Recycling sent to landfill
More than 40 tonnes of recyclable material is believed to have been sent to landfill across the wider Wellington region while services were impacted by Covid-19 staff shortages.
In Wellington city, about 37 tonnes of paper, plastic and cans were diverted to landfill after being picked up from the kerb instead of being sorted and recycled – the equivalent of about six African elephants.
The Wellington City Council said in March a number of workers at the Seaview recycling plant, run by Oji Fibre Solutions, were unable to work due to Covid-19, reducing the amount of recycling that could be processed.
This led to reduced capacity between March 3 and March 10.
During this time a total of 18 trucks carrying co-mingle recycling were sent to landfill, with an estimated total of 37 tonnes of recyclable material on board.
The council estimates about 25% of the city’s recycling was diverted in this way.
A driver shortage at Envirowaste also resulted in Wellington city’s glass collection service being stopped for about four weeks. Residents were asked to stockpile or make their own drop-off.
The full service resumed from Monday last week, although residents were asked to ‘‘drip feed’’ their stockpiles.
The staff shortages at Oji also led to some Porirua recycling being sent to landfill. Porirua City Council water and waste manager David Down said an ‘‘occasional truckload’’, described as ‘‘nomore than two trucks per week through March and April’’, was sent to landfill.
Kāpiti Coast District Council waste projects manager Ruth Clarke said the district did not experience ‘‘significant disruption’’, although a driver shortage led to its glass crate collection being paused over a 10-day period.
The impact was ‘‘minimal’’ and collection was paused, rather than being diverted to landfill, Clarke said.
Residents in the Hutt Valley also experienced ‘‘brief disruptions’’ to their rubbish and recycling services but were not impacted by the Seaview recycling plant capacity drop, Hutt City Council spokesman Jamie Dobson said.
‘‘The impact at the kerb was minimal overall and recycling continued to be collected as normal for the majority of the time.’’
In Wairarapa, where Earthcare Environmental handles recycling services for all three district councils, recycling services were able to continue as usual during the outbreak.
However, residents across Hastings experienced a reduced recycling collection service for about three weeks during its recent Omicron outbreak, the council’s waste and data services manager, Martin Jarvis, said.