Separate recycling and waste options

Separate recycling facilities and a transfer station are being considered by the Waitaki District Council as it continues to look at how to deal with the disposal of rubbish.

At present, both recycling and a transfer station operate on a single site in Chelmer St under a joint venture between the council and the Waitaki Resource Recovery Trust.

But an attempt to formally set up a bigger transfer station for residual waste once the Oamaru landfill closed at the resource recovery park attracted such opposition from neighbours it was unable to be resolved.

Staff have carried out a review on the general future direction for managing solid waste and recycling activities in Oamaru.

The council's assets committee has recommended the council goes ahead with establishing two separate facilities.

The Chelmer St resource recovery park would be designated in the district plan for recycling activities only, formalising the contract with the Waitaki Resource Recovery Trust to operate it, supported by funding from the council.

A transfer station to handle residual waste when the Oamaru landfill closed could then be set up separately as a joint venture or partnership between the council and private enterprise.

Solid waste officer Gerry O'Neill estimated it could take two to three years to plan the new facility, select a site, obtain resource consents, design and construct it.

"Solid waste has been a highly contentious issue in recent years and it has proven very difficult to reach a general consensus on the way ahead," Mr O'Neill said.

Many solutions had been proposed, only to be abandoned for one reason or another.

An analysis undertaken by staff to formulate a plan for the future included looking at existing operations.

Cleanfill is disposed of by Whitestone Contracting at a site on Beach Rd and that should continue, the assets committee recommended.

Greenwaste was mulched at the Oamaru landfill and was fully user-pays.

Greenwaste could be mulched and used at the landfill for a number of years after it closed, so the committee recommended that also continued.

That left recycling and residual waste as the two remaining contentious issues, with the committee recommending recycling continued at the resource recovery park and that a separate transfer station should be built for residual rubbish.

The issue of how to dispose of the waste after the landfill closed, including whether a new landfill should be found within the district or whether waste should be transported elsewhere, will be the subject of a separate report and recommendations later in the year.

david.bruce@odt.co.nz