Long Term Community Plan 2012-2022 - Hurunui District Council

www.hurunui.govt.nz
Activity 4: Waste Minimisation
Overview
The Waste Minimisation activity includes the various functions
of waste management, such as refuse, recycling, transfer stations
and litter bin collection.
Current Situation
Our current delivery model for waste and recycling services
has been in place since February 2009 The model came about
after a major review due to concerns about rising costs and
unsustainability into the future. We now contract the following
providers to deliver our refuse and recycling services:
• Waste Control New Zealand collect domestic and
commercial waste and commercial recycling in all
urban areas of the district and domestic waste from
those rural address on the collection route who pay
the appropriate rate. Waste Control is also contracted
to provide domestic recycling collections in Hanmer
Springs, which includes the pick-up of glass.
• Waste Control New Zealand transports Council’s
waste to Kate Valley, green waste to Envirocomp,
e-waste to E-Scrap and dry waste and glass to Amberley.
In addition the Cheviot, Culverden and Waiau transfer
stations are run by Waste Control and they manage the
Waikari drop off.
• North Canterbury Community Resources (NCCR)
collects (excluding Hanmer Springs) and processes the
domestic kerbside recycling and operates the Amberley
transfer station.
• Container Waste backloads glass and dry waste (from
our transfer stations) from Amberley to Christchurch
for sorting and processing by New Zealand Recovery.
We provide a weekly kerbside refuse collection service to
our urban communities in Amberley, Amberley Beach, Cheviot,
Culverden, Gore Bay, Greta Valley, Hanmer Springs, Hawarden,
Leithfield, Leithfield Beach, Motanau Beach, Mt Lyford, Omihi,
Rotherham, Scargill, Waiau, Waikari and Waipara. Due to the
large size of the rural areas, it is too costly to run a routine rural
kerbside collection service. However, the rural households
which are situated along the collection route may use the
kerbside collection service by paying the refuse collection rate
and using the rural collection stickers we provide Other rural
householders can also do the same as long as they drop their
refuse at a location agreed with council, pay the appropriate rate
and use the collection stickers.
Glass containers are available at all five transfer stations for
people to drop off glass for recycling at no cost, this is then
crushed and used in roading. Dry waste from the northern sites
is brought to Amberley for collection and is then backloaded
to Christchurch using empty container waste trucks returning
from Kate Valleyfor processing through NZ Recovery.
Our five transfer stations are located at Cheviot, Hanmer
Springs, Culverden, Amberley and Waiau. The Amberley
Transfer Station is managed by NCCR. Waste Control New
Zealand operates the Cheviot, Culverden and Waiau transfer
stations and Waikari drop off and the Hanmer Springs transfer
station is managed by Council staff. Recycling drop off points are
also provided in Hanmer Springs and Culverden
There are six closed landfills which have resource consents
issued by Canterbury Regional Council. The closed landfills are
located at Cheviot, Culverden, Hanmer Springs, Waiau, Waikari
and Waipara. Groundwater levels are tested regularly at these
landfills to ensure they present no risk to the environment.
We are a shareholder of Transwaste Canterbury Ltd (TCL) which
opened a regional landfill at Kate Valley in 2005 along with four
other neighbouring local authorities who are also shareholders.
This landfill is located inside the Hurunui district, and we have an
on-going responsibility and commitment to ensure its operations
comply at all times with the consent conditions granted by both
our Council and Canterbury Regional Council. As a minor
shareholder in TCL, Council receives annual dividends for the
joint venture. We are expecting to receive $72,000 in dividends
for the 2012/2013 year.
We supported Envirocomp to develop a commercial nappy
composting plant in our district in early 2009 and agreed to a 15
year lease on a council property. Envirocomp use green waste
generated through our transfer stations as a bulking agent to
aid the nappy composting process. This is the first commercial
nappy composting facility in New Zealand able to compost all
brands of disposable nappies and offers a credible and efficient
alternative solution to landfill.
Plans for the future
An on-going challenge to us (and the rest of the world) is how
to deal with increasing amounts of packaging and waste material.
We intend to administer our waste and recycling services as
they are currently, but will continue to look for efficiencies to
reduce the levels of refuse to landfill. The current contracts for
our waste and recycling service providers are for 3 years and
after that time, there is the option, with council approval, to
extend the contracts for a further two years (3+1+1). After
completion of the contracts, we will need to determine whether
to further extend the contracts or re tender. The budget for
future years is based on the current contracts (with inflation
adjustments).
The Kate Valley landfill has a useful life in excess of the 10 year
planning period of this plan.
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