Refuse

Hurunui District Council – Domestic Refuse Collection

Householders in the Hurunui townships are entitled to place up to two sacks of refuse out each week for collection.  Should anymore than two sacks be placed out, they will be stickered and not removed.  Domestic refuse in the district is collected by local contractors - Waste Control New Zealand and Hanmer Refuse Services. 

To ensure collection in an urban area, refuse must be tied securely and left at the kerbside boundary of the property by 8am on the day of collection.  The collection days for refuse are:

Mondays Refuse Collections:

Amberley and Amberley Beach
Leithfield and Leithfield Beach
Greta Valley
Scargill
Cheviot and Gore Bay
Hanmer Springs
Waipara

Tuesdays Refuse Collections:

Waiau
Rotherham
Culverden
Waikari
Hawarden

The Council will only collect refuse contained within normal sized refuse bags (bags greater than 60 litres will not be collected) and the maximum weight of a filled refuse sack must not weigh more than 15kg.  Should refuse bags exceed this weight they will be stickered and not collected and refuse placed out in hessian, wheelie bin, drum bags or garden sacks will also not be removed. 

Under the domestic refuse collection, garden waste, hazardous waste, tyres, car batteries and boxes of bottles will not be collected.  Loose material and untied bags will also be left.  For safety reasons, any bottles placed into the refuse bags must be wrapped and whole bags or sacks of bottles will not be collected.  Glass bottles and jars can be recycled through the districts transfer stations for no charge.

Rural householders may receive a refuse collection for no more than two sacks per week, providing they pay the Refuse Collection Rate and purchase the appropriate stickers to attach to the bags.  Without the stickers or payment of the rate, refuse bags will not be collected.

Hurunui District Council can also make arrangements for businesses to receive a refuse collection again providing the appropriate refuse collection rate is paid.  For further details regarding rural and business refuse collections, please contact Hurunui District Council on 03 314 8816.

Please note - The refuse collection crew has strict collection criteria, which they must adhere to, which has been issued to them by Hurunui District Council.

Illegal Dumping of Refuse in the Hurunui District

The illegal dumping of waste is an offence against the Litter Act 1979.  The Council has a number of available enforcement options including the issuing of an infringement notice (maximum $400 fine) or prosecution through the Courts. The penalties of being found guilty at court are high and result in a fine of $5,000, if found guilty as a body corporate (business) that fine increases to a maximum of $20,000.

If the illegally dumped litter was of such a nature as it could endanger any person (example - any bottle whether broken or not, glass, article containing glass, sharp or jagged material, or any substance of a toxic or poisonous nature), those responsible could be sentenced to a maximum of one month imprisonment and/or a maximum fine of $7,500. In the case of a body corporate, the fine increases to a maximum amount of $30,000.

Hurunui District Council - Domestic Kerbside Recycling Collection

The Council and the Waste Minimisation and Management Board actively encourage and supports recycling and waste minimisation within the district. 

Through the domestic kerbside recycling collection service, it is possible to recycle newspapers, magazines, cardboard, egg boxes, food and drink cans, plastic bottles, plastic film and carrier bags.  Kerbside recycling in Hanmer Springs is collected by Hanmer Refuse Services, with Hurunui Recycling collecting from the remainder of the district.

In Hanmer Springs only, glass bottles and jars are also collected from the kerbside.  To ensure collection, please place glass (with caps and lids removed) into cardboard boxes and leave it at the kerbside and adjacent to your recycling bag on a Monday by 8am to ensure collection. 

Please do not place glass into the recycling bags.  Bottles and jars can be taken to one of the District’s transfer stations to be recycled for no charge.

Hurunui District Council - Urban Business Kerbside Waste and Recycling Collections

Hurunui District Council have introduced a new collection service from the 1st July 2009, which will entitle urban businesses to receive a collection of up to three bags (recycling and/or refuse) from the kerbside boundary or two or less bags and one manageable (flattened and securely tied and maximum weight of 7kg) bundle of cardboard each week.

To receive this service, it will be necessary to pay the new Business Refuse Collection Rate, which matches the rate charged for the collection of domestic refuse in the urban area.  For the 2009/2010 rating year this is $230 per business. 

From the 1st July 2009, any refuse or recycling placed out for collection by businesses not paying the business refuse collection rate will not be removed and will be considered illegally dumped refuse.

Refuse which requires collecting must be placed into normal sized refuse bags, which are tied securely and any bags greater than 60 litres or weighing more than 15kg will not be collected.  Refuse left for collection in hessian, wheelie bin, drum bags or garden sacks will not be removed and hazardous waste, tyres, car batteries and boxes of bottles will not be collected.

