AUCKLAND CITY COUNCIL

MANUKAU CITY COUNCIL

MEDIA RELEASE

1 June 2007

Tender awarded for state-of-the-art recycling facility

Auckland and Manukau city councils today awarded the contract for the southern hemisphere’s most advanced recycling sorting facility.

Visy Recycling New Zealand will build, own and operate the materials recovery facility at Onehunga. It is a key part of a new recycling service for Auckland and Manukau cities that will see the existing blue crates replaced with a new, 240-litre mobile bin for all dry recyclable waste, which will be collected fortnightly from July 2008.

“This state-of-the-art recycling facility is a real coup for both our cities,” says Auckland City Mayor Dick Hubbard. “It will be the most technologically advanced recycling facility in the southern hemisphere. It will be able to sort 80,000 tonnes of recyclable waste yearly from Manukau and Auckland city households and convert more than 95 per cent into reusable product.”

The contract was awarded after a competitive tender process attracted bids from seven prospective operators. Visy Recycling New Zealand is a fully owned subsidiary of Australian company Visy Recycling, which has been operating similar facilities in Australia for more than 20 years.

“The facility will incorporate the latest screening and optical sorting technology available for paper, glass and plastics,” Mayor Hubbard says, “and is a tremendous leap forward in our plan for zero waste to landfill by 2015.”

Manukau Mayor Sir Barry Curtis says the new recycling service is expected to lift recycling rates by between15 and 25 per cent.

“This is a hugely significant step for recycling in New Zealand,” Mayor Curtis says, “Manukau and Auckland have almost 20 per cent of the country’s population. With our residents recycling more, we will make a major contribution to New Zealand’s efforts to reduce waste.

“We are setting the standard for the future of recycling in New Zealand. The new recycling service is the first stage of Manukau’s vision for changing how we deal with waste. The facility is innovative and forward-looking, for example it has the capacity for other councils to bring their recycling here for processing.

“Making it easy is one of the most important factors in getting people to recycle more. This new one-bin service will do that.”

Visy Recycling general manager Steven Boland says, “When the facility is complete, it will

be one of the best anywhere in the world. It will deliver a significant step-up in both the volume, and quality, of recyclable material recovery for Auckland and Manukau. Visy is proud to be associated with both councils in such a forward-thinking strategy for the region.”

Ends

Notes to editor:

New recycling service
What is changing?

Manukau and Auckland city councils are working together on a new recycling service that will see 240-litre mobile or wheelie bins provided for people to recycle. They will be collected fortnightly from the kerbside, replacing the current weekly crate collection.

A new materials recovery facility (MRF) with advanced technology for sorting the recycling is being funded, built, and operated by Visy Recycling New Zealand and transferred to the councils after 14 years. Plant upgrades during that period will also be the responsibility of the operator.

Residents will begin using the new bins after July 2008. The actual start date is dependent on consent issuances and construction progress for building the materials recovery facility.

The MRF will make it easier for residents to recycle more by providing greater capacity and allow all recyclable material (paper, cardboard, plastics numbered 1 to 7, glass bottles, tins and aluminium cans) to be put in one bin. Paper and cardboard is currently collected separately.

The principle change is that sorting will be done at the MRF and not at the kerbside.

Why the change to a new recycling service?

The present contracts were due to be re-tendered so there was a prime opportunity to review the present system and bring it up to best practice around the world.

With both councils working together there are a number of advantages because of the economies of scale, for eg cost savings when getting bins made, the larger quantities of recyclables will make it easier to secure long-term markets for the materials. With approximately 20 per cent of the country’s population, the increase in recycling will have a significant impact on New Zealand’s efforts to divert rubbish from going to landfills.

