RETHINKING RURAL RECYCLING

Angela Atkins Waste Minimisation Planner, 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 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, 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.

The original bin deployed for Waimarama received some minor adjustments before being deployed to Havelock North, including the addition of shutters over the slots to allow for plastics and paper to be transported Before without being sucked out. The Green Bin was placed at the Havelock North facility to trial the collection of plastic/cans and paper/ cardboard for a month each. This was to gain crucial data on how the material would flow during the empting process and the volume vs weight comparisons.

Since the initial trial, the second bin has remained on site for the collection of plastics and cans because of the cost savings it generates.

During the trials there were no reported After incidents of illegal dumping at our rural sites; Maraekakaho, Tutira or Waimarama. A permanent CCTV camera is in place at the Havelock North facility and infringement notices are issued when dumping occurs. Illegal dumping has occurred on occasions at this site as it is an un-manned facility, space. The use of 20 foot shipping containers servicing a large population. meant that the bin was the best size for a hook truck and the bins are easy to pick and It is also initial results show that the enclosed transport around the district. Shipping Green Bins will reduce the volume of wind containers are also robust and designed to blow litter at the sites where open topped bins take heavy loads. The use of internal walls have been used in the past. and doors, some of which are movable, allow the bins to be easily used at any site across the district with minor adjustments. Placing Community Consultation the slot near the top of the bin enables most of the space to be used and reduces both the Consultation was undertaken with the wider number of times the bin needs servicing and community on the introduction of waste and truck movements on and around sites. The recycling services to the rural communities as Green Bins store a much larger volume of part of the Waste Management and material than the current methodologies do. Minimisation Plan process. This initiative Reduced number of servicing visits has also received positive support from the whole reduced the servicing costs at the sites. community, especially the popular beach community of Waimarama, which sees an Each bin has up to six compartments allowing influx of holiday makers over the summer for source separated material in the following period. categories; plastic and cans, paper and cardboard and colour-sorted glass. The Over the past two years, officers have compartments are adjustable allowing for attended the Rural Community Meetings in changes where a community produces a the different communities to keep them larger volume of a particular material. informed on progress of the initiative and Recycling logos and colours used on the subsequent trials. This has made Green Bins will be the “standardised colours communication with these communities much of rubbish and recycling bins” as developed easier. The Hastings District Rural by the Waste Management Institute of New Community Board has been very supportive Zealand (Waste MINZ) Behaviour Change of this initiative and because of this the Sector Group in consultation with the project has gained momentum in the members of Waste MINZ which are based on communities. the Australian standards.

