Low Cost Bins takes over Whanganui’s main transfer station

Waste Management finished up its operation at Liffiton St on May 1. Photo / Bevan Conley

Waste Management has ended operations at the Midtown transfer station in central Whanganui but the facility will remain open.

In an email to customers last week, the company said due to circumstances beyond its control, the station would shut permanently “as of close of business” on May 1.

“This is not the outcome we wanted and are regretful we have not been able to find a solution to keep the transfer station open.

“Sorry for the inconvenience this will cause you.”

Waste Management’s kerbside collection service would continue as normal.

Low Cost Bins, which is handling the district’s new kerbside recycling service, will now operate the transfer station.

Chief operating officer Andrew Sclater said the company was approached last week by the owners of the facility, about taking on the lease.

He said there was “certainly no competitive tension” between the two companies over the move and Waste Management had been great to work with during the changeover.

“The option got put forward to us and, from our point of view, it was very unexpected,” he said.

“Ordinarily, if the landlords had come to us in a town where we were already well established and set up, it wouldn’t have been something we entertained.

“We are currently operating out of a couple of different sites and we need to consolidate. The timing of it was on par.”

For the moment, it would be business as usual with the same pricing, he said.

Low Cost had its first tour of the Liffiton St facility on Monday and the two companies were working together on the possibility of transferring staff at the facility.

“We’ll certainly be looking at different service offerings, provided we can make it work and it‘s viable.

“Day one - we just want to get the feet under the desk and make sure we’ve got the basics down.”

General waste from Liffiton St ends up at the Bonny Glen landfill, owned by Waste Management and Envirowaste, near Turakina.

Sclater said disposal costs made up a significant part of the prices customers saw “on the gate or in a wheelie bin price”.

“We are very much beholden to what [Bonny Glen] does.

“It’s an interesting one because it’s not our facility and Waste Management owns half of it.”

Envirowaste and Waste Management were competitors of Low Cost Bins but also very different businesses, he said.

“They are huge multinationals - overseas owned - and we are a private New Zealand business.

“Bonny Glen is a great facility and finding an alternative is pretty difficult. There is Silverstream in Porirua but that’s a long way to go.

“We just have to be more nimble and more creative in other ways.”

Waste Management has been approached for comment.

Mike Tweed is an assistant news director and multimedia journalist at the Whanganui Chronicle. Since starting in March 2020, he has dabbled in everything from sport to music. At present his focus is local government, primarily the Whanganui District Council.