From today, Whanganui District Council will take over operation of the Whanganui Resource Recovery Centre, which was previously run by the Whanganui Resource Recovery Centre Trust.
The recycling centre will continue to be open to the community as it has since 2014, Council’s general manager community, property and places, Sarah O’Hagan confirmed.
Ms O’Hagan thanked the Trust, which is being wound up, for its excellent work over the last decade.
She says establishing a Resource Recovery Centre was the brainchild of Sustainable Whanganui, a local charity set up to assist the community with practical solutions for sustainability, and the Trust was set up to run the centre.
Sarah O’Hagan says with kerbside recycling starting in urban Whanganui in July this year, it was clear to both the Trust and the council that it’s a good time for the council to start operating the centre.
She says when the kerbside collection is underway the volume of recyclables processed through the centre will be significantly lower, with recycling picked up from kerbsides and aggregated before going to recycling facilities around the country, but it’s important that the resource recovery centre remains open to the public for several reasons.
“For a start, we need to provide a recycling drop-off facility for people in the rural community who live outside the kerbside collection zone.
“Also, there will be times when those in the urban area need to drop recycling in because they have a volume of recycling which won’t fit into their three kerbside crates, say because they’ve held an event or party.
“Lastly, the centre is an important drop-off point for green waste and other materials that can’t be collected kerbside like car seats, car and household batteries, and e-waste.”
“Going forward we will continue look at Whanganui’s waste minimisation needs to ensure we are well-positioned to play our part in looking after the environment in coming years.”
Part of the Whanganui Resource Recovery Centre will be closed for three weeks from Monday, 1 July to allow for repairs to the baling shed roof after it was damaged by fire last December.
