New centre to reduce reliance on landfill
A test run of Marlborough’s new Waste Sorting Centre has prevented hazardous materials making their way to landfill.
Paint thinner and other chemicals were recovered from trial skip loads as the $3.3 million facility prepares to open.
Marlborough District Council solid waste manager Alec McNeil said the centre, due to open on November 14, offered more oversight into how waste was disposed of.
‘‘Things that could have possibly gone to landfill and just get buried over, now because we’re tipping it out we can see everything that is there,’’ he said.
McNeil said the centre would work in partnership with commercial waste suppliers to inform them of what waste should and should not be disposed of. ’’They know that hazardous waste should not go into a mixed skip into the landfill,’’ he said.
‘‘It’s not a finger-pointing exercise, that will be part of the learning curve and require a bit of twoway communication.’’
McNeil said the new centre would future-proof the community against a reliance on landfill and increased disposal costs.
‘‘This centre moves us away from 100 per cent reliance of landfill,’’ he said.
‘‘If the landfill gate-fee was $200 a tonne, this facility would be a lot easier to justify.
‘‘But do we wait until it’s $200 a tonne and the community’s having to endure that cost, or do we get this in now and get ourselves prepared ahead of the game for when the landfill price starts to escalate?’’
McNeil said such price increases were outside the control of council and influenced by Central Government and international legislation.
He said landfill fees had increased by $11 per tonne in the past year alone.
Testing of the site had con- tinued as preparations entered their final weeks.
Cameras would record the five public bays to monitor queues moving through the system and ensure safety, McNeil said.
Weighbridges would measure the mass of vehicles travelling through the centre and charge $110 per tonne, including GST, for the difference in weight.
Attendants would be on hand to assist people in recognising what could and could not be recycled at the centre. The centre contained separate sections for both public and commercial disposal.
Six to eight workers would oversee the operation and divide waste into its material group.
Mixed loads of waste including cardboard, plastic, glass, metal brick, soil, rubble, wood and plasterboard would be sorted for recycling with the remainder diverted to landfill.
‘‘This is for stuff you would bring to the transfer station, we just think we can do more sorting and recovery from that material,’’ McNeil said. The centre was predicted to sort through 12,000 tonnes annually.
The council aimed to reach 60 per cent diversion from landfill by June next year.
Once recycled, McNeil said materials such as cardboard and metals could be sold on to existing recycling markets.
Marlborough is the first authority in New Zealand to build its own waste sorting plant and received a government grant of $776,000 to see the project through.
Similar regions had services which were privately-owned.
McNeil said the council would share their journey ‘‘warts and all’’ with other councils seeking to implement similar recycling schemes to their respective region.
Landfill diversions from the centre were expected to extend the life of Bluegums landfill by 13 years.