Through the service, food and drink cans, newspapers and magazines, cardboard, office waste paper, junk mail, plastic bottles and carrier bags are acceptable through the kerbside recycling bags for collection.  Alternatively in place of one of the permitted three bag allowance, a bundle of cardboard maybe collected, however it must be manageable, flattened and securely tied and not weigh more than 7kg.

Glass bottles and jars must not be placed into the recycling bags.  Any recycling bags found to be containing glass will not be collected, but glass can be recycled through all of the districts transfer stations for no charge.

The recycling bags and cardboard collected will be deposited into the compactor at the local transfer stations and backloaded using empty vehicles returning from Kate Valley to Becon Canterbury in Christchurch.  At Becon bags will be sorted using a materials recycling facility (MRF) to ensure maximum levels of recycling are always achieved as even the plastic sacks will be recycled.

Please note the collection crews have strict criteria, which they must adhere to.  This has been issued to them by Hurunui District Council.

For further details on the service, or to discuss how to participate, please contact Hurunui District Council on 03 314 8816.

Hurunui District Council - Transfer Stations

Hurunui District Council operates the following transfer stations:

Amberley - Carters Road.  Open Monday to Friday between 9am and 4.30pm and Saturdays between 9am and 12 noon.  Hurunui Recycling operate the Re-use Shop at the Amberley site.

Cheviot - Mina Road.  Open between 10am and 1pm on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays.

Culverden - St Leonard’s Road.  Open on Sundays and Wednesdays between 2pm and 4pm and on Saturdays between 9am and 10.30am.

Hanmer Springs - near the river bridge.  Open Saturdays and Sundays between 1pm and 4pm and Tuesday and Thursday afternoons between 1pm and 4pm during the spring, summer and autumn and Wednesday afternoons between 1pm and 4pm during the winter.

Waiau - just south of the river bridge.  Open Saturdays between 10.30am and 12 noon and Sundays and Wednesdays between 1pm and 3pm.

Through the districts transfer stations, it is possible to recycle glass bottles and jars, food and drink cans, newspapers, magazines, cardboard, plastic (both hard and film), untreated timber, gib board, hardfill, car batteries, green (garden) waste, scrap metal and white goods.

Apart from glass, car tyres, gas bottles, green waste and car batteries, all waste and recycling should be placed together into the compactors at the Councils transfer station.  Hurunui District Council is delighted to be the first local authority to be working in partnership with Becon in Christchurch to sort waste and recycling through their materials recovery facility (MRF) to achieve maximum diversion of material from landfill at all times. 

Directions regarding the management of the aforementioned listed items which cannot be placed into the compactor for sending to Becon will be provided by the Operative on site or can be obtained through contacting the Council on 03 314 8816.

When recycling glass bottles and jars, they will need to be emptied from boxes and bags and all lids and caps will need to be removed, but there is no need to sort glass into individual colours.  There is no charge to recycle glass bottles or jars through the transfer stations.

In addition, engine oil can also be recycled through the Amberley transfer station and empty (triple rinsed) agricultural chemical containers through the Culverden transfer station.

What Happens to the Material sent to Becon and how is it Recycled?

Currently waste and recycling deposited at the Council’s transfer stations is mixed together and back loaded (using empty Container Waste vehicles returning from Kate Valley) to Becon in Christchurch. 

Once at Becon, it is sorted using a materials recovery facility (MRF) to ensure maximum levels of recycling are achieved at all times.  Through this process, it is possible to recover materials, which otherwise would have been disposed of into landfill.

Using a combination of processes depending on the type of material Becon’s state-of-the-art materials recovery facility starts with an advanced screening system to remove the fine material (dirt, rock etc)  followed by a range of automated and manual processes are used to extract cardboard, paper, metals, plastic (hard and film), untreated timber, plasterboard and  hardfill. 
Wherever possible, Becon try to find local uses for the recovered material - glass can be crushed and used for abrasive blasting or water filtration media; plastics can be sorted into different grades, chipped and washed and returned to plastic manufacturers to be blended with virgin plastic; and other material like paper and cardboard is baled and sent offshore for further processing.

The amount of materials recovered is dependent on a number of conditions - mainly the source of the waste, the amount of different materials in the waste and the level of contamination. Currently Becon achieves 68-80% recovery from most waste sources and has a target of 90% overall recovery.

Further details on Becon can be obtained through www.drywaste.co.nz or by phoning 03 332 0200.

What Type of Green Waste can be Recycled through the Transfer Stations?

