Recycling bins scheme to be expanded?
Paddy Gillooly and the Collingwood recycling bins
The recycling bins in Collingwood and Takaka have collected plenty of recyclable material this summer and the trail scheme seems likely to be continued.
The bins have needed emptying more often than was first envisaged so the volunteers who agreed to take the recyclables away have had a busy time. TDC say the scheme has been successful and it may continue on an expanded basis next year.
Paddy Gillooly and Kevin Wigzell have been voluntarily taking the bins to the Collingwood transfer station when they need emptying.
“The bins have been very well used, especially the one that takes the glass for recycling,” said Paddy. “It was filling up daily at the peak time. Lots of people like to recycle their bottles and there must have been quite a few people staying in holiday homes and the like who weren’t aware of the transfer station’s opening hours.”
Paddy explained that original intention behind the scheme was to provide people who were in the townships a place to deposit recyclables as they passed by, rather than a dropping-off point for people at the end of their holidays or between recycling collection days.
TDC utilities asset engineer David Stephenson said that that the scheme had gone “pretty well.”
“It’s a Ministry for the Environment scheme so they’re picking up the bulk of the installation costs and some of the servicing costs,” he said. “We’ve gathered quite a bit of data and we’re sending it off to the ministry when we’ve collated it all. We’ve spoken to quite a few people and had almost universally positive feedback.”
Mr Stephenson said that at the busiest time of the year the glass bin at the Takaka i-Site was filling up twice a day, so the servicing cost was “quite high for those couple of weeks.”
Not everyone used the bins in the way they were supposed to, said Mr Stephenson. Some household rubbish found its way into the recycling bins.
“Early indications are that we’ve had about a 30% contamination rate across the whole district but the Golden Bay figure could be lower than that,” said Mr Stephenson. “The scheme was envisaged as something mostly for visitors, to give them somewhere to get rid of the bits and pieces of recyclable material they generated while they we here. We seem to have had a few locals offloading whole loads in the bins rather than through the recycling scheme or through the transfer stations at Collingwood and Takaka.”
Mr Stephenson agreed that advertising the transfer stations’ opening hours more regularly during summer would be a good idea.
Possible changes to the scheme for next year include bigger bins for glass and an expansion to other sites.
“We’ve had some interest from tourist operators saying they wouldn’t mind having some bins at their sites.”
There is money provisionally budgeted for the scheme to continue. A final decision will be made in late March, when all the information has been collated.
Neil Wilson
