PHOTO
Methven will soon lose its household item recycling service after a trial failed to stop people using it as a dumping site.
A three-month trial allowed people to drop reusable items to the recycling depot, but only when staff were present to check the condition of items and accept whiteware for scrap metal.
However, the trial found most people were still leaving unwanted household items rather than quality goods suitable for a second life.
The community board supported the end to household item drop-offs by November, despite concerns it could lead to an increase in illegal dumping.
Council’s waste recovery specialist Justin Bloomfield presented the trial results to the Methven Community Board on Monday, detailing how it failed to change it being used as a dumping ground.
“The majority of people are just dumping what they don't want, essentially, rather than quality items.”
The site was staffed for 20 hours a week, but was not gated.
This meant anyone entering the site can decide whether to return when it's open, or drop their stuff and go, he said.
The key issue is the “blurry area" where someone thinks something is reusable and the additional costs for dumping non-reusable items.
The council previously reported it had four tonnes of non-recyclable material dropped off in the first four months of the year, at a cost $2800 to transport and dispose of it.
“If you stop [the drop-off], then you don't have that,” Bloomfield said.
He recommended ending household items drop off and to continue accepting large whiteware items to be recycled as scrap metal.
The board agreed, but had reservations about the timing and ongoing impacts.
Board member Robin Jenkinson was concerned the dumping was about to get worse as seasonal staff pack up and clean out their accommodation to leave town.
“Where are they going to get rid of it up here, where we don't have a rubbish disposal area?”
Bloomfield said it wasn’t necessarily a seasonal worker issue, as during the trial the council had to “contact three people that were just pretty excessive” with dumping and they were all locals.
A refuse transfer station planned for the Line Road site was deferred from the last long-term plan and will be a few years away, he said.
Board member Simon Wareing said before that happens, people will continue to go to the depot, dump there items and drive off, rather than taking it to the resource recovery parks in Ashburton or Rakaia.
Board deputy chairperson Richie Owen said there would be an increase of dumping after hours if they remove the household removal option.
He was also worried it would cause an increase in illegal dumping around the town.
As chair of the meeting, Owen indicated the board’s direction is to extend the drop-off trial until the end of October, but household items will no longer be accepted at the Methven drop-off from then.
