yes 20 litres!) a 20l compostables and a 40l recyclables. Residents are encouraged to put different recyclables into carrier bags within the sack. Contaminated bags are stickered and not collected and education officers are sent to offending households. Each household received 30 of each of the 3 new bags. Once these are used it costs residents 25c for a recyclable, 50c for compostable, and $1 for the residual bags. Bags are sold in rolls of 5 at local garages and supermarkets (who get a commission). Gate charges at the RRPs also reflect this pricing structure. The bags are brought into the RRPs and are hand sorted into wool packs ready for pressing. Residual waste is transferred to Timaru at a cost of $180 per tonne (including transport). The Council is currently achieving a 60% diversion from landfill, but feel they have reached a peak. Problematic wastes and areas of improvement are recyclables still entering landfill via the RRPs and construction demolition wastes from house remodelling.

L to R: Plastic sorting area; the first ever VCU Mackenzie have invested in a Vertical Composting Unit (VCU) to process their organic wastes, and they were the first people to try this technology. They have had the VCU for 4 years and it is only the last 18 months which have gone smoothly with regard to producing a useful product. The problems have been blamed on it being the first unit, however similar experiences in the UK show that is not necessarily the case! It seems the problem lies in getting the correct blend of “ingredients” and this is dependent on each area's organic waste composition. Currently Mackenzie store green waste until they have a good pile to shred, then mix it with food waste from the kerbside and businesses. Commercial organic wastes are charged at $90 per tonne, or a 50c per 20l container. Green waste is charged at $10 per m3. They do not put in large volumes of uncooked meats as the VCU doesn't reach high enough temperatures. This waste is disposed of in offal pits. The VCU operator in Timaru likened feeding the VCU to making a cake. He is now very adept at managing the volumes of browns, greens and organics to produce an excellent product, which sells at $4.50 for a 25l bag to local nurseries and orchards.

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Teething Problems After introducing charges for waste Mackenzie found that private companies targeted residents and businesses to provide landfill services. Mackenzie countered this by introducing a refuse bylaw enabling commercial licensing. Each operator has to register and report monthly tonnages of waste to landfill and number of customers, enabling the Council to work out their market share. It is apparent that initially many customers went to private operators, however gradually they are coming back to the council systems. Fly tipping was dealt with gently at first with offenders identified by the materials and sent warning letters, however now offenders are billed for the collection and disposal of the materials. Mackenzie have since employed an education officer who is responsible for educating school children, community groups and businesses using a programme developed by Wastebusters Trust Canterbury. 1.5 Central Wormworx Worm Farm, Cromwell – A small private worm business Host: Robbie and Rosanna Dick, Directors, Central Wormworx Ltd Tel. 021 1322 964; www.geocities.com/central_wormworx Central Wormworx is a private enterprise started in 2000 using worms to process organic wastes from local fruit growers, abattoirs, garden contractors, livestock truck wash and households. The wastes are turned into vermicast (worm castings), 90% of which is sold back to the orchards, vineyards and gardeners locally. They have also just initiated a biosolid trail to convert sewage solids into a less toxic medium.

The one hectare site has 10 worm filled windrows (Left), each approximately 60m long and 1.5 m wide. Each windrow has a soak hose running along the top to keep it moist and is covered in carpet and then plastic secured with tyres. The rows are fed around 2 tonnes of waste every 10 days and lots of cardboard. The worms double in numbers every 30 days and munch through around 30t of waste per week. Harvesting the vermicast is done by feeding one side of the heap for a month, so that the worms move across and then stripping the

other side of vermicast. The vermicast is screened with a simple mesh gate to pull out fruit stones etc and is sold as bags or bulk at 41c per kg. Robbie also provides consultancy to businesses who want to set up worm farms to minimise their wastes and sells his worms across the world. Biosolids trail The trial has been set up to see if worms can reduce the toxicity of sewage waste from the local oxidation ponds and turn it into a useful product (the waste is the solids that have settled from the raw sewage). Sewage waste has heavy metals and pathogens and so is problematic to dispose of. A small scale worm windrow system has been set up in the same manner as the main site, but adjacent to the sewage pond. Initial signs show that the worms are happy and breeding, and that vermicast is being made. It is too soon to tell if the toxicity has been reduced, however even if toxicity is not reduced the volume of the waste will have been, so the exercise seems worthy of further investigation.

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1.6 Timaru District Council Resource Recovery Park – A Council initiative aiming for 60% recycling in two years Host: Brian Gallagher , Zero Waste Manager, Timaru District Council Tel. 03 687 7200; www.timaru.govt.nz Timaru DC introduced their ‘3-2-1-Zero’ three bin kerbside collection system across their whole district, which has a population of 43,000, in July. The kerbside services 18,000 properties with a 240l weekly organic bin, a fortnightly 240l comingled recycling bin and a fortnightly 140l residual bin. Stacker 45l crates were introduced for pensioner properties and all plastics (bar plastic bags) are collected in the recyclables bin. The kerbside service is already achieving 74% diversion from landfill (54% organic, 20% recycling). Overall the district is achieving 42% diversion and is aiming for 60% in two years. This costs the rate payer, including businesses, $249 per annum (with an extra $50 if you have a bigger residual bin). There are going to target business waste and opportunities with the transfer stations next. Kerbside & Materials Recycling Facility The kerbside recyclables are taken to a state of the art Material Recycling Facility (MRF), which was designed by an Australian Company (Recycling Technology & Design) but built locally and operated by waste management company Envirowaste. The facility can process 28t per day and has an optical sorter for plastic, a magnetic separator for steel and aluminium, and a star screen to separate paper from other materials. Due to a high level of mechanisation, the MRF only requires between 3-5 staff. Despite glass going thorough the process, daily audits show only 0.1% contamination of paper (2% is allowed) and a similar low rate of contamination for plastics. The contract with Envirowaste is an ‘open book’ contract allowing for a partnership approach to the work rather than a standard contract. This has allowed flexibility such as adding new waste streams for recycling etc. $11 million has been invested in the facility between Envirowaste and the Council. The Council has a return on all materials sold but pay EnviroWaste an annual fee. L to R: MRF drop off and loading conveyorbelt; Gore composting system Composting operations The site uses a Gore Industries system which is basically windrows on concrete base but covered by a large Gore blanket. This system is German, and a first for Australasia. It processes food wastes at temperatures of 70C in the core and 55C for two days. The site only requires 1-2 staff to operate it. Organics are mixed with green waste, shredded finely and then built into a stack/windrow. The stack takes 1-2 days to build and is then soaked with 40,00l of water and then covered with the Gore blanket. A fan and a series of grates in the concrete floor blow air through the material. After 4 weeks the stack is uncovered, turned and recovered for two weeks. Then it is uncovered to cool for two weeks, screened and the resulting material is sold as fab looking compost.

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The site is in the process of commissioning their screener and as yet they weren’t sure who the main markets would be for the compost. They are in the process of trying to get N24454 standard for their compost and want to develop rural markets. There is no competition from peat in New Zealand, and lots of vineyards, orchards and farms, so it is unlikely to be a problem selling the product. 1.7 Poly Palace – Polystyrene recycling - A novel private enterprise Poly Palace has been set up privately adjacent to Trash Palace and takes post consumer expanded polystyrene. This is chipped on site but sent off to be recompressed into massive blocks. The owner has built a machine (mostly from second hand parts) which cuts the polystyrene blocks using hot wires to computer programmed dimensions. The resulting product is resold as an underfloor insulation. Polystyrene comes from a variety of sources, including the local film studio, which uses it to make sets. Not many places can say they recycled King Kong!

Left: The finished underfloor insulation product