HDC funded the two year rural recycling trials Contamination has been reduced because and construction of the three Green Bins from the slot size of 950mm by 200mm restricts Waste Disposal Levy accrued funds. Council the size of the material that can be placed made the decision early on to accrue their into the bin, including large bags of rubbish. proportion of the Waste Disposal Levy for the The slots are placed at the top of the bins at implementation of waste minimisation head height when standing on the platform initiatives identified in the Waste for maximum fill capacity. Management and Minimisation Plan. The construction of all the Green Bins to switch Health and Safety is a key focus of HDC and over to this method of servicing will be funded has been at the forefront of the process to from accrued Waste Disposal Levy funds. develop this collection methodology. The The servicing of the facilities is funded via Green Bins need to be safe for both the targeted and general rates depending on the public and servicing staff to use. The design facility. means that the contents of the bin can be emptied by the driver alone. There is a set of doors immediately inside the container doors to provide a safety barrier for staff emptying Green Bin Design the bin to stop any material falling out onto staff. The internal doors are opened from the This design was developed to ensure the outside of the bin using a latch system similar greatest of efficiency and use of available to container doors. Each bin has a 750mm wide platform bags and cardboard boxes can be an issue. attached to both sides of the container which The plastic bags are shredded to small rests on steps at the sites to provide higher pieces by the time the load is emptied, accessibility to the slots. The platforms are making them difficult to remove. Glass is not hinged and latched up for transportation. sorted over a sort line before being sent to Hinged shutters are used on the slots to be O-I Glass in Auckland. Council intends to closed during transportation to reduce air employ students over the summer holidays to drag and contain material. These shutters are educate users in order to reduce also the holders of the signage to indicate the contamination further. material to be placed in each compartment. Very few complaints have been received At servicing, the full bin will be swapped out about the bin design with none coming from with an empty bin meaning no double the rural communities. The complaints handling/transportation of bins. received about the Havelock North facility have been about the reduced slot size, which HDC has trialled three iterations of the bin people have accepted once informed about design over the past 18 months with each contamination and the use of the steps and design being slightly tweaked to ensure platform for less able bodied people. This is maximum efficiency. Some of the design being overcome with the installation of a changes include changes to the internal door higher deck between the bins, which will fixtures from pins to latches, moving away reduce the risk of stepping off the steps from the use of rails to move internal doors backwards and prevent heels of shoes being and the installation of shutters on the slots. caught in the grate of the platform. The original design started with four compartments across the container and the In March 2015 HDC tendered the final design now has six compartments, three construction of fifteen Green Bins. This is a on each side using a central wall the length of high cost project which Council intends to the container. Single cell bins will be used for fund the majority of with their accrued Waste larger sites where the collection of a single Disposal Levy funds. material is required. These bins will still have internal doors immediately inside of the HDC owns the bins and the servicing and container doors for health and safety maintenance of sites will be tendered out, reasons. meaning Council is not forced to use other bins or methodologies. This also means that The Green Bins will be placed on 7m x 7m there is a consistent service provided at all concrete pads at each site which will have facilities across the district. The bins can also wooden steps dyna-bolted to the pad and be used at one off sites such as large shows guide rails to ensure the container is placed or community events. in the exact same position each time. Large billboard signs will also be installed at each A contract for servicing and maintaining the site explaining to users how to use the site sites will be tendered in mid 2015 and the and where to go to find out more information servicing costs will be covered by a targeted about recycling other materials such as silage rate. This programme will be ongoing and be wrap and chemical containers. managed as one of Council’s collection contracts. The technical drawings of the container hook and internal mechanisms were completed by The next phase of this project is to make Opus Consulting, Napier. alterations to the urban and Refuse Transfer Station drop off centres to use the Green Bins for the collection and transportation of material to achieve similar savings to those What We Have Learnt and Next Steps mentioned above.

Contamination has been reduced from the The success of the project will be measured current methodology because of the slot size through the savings made and the tonnages however glass contamination, namely plastic received and processed. Conclusion HDC believe they have been resourceful in developing a cost effective solution providing Council is working to develop ‘fit for purpose’ recycling facilities to the entire district. recycling options for the rural and coastal communities. Providing cost effective Permanent recycling facilities will be solutions will assist in insulating these established in the following locations across services against external factors such as the Hastings District over the winter of 2015; rising bin hireage and servicing costs. This initiative also relates to goals of the NZ Waste  Tutira Strategy 2010;  Te Pohue  Patoka  Reducing the harmful effects of waste,  Sherenden and  Maraekakaho  Improving the efficiency of resource  Waimarama reuse.  Poukawa

Objectives of the HDC Waste Management The cost for this new service will be $7 per and Minimisation Plan; rural property which the community have been consulted upon and have supported.  To improve the opportunity for avoiding or reducing waste at source  To improve the quality of diverted material where cost effective. Author Biography

The development of the Green Bins has had Angela is the Waste Minimisation Planner at a number of advantages for the Hastings Hastings District Council, responsible for the District Council; evolution and implementation of initiatives contained within The Waste Management  Removing the health and safety risk and Minimisation Plan. A major project for associated with manual lifting by staff 2014/15 has seen the introduction of rural  Reducing servicing costs by bulk recycling across the district. Angela has containerisation, and been employed with Council for the past 7  Uniforming approach across all years. She is also an elected member of the recycling facilities Waste MINZ Behaviour Change Sector Group who are investigating a national food Using Council’s own infrastructure and giving waste prevention programme. Outside of Council control over the establishment and work Angela is the chairperson of Haumoana servicing of sites. School Board of Trustees. There have been many benefits of using local champions;

 they include; their local knowledge,  their ability to promote and encourage use of the facility,  their monitoring of usage and advising contractors and Council when servicing is required.

This ensures that the facility has collected as much material as possible making it more efficient, rather than having it collected on a particular schedule.