RETHINKING RURAL RECYCLING Angela Atkins Waste Minimisation Planner, Hastings District Council Hawke’s Bay, New Zealand Abstract Today’s lifestyle is one of high expectation and instant results. The boundary between urban and rural areas is becoming less well defined and those people living in outlying communities now expect similar refuse and recycling services to those delivered to their urban counterparts. Hastings District Council (HDC) is establishing seven rural recycling stations strategically located around the district stemming from requests from the communities. Converted shipping containers will be used as the receiving receptacles for the recycling. These ingeniously designed containers, which we have called Green Bins, have been successfully trialled over a two year period and the feedback from the trial communities has been extremely positive. The containers have reduced servicing costs and can be used at both large transfer stations and small rural facilities. They have movable internal walls which allow for individual site adjustments and removable signage. Key Words Rural Recycling, Shipping Container, Recycling Bin, Transportable, Transfer Station Introduction been designing and trialling modified 20 foot shipping containers (Green Bins) for the This project will increase recycling access for collection and transportation of domestic the districts 17,000 rural residents by making recycling from rural and coastal communities. recycling convenient and placing an option These containers create a high profile and within local travelling distance. Providing this help to reduce associated servicing costs. service will reduce the reliance on farm pits and increase the recycling rates of materials that are recycled across the district. An opportunity was identified to introduce specific rural recycling through the development of Council’s Waste Management and Minimisation Plan. The introduction of this programme would provide greater control to Council over the method of collection and servicing. It would also lead to informed and engaged communities and a It is HDC’s desire to provide convenient reduction in contamination and associated recycling facilities to our rural communities sorting costs of recyclable material. that is cost effective to collect, transport and sort and which leads to wider environmental Currently these communities don’t have positive outcomes, e.g. moving away from the convenient access to recycling facilities or use of farm pits. services. Over the past two years, HDC has The Hastings District covers a land area of 500,000 hectares and is located on the east coast of the North Island of New Zealand. The Hastings District comprises the main urban centres of Hastings, Havelock North, Flaxmere and Clive, as well as numerous rural and coastal settlements. The Pacific Ocean laps the east coast of the Hastings District; while the district shares its remaining boundaries with Central Hawke’s Bay District, Rangitikei District, Taupo District, Wairoa District and Napier City. The local Rural Community Board representative volunteered to be the The population of the Hastings District is champion promoting the use to the locals and 73,245 (New Zealand Census 2013), co-ordinated servicing with Council. The containing 1.7% of the resident population of facility has also been widely promoted by New Zealand. This makes Hastings 11th in Tutira School through their regular community terms of population size of the 67 districts in newsletters. New Zealand. 51,393 residents live in urban settlements and 24,765 residents in the rural With a population of approximately 580, this area; 34% of the population. The majority of site utilised 44 x 240L wheelie bins for the the population live in the urban and plains collection and transportation of glass (colour area. sorted) and comingled (plastic and cans) recycling. Paper and cardboard was collected in fadge bags at the local school as part of the Paper for Trees Programme. These The Trials fadges were collected when the truck serviced the wheelie bins. Servicing has To gauge the need and willingness of the occurred on average every three weeks and communities to participate, Council agreed to has involved the manual swap over of the trial this service initially for 12 months at two wheelie bins using a flat bed truck with a hiab locations. This was extended to two years, to arm for the lifting of the full wheelie bins. The gather more detailed data and monitor following table displays the tonnes received seasonal trends after the introduction of the of each product over the past two financial Green Fence Policy in China regarding the years. export of plastics for recycling. The trials using wheelie bins commenced in June 2012. The Tutira site is a rural farming community 60 minutes north of Hastings. The Year Glass Plastic / Paper Maraekakaho site is a rural