Green waste is accepted through the district’s transfer stations for composting.  Please always ensure the following:

Materials acceptable for composting are:

• Tree and shrub pruning’s up to 100mm thickness and any length 
• Leaves 
• Any green vegetative material, i.e. perennials, vegetable plants, annuals, etc

Materials NOT acceptable for composting are:

• Grass clippings
• Bamboo 
• Flax and flax flower stalks 
• Palm fronds and cabbage tree leaves 
• Gorse and tussock grasses 
• Complete loads of weeds with roots heavily contaminated with soil 
• Soil and material from compost heaps 
• Stones, plastic, glass and metal objects 
• Material with baling twine or string mixed through it 
• Oxalis and listed noxious weeds 
• Mixed loads of rubbish and garden waste which cannot be sorted 
• Animal manure.

Is there anything which is not accepted as Waste or Recycling through the Transfer Stations?

Hazardous waste, tyres on rims, tins of paint, asbestos, tree stumps and skip loads of waste cannot be accepted through any of Hurunui transfer stations.  Please contact the Council regarding how to dispose of these items in a responsible manner. 

Transfer Station Disposal Charges for 2009 to 2010

• Bag or sack - $2.50 each 
• Car boot or rear hatch - $15
• Trade or Builders Waste (no skips accepted) $50
• White ware - $10 per item 
• Car tyres - $5 each (must be removed from rims)
• 4 wheeled drive tyres - $5 each (must be removed from rims)
• TV set - $10 each 
• Computers - $5 per item 
• Gas Bottles - $5 per bottle (bottles containing gas will not be accepted)
• Car Batteries – $5 each
• For high sided vehicles, there will be an additional charge of $4 per m3

Refuse:-

• Station wagons or light vans - $25
• Utilities - $35
• Standard single axle trailer - $25
• Standard tandem axle trailer - $50

Green Waste (please ensure the green waste acceptance criteria is met):-

• Station wagons or light vans - $15
• Utilities - $20
• Standard single axle trailer - $10
• Standard tandem axle trailer - $20

Envirocomp Limited - Nappy composting

Hurunui District Council is delighted to be supporting Envirocomp Ltd and the development of the 1st commercial nappy composting facility in New Zealand, and to our knowledge, the only one in the world, able to compost all brands of disposable nappies.

Christchurch company HotRot Organic Solutions (NZ) Ltd in conjunction with Envirocomp has designed a custom built composting facility which is a modular in-vessel system.  The plant, located in the Hurunui District, will be able to initially compost 2.5 tonnes of organic waste per day, with the option of adding three further units, each with a capacity of 2.5 tonnes which would quadruple the daily through-put.

With the addition of a bulking agent (including green waste from the Hurunui District Council’s transfer stations), disposable nappies, sanitary and incontinence items can now be composted rather than being sent to our landfills.  After a specialised screening process to remove plastic contaminants, the final product will be tested to ensure it complies with NZ composting standards.  Envirocomp already have trials planned to take place over the next year.

During 2008, Hurunui District Council nominated Karen and Karl Upston’s ingenious commercial nappy composting operation for a Green Ribbon Award for ‘Making a Difference to Household Sustainability’ and Envirocomp Ltd brought home top honours.  The award was presented to Karen and Karl at the Ministry for the Environment’s Awards during June that year.

With the support of Huggies Nappies New Zealand®, HotRot Organic Solutions and the Hurunui District Council, Envirocomp’s commercial nappy composting facility is now operational, offering people a credible and efficient alternative solution to landfill.

This service is available to households and businesses in the North Canterbury, Christchurch and Kaikoura districts.  Households will be charged on a per bag and can select to have a weekly or fortnightly collection.  Businesses will be provided with wheelie bins and collected weekly. 

Please note that collection is not available to all residents.  Please contact Envirocomp direct, or visit their website to see if you are in the collection area.

If you would like further information on the Huggies Envirocomp Solution or are interested in participating in this service, please register by telephoning 03 312 9380, emailing info@envirocomp.co.nz or logging onto www.envirocomp.co.nz  

Agrecovery Scheme

 
Hurunui Council is supporting the Agrecovery scheme for collecting and recycling HDPE plastic agrichemical containers, including those which previously contained pesticides, veterinary medicines and agricultural chemicals through providing a drop off point at the Culverden transfer station.
 
Containers can be dropped of during the Culverden transfer stations normal opening hours.  However, to participate in the scheme, the following conditions must be met:
 
1. Containers up to 60 litres can be accepted and must be triple rinsed before being brought to the Culverden transfer station for inspection.

2. Only those containers made of HDPE plastic will be accepted.

3. Containers which are part of the programme will be accepted for no charge. 

Details of acceptable containers can be found on www.agrecovery.co.nz through telephoning 0800 247326 or by emailing info@agrecovery.co.nz
 
Containers are shredded for and recycled within New Zealand to make protective covers for underground electric cables.