2 October 2020
Media: Local Democracy Reporter
Topic: Recycling in Rotorua
Enquiry
Following on from the video shoot the other day [with Cr Fisher Wang and Council's Infrastructure Business Manager Regan Fraser], can you please tell me (for the written story going with the video):
- How many tonnes of recycling is collected in Rotorua every day?
- Of that, once sorted, how much of it is contaminated and sent to landfill (perhaps as a daily percentage)?
- Can you please explain the risk of contamination due to collecting and compacting the recycling all together before transporting it? Is the risk higher since it is not sorted from each truck load (ie the trucks that collect the recycling locally) collected before being transported?
- How much does it cost to transport the recycling to Kopu each day?
- How much does it cost to transport rejected recycling from Kopu to the Tirohia landfill each day (if this is not a daily activity an average figure will do)?
- How much does it cost to transport rubbish from Rotorua to the Tirohia landfill each day?
- What are the emissions created by transporting recycling to Kopu?
- What are the emissions created by transporting rubbish to Tirohia?
- What are the emissions created by transporting rejected (contaminated) recycling to Tirohia from Kopu?
- Does the council (or the council's contractors) offset any of these emissions?
- What constitutes contamination exactly, and how easily does it pass from one recycled item to another (ie if one item is dirty/has a lid on in one person's bin does that contaminate all of the items in that bin?)
- Would it be cheaper for the council if there was a Rotorua landfill (to replace the one that was capped)?
- Would it be more environmentally friendly, on balance?
- The draft climate action plan has a line to "investigate opportunities for local waste handling facilities" for recyclables and organic waste. How far along is the council in progressing this (if at all)? What are the challenges in place with this?
Some of these questions were answered in the video but I'd like to confirm some of them since some of the figures stated didn't quite add up, so I think some things got lost in the mix there.
Response
From Rotorua Lakes Council's Infrastructure Business Manager Regan Fraser:
How many tonnes of recycling is collected in Rotorua every day?
In the 2019/2020 financial year, the daily average of collected recycling was about 8.2 tons (excluding glass).
Of that, once sorted, how much of it is contaminated and sent to landfill (perhaps as a daily percentage)?
The level of contamination in Rotorua's recycling is reported to Council monthly. The average monthly contamination during the 2019/2020 financial year was approximately 19%.
Can you please explain the risk of contamination due to collecting and compacting the recycling all together before transporting it? Is the risk higher since it is not sorted from each truck load (ie the trucks that collect the recycling locally) collected before being transported?
Yes, compacting the recycling in the truck can increase the risk of contamination. For example, if there are bottles filled with liquids in the recycling collection, they may spill when the recycling is compacted. However, compaction is standard practice in waste collection as it minimises the amount of trips needed to transport the material to be sorted after collection.
How much does it cost to transport the recycling to Kopu each day?
Transport costs are included in the total cost of the contract with Smart Environmental. Please contact Smart Environmental for further details.
How much does it cost to transport rejected recycling from Kopu to the Tirohia landfill each day (if this is not a daily activity an average figure will do)?
Transport costs are included in the total cost of the contract with Smart Environmental. Please contact Smart Environmental for further details.
How much does it cost to transport rubbish from Rotorua to the Tirohia landfill each day?
Transport costs are included in the total cost of the contract with Smart Environmental. Please contact Smart Environmental for further details.
What are the emissions created by transporting recycling to Kopu?
The machinery used to deliver the recycling collection service and any emissions are not covered in Councils contract with Smart Environmental. You would need to contact Smart Environmental for this information.
What are the emissions created by transporting rubbish to Tirohia?
As above, you'll need to contact Waste Management for this information.
What are the emissions created by transporting rejected (contaminated) recycling to Tirohia from Kopu?
As above, you'll need to contact Smart Environmental.
Does the council (or the council's contractors) offset any of these emissions?
Landfill operators in New Zealand are liable to pay to offset emissions under the Emission Trading Scheme. Please contact Waste Management for this information.
What constitutes contamination exactly, and how easily does it pass from one recycled item to another (ie if one item is dirty/has a lid on in one person's bin does that contaminate all of the items in that bin?)
Any unpermitted or dirty items in the kerbside yellow bin are considered contaminants. They could make recyclable items dirty (no longer recyclable), or simply impact the value of the collected recycling.
Paper/cardboard comprises about 85% of mixed recycling (excluding glass) in Rotorua, and these fibres can be easily contaminated by dirty or wet recyclables.
Higher levels of contamination in collected recycling requires more work to be done to process the recyclable items by Materials Recovery Facilities, and makes it less desirable for MRF) to want to buy the waste materials from contractors.
On-selling the collected recycling contributes to lowering the cost of Rotorua's recycling service, and therefore, lowers the total cost of the recycling service for ratepayers.
Putting the wrong items in the recycling bin costs ratepayers more, as more non-recyclable items are transported to the Materials Recycling Facility, they require more sorting for the contaminants to be separated from recycling streams, and then the contaminants must be transported to landfill.
You can find out what items are permitted in Rotorua's recycling, here. If you are unsure if an item can go into your yellow lid recycling bin, you can check under the lid, call 07 3484 199 or email info@rotorualc.nz to check with Council's Customer Solutions team.
Would it be cheaper for the council if there was a Rotorua landfill (to replace the one that was capped)?
No, operating a modern landfill is much more expensive and is only viable with larger scales of rubbish (over 100,000 tonnes of waste per year). Around 15,000 tonnes of waste per year is collected by Council's waste services.
Would it be more environmentally friendly, on balance?
No landfill is environmentally friendly. The best approach to minimising our environmental footprint is to divert waste away from landfills.
Some techniques that can be used to divert waste from landfills are avoid, reduce, reuse, recycle, recover and treat. The biggest impact that we can have on successfully diverting waste comes down to the choices that the individual makes at purchase time, and then by their decision of what to do with the item when they have finished using it.
Recycling is just one of the ways to divert waste, and should not be solely relied on to minimise household waste to landfills.
Simple solutions such as composting are easy and effective for minimising waste in landfills. For example, according to a 2017 bin audit, an estimated 50% of organic waste could have been composted at home instead of being disposed of in the kerbside rubbish collection service.
The draft climate action plan has a line to "investigate opportunities for local waste handling facilities" for recyclables and organic waste. How far along is the council in progressing this (if at all)? What are the challenges in place with this?
Council is currently exploring options to divert organic waste from landfills and is proposing to divert green waste as a solution for consideration in the next LTP.
Additional information provided:
Re: "Some of these questions were answered in the video but I'd like to confirm some of them since some of the figures stated didn't quite add up, so I some things got lost in the mix there." - This may be because general recycling processes excludes glass, and some figures may have referenced both glass and general recycling, or general recycling on its own. The breakdown is roughly 3000 tonnes general recyclables, and 2400 tonnes glass.
'Wishcycling' is a term used to describe the act of putting something in the recycling bin with the hope of it being recyclable, but knowing that it probably isn't.
Regan suggested that if you want to explore emissions from Rotorua's recycling, you could compare the environmental benefits of disposing waste in a modern landfill like Tirohia, versus disposal in an old landfill. Waste Management may be able to help with this information.
