13 July 2016

Changes at Rotorua Recycling Centre

People taking their recycling to Rotorua’s recycling centre are no longer having to sort all their plastics.

Changes at the recycling centre, including the introduction of charges for some e-waste items and for de-gassing of fridges, freezers and gas cylinders, are part of new waste management services introduced under Rotorua Lakes Council’s new waste management strategy, which aims to reduce waste going to landfill, increase recycling, reduce costs and improve safety.

Smart Environmental has been contracted to provide kerbside rubbish, recycling and litter services and Waste Management to deal with landfill waste and operate the district’s landfill. Wheelie bins for refuse and kerbside recycling are being introduced late October.

There have been a few changes at Rotorua’s recycling centre, including people no longer having to sort plastics 1 through 7 which are the only plastics that can be recycled in New Zealand. Smart Environmental has its own sorting facility and also manages recycling for other districts so putting all plastics together for transportation is more efficient, says the company’s Chief Operating Officer Blair Griffiths.

“This will also tie in with our kerbside recycling collections which will see recyclables co-mingled into one bin, with glass in a separate crate. The recycling will then be transported out of town for sorting,” he says. “Our materials recovery facility at Kopu will sort the recycling, with glass being colour separated at kerbside.”

People are asked to “wash and squash” their recyclables and while plastics 1 to 7 don’t need to be separated, people are being asked to continue separating their tin and aluminium cans and their glass at the recycling centre.

The centre is currently not taking “expand-a-foam” polystyrene, such as that used in packaging, or meat trays. These items have in the past been sold out of the district for use as landfill liner. Yoghurt pots, which are also polystyrene, will still be taken at the recycling centre but until Rotorua Lakes Council and Smart Environmental have investigated future options for polystyrene, people will need to dispose of this with their landfill rubbish.

Meanwhile, charges are being introduced for the disposal of some E-waste items at Rotorua’s recycling centre, a cost which has until now been covered by Council. These charges will come into effect next Monday, 18 July.

E-waste is the term used for electronic items like computers, televisions, VCRs, stereos, copiers and fax machines. Some parts can be re-used, refurbished or recycled but first need to be dismantled and the new charges reflect the cost of dismantling and transporting.

“Rotorua Lakes Council has paid about $140,000 a year to collect, dismantle and dispose of about 220 tonnes of e-waste,” says Tim Senington, Rotorua Lakes Council solid waste operations lead.

“Moving to a user-pays system for e-waste was part of council’s new waste strategy and is in line with what most councils have been doing for a number of years already.

“We’re aware this is a big change for some people and would encourage anyone who has questions or concerns to contact council’s customer centre to discuss these,” Mr Senington says.

While the new charges will be collected at Rotorua’s recycling centre by Smart Environmental, the full amount will go to the non-profit South Waikato Achievement Trust which will transport the e-waste from the recycling centre to its Tokoroa site to be disassembled. The trust then sells those parts which can be re-used or recycled.

The new e-waste charges, which are similar to what is charged elsewhere, apply to items which take a lot of time to disassemble. Disposal of other items will continue to be free.

Recycling Centre changes

• No need to separate your plastics anymore – these will be separated at Smart Environmental’s facility

• There are separate bins for aluminium and tin cans

• Glass also still needs to be colour separated

E-waste and whiteware de-gassing charges come into effect from next week [18 July 2016].

ENDS

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