A new recycling hub in Dunedin’s tertiary precinct is expected to encourage and enable more inner city residents to take up recycling, the city’s Mayor said today.
Dunedin City Council installed the hub in the Great King Street pocket park, near the
corner of Albany Street. The hub is aimed at residents in the surrounding blocks who don’t have access to kerbside recycling services, or with otherwise limited access to recycling.
Mayor of Dunedin, Jules Radich says the hub is another small but important step towards Ōtepoti Dunedin’s waste and carbon goals.
“People living in the CBD don’t have access to a weekly kerbside recycling service, so it’s important we provide other convenient opportunities to enable them to recycle,” Mayor Radich says.
“This new hub completes a network of facilities in the CBD which does just that and will ultimately help reduce the amount of material going to landfill.”
Waste and Environmental Solutions Group Manager, Chris Henderson says the Great King Street hub is the sixth facility of its kind the Council has installed in the CBD and tertiary precinct in recent years.
“The existing recycling hubs have all been well received and together have enabled the diversion of over 10 tonnes of recyclable material and glass from landfill each month,” Mr Henderson says.
As well as being functional, the Great King Street expresses mana whenua values through its design. The hub’s artwork was created by Moewai Marsh (Kāi Tahu, Ngāti Kahungunu ki te Wairoa), with guidance from Aukaha. The design represents a commitment to sustainability to help reduce the impact on Papatūānuku – the mother earth figure in Māori culture – which features at the centre of the artwork.
“I gained inspiration for these recycle hubs from my current art practice, which has been about reconnecting back to my ancestral landscapes through community and studying beautiful earth pigments here in Ōtepoti,” Ms Marsh says.
“My vision for these hubs is for people to be a good kaitiaki for the whenua.”