Selwyn Times: January 27, 2021

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Selwyn Times Wednesday January 27 2021 6 NEWS • By Susan Sandys KIWI INGENUITY found mechanic Merv Ferguson just a few months into his late-in-life retirement, and hauled him back to the workshop. The result is a booming business based at Lincoln, setting a New Zealand precedent in an emerging international industry. The 74-year-old said he started “tinkering” following retiring from his job as a mechanic at an agricultural contractor at the age of 69. Consequently, retirement lasted a mere 18 months. “I did and I didn’t (enjoy retirement), because I got bored, there was nothing else to do,” Ferguson said. Oil filter disposal caught his imagination, he wondered about turning these waste items from cars, trucks and boats into a usable commodity. “I could see they were a recyclable item and they were just going into rubbish bins and landfill, there was money in them to be made.” With no-one else in New Zealand doing anything similar, he set about working out how to crush and bale the filters so they can be turned into a “furnace block” for export to Shanghai, where the two metals in the filters of aluminium and steel are recovered to make new products. That’s when the potential of a 40-tonne log splitter came to mind. He bought one and modified it by putting bigger rams on it and installing catch tanks, to capture the oil which comes out of the filters when they are crushed. He started crushing filters in his backyard, sourcing them by calling on garages around Christchurch. “It grew and grew and grew, Latest Canterbury news at starnews.co.nz Booming business puts retirement on hold HI-TECH: Merv Ferguson and the $70,000 machine which crushes and bales oil filters. PHOTO: GEOFF SLOAN and just got out of control and we had to move,” Ferguson said. Ferguson moved the business from his backyard in Hornby to a Lincoln workshop about three years ago, and Filter Crusher NZ was born, the business he operates in partnership with wife Val, son David and daughter Carmen. The splitter crushes one filter at a time, and has been crushing up to one-and-a-half tonne per day. “And that’s been a slow process,” he said. In recent months, Ferguson has been trying to find a better way, and saw what an Australian company was doing with a baler, so asked a company in China to make something similar, modified to have tanks underneath to catch the oil. That $70,000 machine has just arrived. “With this big new machine, she will do that (up to 1.5 tonne) in an hour,” he said. But he has no plans to get rid of the log splitter, parked up in the corner of the workshop. “That’s number one, that’s what we started with, no we won’t get rid of that,” Ferguson said. He expects to be able to now crush up to seven tonne per day, and by next year reach an annual turnover of half a million dollars per year. Ferguson continues to collect filters from garages around Christchurch, and Waste Management delivers millions of filters to him per year, from hundreds of garages around the country. Filter Crusher today employs six staff. It does not advertise, nor has a website. “We get phone calls from people, and pick up three to four new clients per month. We do field days at Kirwee, that’s every two years, and that’s about it, because we get enough work with Waste Management supplying us with all the filters.” Retirement is now a distant memory; he is full-time in the workshop from 7am to 3.30pm weekdays. But he finds this leaves plenty of time for his long-time hobby of doing up and racing vintage cars, something he likes to do on weekends with his family. If you could turn back time would you change anything? I would from looking like a crime scene. Be a better mother and not wish the Or defusing a near riot over the years away. bathroom, dishes, chores, remote…. Listen, learn and be patient. pretty much everything. Not work my arse off, missing the Even consoling the teenager whose special little moments we take for phone just died and they can’t find granted. the charger. STOP! And be present. That no matter what you say or do, Motherhood is brutal… its wrong. We are our own worst critics. Striving Being uncool (if only they knew just for perfection (whatever that is). We how cool we were). Yet they strive forget to applaud the tantrum we to be us. survived without wanting to commit Today my children have grown and murder. having children of their own. Though The fact that we worked a 40hr week, it seemed like yesterday they were all cooked dinners, homework, held a screaming and pulling on my apron civilised conversation with the hubby, strings. whilst managing to keep the house I miss it... I am a married mother of three and fortunate enough to live in sunny Nelson, South Island in New Zealand. I graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Visual Arts and Design in 2010. I have sketched for as long as I can remember, I find it a nice break from the hustle and bustle of everyday life. I was introduced to screen printing in Art School and use this process in my art practice as well as teaching printing techniques from my home studio. Screen printing has become a tool for me to push my work further and extend beyond the confinements of drawing. I have exhibited, curated and tutored in the Nelson Bays region, winning and being selected for many local art awards. Lisa Grennell 30 January - 23 February 2021 Main Rd, Little River | 03 325 1944 | art@littlerivergallery.com
Wednesday January 27 2021 Selwyn Times NEWS 7 A NEW stainless steel • By Susan Sandys TWO NEW CPR mannequins at Lincoln are set to save lives. The Lincoln Club and The Famous Grouse Hotel bought the two mannequins, costing about $2000, to donate one each to Lincoln St John and Lincoln Volunteer Fire Brigade. Brigade chief Jeremy Greenwood said the mannequins were interactive in that they monitored the speed and depth of chest compressions, enabling the user to adjust their technique if required. He said cardiopulmonary resuscitation was a skill firefighters could have to call on at any of the jobs they went to, ranging from house and property fires to car crashes and medical calls. “It’s a skill that we all need to be well trained in, and that certainly DONATION: Will Stock of The Famous Grouse Hotel (centre) presents one of two mannequins to James Watkins of St John and Lincoln fire chief Jeremy Greenwood. PHOTO: GEOFF SLOAN Mannequins donated to emergency services helps us,” Greenwood said. The Famous Grouse general manager Will Stock said the decision to donate the mannequins was made with the help of Lincoln Senior Constable Andy Williamson. “We want to support the Lincoln community, and this has the potential of making Lincoln safer,” Stock said. •Our People with Dave Berry, pages 10 & 11 NEW RIDE: The existing plastic tube slide at Foster Park will be replaced with a steel slide. Replacement steel tube slide for Foster Park tube slide is being installed at Rolleston’s Foster Park playground during the district council’s annual park maintenance. The park will be closed for about three weeks from February 1 to February Get your Tickets Now SUMMER CONCERT www.selwynsounds.co.nz 19 to install the steel slide and carry out annual maintenance. The New Zealand-made steel slide will replace the existing plastic tube slide, which was closed for much of 2020 due to issues with cracking. A shade sail will also be installed to shade the exit of the slide. The work has been timed for when school is back, and when the contractor is available to install the new slide, to minimise disruption during the holidays. BAND The AIR FORCE ON TOUR With guest vocalist Matt Mulholland Free Concert Sunday 21 February, 2.00pm Air Force Museum of New Zealand, Christchurch Bookings are essential through Eventbrite.com MEARES WILLIAMS LAWYERS 10 Years in Selwyn Richard Gray Kate Warren Anita Molloy-Roberts Belinda Ferguson Emma-Jane Moore W: www.meareswilliams.co.nz T: (03) 374 2547 E: reception @meareswilliams.co.nz ROLLESTON OFFICE 78 Rolleston Drive, Rolleston Offices also located at: 43 Gerald Street, Lincoln 225 Papanui Road, Christchurch
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Selwyn Times: January 27, 2021

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