Waitaki Resource Recovery Trust manager Dave Clare presented the trust’s quarterly report to the council this week and said the trust had recently absorbed "four or five" wage hikes and the trust could either start to charge each car $1 for entering the recycling centre "as an example", or it could talk to the council about its annual operational grant of $220,000.
After the meeting, Mr Clare said the idea of charging cars entry to the resource recovery park was "tongue in cheek" but the cash crunch was real.
"All of a sudden of that $220,000 — essentially having absorbed $100,000-plus [in wage increases] our net grant has halved if you like, we have survived by doing things differently ... and finding markets where there weren’t markets," Mr Clare said.
Up to 30 staff worked at the recovery park and due to China’s so-called "national sword" policy, which amounted to a ban on imports of the world’s plastics, markets worldwide were depressed in the short term.
"We’ve had four or five of these minimum wage increases, which we have absorbed by either efficiencies, finding new markets, or not replacing senior staff, and absorbing the additional work. But with another one coming along, we’ve got to find another $26,000," he said.
"The conversation will have to be had."
In the three months from July to September 30, last year, the resource recovery park diverted 666 tonnes from the landfill, the quarterly report states.
