Concerns raised over state of Dannevirke Refuse Transfer Station

The build-up of material at refuse transfer centres was raised at Tararua District Council's meeting on Wednesday. Photo / File

The state of Dannevirke's Refuse Transfer Station was raised at Wednesday's Tararua District Council meeting.

A plant and property report stated that council staff had been having ongoing discussions with the contractor, Smart Environmental.

Smart Environmental operate the Refuse Transfer Station. Another contractor runs the landfill.

"Prior to and over the Christmas period the piles of recycling that had been stockpiled, windblown rubbish and the amount of refuse in the pit was unacceptable.

"The (transfer) contractor has been having several issues with staff shortages, machinery breaking down, problems at their recycling centres in Feilding and Thames, where the recycling is being transported, and clearing the backlog of refuse to Central Hawke's Bay landfill."

The report said these problems were not isolated to Tararua, as Central Hawke's Bay was having similar issues.

"We are working with Smart Environmental's area manager on a solution short-term and a better long-term outcome for the council moving forward."

Councillor Shirley Hull asked for an update on the situation.

"I had heard the landfill and transfer station was untidy to say the least and I wondered what we could do about this."

Council group manager of plant and property Dave Watson said the issue was a hot topic but Smart Environmental now had a new operations manager who was starting to get on top of things.

"One of the problems was that we lost some good staff but hopefully we will soon have some good results."

Benjamin Day, General Manager Operations for Smart Environmental Ltd, said: "Due to the issues the country is facing due to China's refusal to take some plastics and mixed paper, some product has been slower to move (also due to peak-period volumes spiking)."

"We have moved significant amounts of product recently and the RTS sites at Central Hawkes Bay and Dannevirke are under control."

Watson said Tararua was one of the few councils that still took all types of plastic and this was adding to the pressure.

Chief executive Blair King said fires around the country in landfills highlighted the amount of material that was building up.

"There is also the issue of what people are putting in the bins. The public are not doing the basics well. Please read the labels. If an item is polystyrene don't put it in the plastics container, if it's a pizza box don't put it in the cardboard container because it's contaminated."

He said operators were becoming more aware of cross-contamination.

"There are bigger problems coming out of this."

Councillor Kerry Sutherland said the council needed to spend a lot of time looking at the whole recycling and landfill management issue in the Long Term Plan.