Where does your recycling go?
Published on 20 January 2015
20 January 2015
In the last eight years, nearly 100 per cent of the products received at our drop-off centres have been recycled.
The first recycling drop-off centre opened in Peat Street in 2006. In August 2013 it was replaced by the Whanganui Resource Recovery Centre in Maria Place Extension.
Whanganui Resource Recovery Centre Trustee and Wanganui District Council Waste Minimisation Working Party Chairman Cr Rob Vinsen says 99.9 per cent of the products dropped off at both centres have been recycled.
Glass, plastic, oil, paper, tins and other products have found a new life as packaging material, containers, alternative fuel sources and more.
Cr Vinsen thanked the community for how enthusiastically they have embraced recycling.
“If we took the amount of product we recycled last year and put it all in one place, it would fill the Splash Centre 23 times. That is no small amount of waste minimisation for our community.
“The only instance where a product goes near a landfill is when someone accidentally drops off something non-recyclable at the Centre, although this is less than 0.1 per cent of the total volume sent away.
“The Centre has a great relationship with a variety of recycling outlets throughout New Zealand. I have visited these outlets and have seen how they operate. It is fantastic to watch the recyclables from our community being turned into something else of use.
We also have a mobile recycling trailer available from the Centre which can be booked by community groups so people can recycle at events.”
In 2014 the Whanganui Resource Recovery Centre won the ‘Community Innovation Award’ category in the NZI National Sustainable Business Network Awards and was a finalist in the Green Ribbon Awards under the ‘Minimising our Waste’ category.
To find out more about the Centre, including information about where your recyclable products go, please visit www.wrrc.co.nz. To book the mobile recycling trailer, please phone 348 7950 or email info@wrrc.co.nz.
