Milford Sound has introduced recycling in a bid to cut rubbish heading to the landfill by 75%.
Up to 400 tonnes of rubbish is shipped to the Southland District Council landfill every year from Milford Sound and the scheme, launched by the Milford Sound Development Authority Ltd, has been welcomed by tourism operators.
MSDA operations manager Andrew Welsh said the aim was to achieve a 25% reduction in waste heading to the landfill within the next six months.
"By April 2011, we hope it will be reduced by as much as 75%," he said.
The initial scheme began on Monday and involved the major cruise companies, including their residential areas, the cafe and the hotel.
Three recycling stations were being set up and operators would sort their waste into plastics, metals, glass, cardboard and paper, and green waste, for example food scraps.
"MSDA currently collects rubbish from 90% of the village.
"Initially, the recycling scheme will be developed for those people, although it is envisaged that that this will eventually spread to the rest of Milford Sound, such as Deepwater Basin operators and fishermen," Mr Welsh said.
The recycled materials would be purchased by Southland Enterprises and the aim was to run the scheme on a cost-neutral basis eventually, with the income from the recyclables covering the cost of transporting them to Invercargill.
Real Journeys, Milford's largest tourism company, was delighted to see the scheme introduced.
Operations manager Angus Small said the move complemented steps already taken by Real Journeys, including the use of recyclable picnic boxes with unbleached recyclable napkins on its boats.
"We have recycling stations on all our vessels for our customers in public areas, as well as systems in place in the staff-only areas such as the galleys.
"We also use reusable, washable bento [Japanese] lunch boxes on our cruises to reduce waste.
"This is a great step forward for Milford Sound and all our staff are embracing the initiative," Mr Small said.