• The increased capacity of bins to 240-litre a fortnight, means residents can recycle more
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• All-in-one mobile bins makes it easier for residents to recycle, lessens confusion about what can be recycled
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• The closed lids will avoid the major problems with mess in the streets from paper and plastic bottles blowing out of the existing open-top crates.
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The materials recovery facility

• The facility will be the most technologically advanced in the southern hemisphere. It will use various screening techniques and optical sorting of glass into colours and plastic into grades, leading to much improved processing rates and reductions in product contamination
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• Capability to expand (incrementally) to accommodate in excess of 160,000 tonne per annum of recyclables. This will allow the facility to handle recyclables collected by other councils
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• The capacity to accommodate at least 150 truck movements per day
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• Paper supply exceeding the quality standard required by Auckland (Penrose) Paper Mill
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• A commercial paper operation to bale and market 120,000 tonnes of paper and cardboard fibre per annum
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• An onsite education facility. The education centre will be open to school and community groups and will be a core component of the waste reduction and minimisation message that is currently being taught in schools and the wider community.
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Visy Recycling New Zealand has applied for resource consents with the aim of beginning building the MRF in August on Auckland City Council-owned land in Onehunga. It should be fully operational by mid 2008. Visy will own and operate the facility for 14 years, before transferring it back to council ownership.

About Visy Recycling

Visy Recycling is the largest recycler in the South Pacific region. Visy already employs over a thousand people in New Zealand, and this project will generate at least 24 new jobs in the Auckland area.

Not only has Visy processed the materials for Australia’s largest local government authority (Brisbane) for the past 4 years, it owns and operates materials processing facilities of a similar scale in Sydney and Melbourne, catering for the requirements of multiple councils, somewhat larger total tonnages and the full range of recyclable materials.

Auckland City Council facts

The introduction of the mobile recycling bin collections aligns with other Auckland City Council plans and strategies such as the Waste Management Plan, the environmental policy and the sustainable development campaign.

The MRF will play a significant role in realising Auckland City Council’s goal of zero waste to landfill by 2015.

Current recycling and rubbish services

Auckland City Council currently provides a weekly kerbside recyclable materials collection for approximately 146,000 properties. The service involves contractors collecting up to three 45 litre blue recycling crates from each household for glass bottles and jars, tins and aluminium cans, and plastic containers.

A separate collection of paper and cardboard is provided (independent of council involvement) by Fullcircle, a Carter Holt Harvey company. Together with rubbish, these kerbside collections are provided once a week on the same day.

Manukau City Council facts

Manukau City Council approved the introduction of 240 litre mobile recycling bins (MRBs) for the kerbside collection in the 2006/2016 Long term Council Community Plan following community consultation.

A key policy in the council’s waste management plan, adopted in 2005, was to investigate alternative household recycling methods to reduce the amount of waste going to landfill.

Current recycling and rubbish services

Kerbside recycling was introduced throughout Manukau City in April 2001, providing all households with a green recycling crate for the weekly collection of glass bottles or jars, plastics 1 and 2, tins and aluminium cans. This has now been expanded to include all plastics numbered 1 to 7. Residents can have up to two 55 litre recycling crates.

Rubbish is put out weekly. Two or three plastic bags (maximum weight of approximately 15kg each) is allowed for each collection.

Uniform annual waste charge

Each Manukau household currently pays a uniform annual waste charge of $161 a year as part of rates. There is a proposal for this to increase, the level is not set but it is likely to be in the vicinity of $185.

This charge covers a weekly household rubbish collection, a kerbside recycling collection and bin, an annual inorganic collection, city clean services, hazardous waste collection and a variety of waste minimisation projects for example Be a Tidy Kiwi and Create Your Own Eden.

How will people know about the changes and what to do with their recycling?

Auckland and Manukau city councils will be running a major public information campaign to make sure people are aware of the change and to encourage them to recycle and reduce their waste.

Why a fortnightly collection?

An advantage is that having one fortnightly city-wide recycling collection service will mean fewer vehicle movements. There won’t be a vehicle coming every week to pick up recycling, making it more environmentally friendly by reducing vehicle emissions

Is there a change to the contractor and vehicles used to collect the recycling?

The councils are still going through the tender process so we don’t know who the bin suppliers or collection contractors will be yet. The collection vehicles will change and be required to operate in ways that doesn’t over compact products and make them less suitable for recycling.

ends.

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