community 20 Tonnes Cans Tonnes minutes south of Hastings that includes a Tonnes mixture of lifestyle, farming, orchards and 2012/13 13.76 4.12 3.33 viticulture properties. The two sites were chosen due to the differences presented by 2013/14 19.52 6.16 3.15 each and the availability of local community champions, who would help manage the 2014/15 12.32 3.86 .81 facilities. (8 months) Tutira The Tutira trial was located on a Council road Table 1, Tonnage received at Tutira Rural reserve just off State Highway 2 past the local Recycling Trial school. This site was chosen because it was convenient for locals to use, but hidden from the passing motorists, to reduce the chance of illegal dumping. Maraekakaho Waimarama The Maraekakaho trial was sited at a local The Waimarama Beach community has mechanic’s garage on private property. This received a kerbside recycling collection for site was approximately 1 km from the State the summer holiday period, between Highway and 500 metres from the local Christmas and Waitangi weekends, for the school. This site was chosen over the school past seven years. The amount collected has because of the ability to provide controlled varied between 10 and 35 tonnes each year. access with locked gates at night. Waimarama has a permanent population of approximately 1080 which swells substantially over the summer holiday period when people amass to the beachside community. The owner of the garage volunteered to monitor the site and advise Council if servicing was required outside of the scheduled weekly service or if site The 2013/14 summer saw Council trial a maintenance was required. Green Bin (modified shipping container) as a glass recycling container for the collection Maraekakaho has a population of and transportation of glass from Waimarama. approximately 1280 and this site has received This collection methodology was trialled the following volumes of material over the trial because of health and safety concerns with period using 44 x 240L wheelie bins for glass the manual lift procedure associated with the (colour separated) and comingled (plastic and collection of wheelie bins and to also produce cans) and 3 x front load 4.5m3 bins for paper efficiency gains through reduced servicing. and cardboard. The front load bins have been used at this site for the trial because a This Green Bin was emptied three times over local recycling contractor had an existing the 2013/14 summer holiday and collected service in the area. approximately 15 tonnes of glass, costing $1050 in total to service. The concurrent kerbside service collected 2 Year Glass Plastic / Paper tonnes of glass, 1.7 tonnes of Tonnes Cans Tonnes paper/cardboard and 330 kilograms of Tonnes plastics over the eight weeks. Over the same 2012/13 39.12 15.86 8.82 period, the cost for this service was $11,850. 2013/14 49.28 15.38 14.55 A second trial of a new version of Green Bin was trialled over the 2014/15 summer for all 2014/15 35.28 10.82 7.86 recyclables and collected a similar volume of (8 months) material. The provision of a permanent recycling facility would remove the need to provide kerbside Table 2, Tonnage received at Maraekakaho Rural recycling services to this community over the Recycling Trial peak holiday period and provide a more cost effective solution. Havelock North Glass Plastic / Paper / Tonnes Cans Cardboard The Havelock North recycling drop off facility Tonnes Tonnes was established as a trial in 2006 to Average 4.9 0.64 1.3 determine if there was a need to create a weight permanent facility for rural and urban Maximum 7.7 0.94 2 residents on the eastern side of Hastings weight City. It proved to be a success and has Average 30.5 4.68 45 remained in place ever since. The facility monthly weight consisted of 4 x paper and cardboard bins Empties 90 51 7 and 3 x plastics and cans bins utilising front load bins and 28 x 240L wheelie bins housed in a 20 foot shipping container with open slots Table 3, Tonnage received at Havelock North for colour sorted glass. Recycling Facility The facility is located in an industrial zoned Servicing road reserve and the recent sale of the adjoining property has prompted the need to Changes in the waste contracting review the location and design of this facility. environment in the Hawke’s Bay coupled with The tonnage received at the Havelock North restrictions in the international market (green recycling facility is comparable to the tonnage fence) led to a dramatic increase in servicing received at the main recycling depot at the costs of recycling facilities. In response to district’s principal Refuse Transfer Station. this one Green Bin has been used for the past 18 months to collect colour-sorted glass and a second bin to collect plastics for the past nine months. The use of Green Bins at the Havelock North facility has seen a servicing cost saving of $40,000 for the year or a 37% saving.