Sustainable Whanganui plans to move from the Whanganui Resource Recovery Centre in Maria Pl. Photo / Bevan Conley
Sustainable Whanganui plans to move from the Whanganui Resource Recovery Centre in Maria Pl. Photo / Bevan Conley
A bigger, better environmental hub is being planned in Whanganui, but support from the district council will be needed to get it over the line.
Sustainable Whanganui Trust (SWT) currently operates a facility at the Whanganui Resource Recovery Centre in Maria Place.
SWT treasurer Graham Pearson told a Whanganui District Council aspirations and projects committee meeting the trust was asking the council for funding for operations, not capital works.
“We want to support council to take on elements of waste that maybe aren’t tackled at the moment.
“In the waste hierarchy, [they are] above recycling - repurposing, reusing, those sorts of things.”
According to the trust’s submission, the new hub would be a central place offering a comprehensive range of services, information and education on sustainable initiatives.
All would contribute “to our community’s resilience and ability to reduce waste to landfill”, with the plan to move and open by January 2024.
Annual estimated operating costs would be $225,000.
The trust currently receives funding from a variety of sources, including $55,000 a year from central government.
The council already provides $33,000 through three initiatives: Creative Communities ($3000), Climate Action Fund ($20,000) and its transport strategy ($10,000).
To bridge the gap between income and costs, SWT is asking for an additional $50,000 to $60,000 from the council.
Graham Pearson says Sustainable Whanganui will "probably get asked to move on" when kerbside recycling begins.
Current SWT initiatives include Green Bikes, eco-refill products, community gardens, Fruitful Whanganui and creative sessions for kids.
Councillor Rob Vinsen said council staff visited a transfer station in Warkworth where two employees were going through the refuse.
“They were diverting 40 per cent of what came through that transfer station into either repurposing, reselling or recycling.”
The shop associated with the scheme was bringing in $700 a day, Vinsen said.
“Is that the sort of thing you would want to get involved in?”
SWT chairman Hadi Gurton said that certainly should be happening in Whanganui, but the main aspiration was an environment centre where repurposed items would be made available.
“It’s like a resale outlet for those recovered items.”
Pearson said SWT already had a ReUse Academy which brought in around $150 per week.
“I’m sure it would grow with an environment centre that’s more inviting.
“We see the time now as an opportunity for us to shift somewhere more central in town because, obviously, some changes are going to happen to the resource recovery centre.
“We have been looking all through this year for another site, envisaging we’ll probably be asked to move on.”
The council is in the process of setting up a kerbside recycling service in the city, although a start date is yet to be finalised.
When the service gets under way, it could result in expanded operations at the resource recovery centre.
Central government funding meant SWT had the ability to employ five part-time staff members, Pearson said.
Previously, the organisation had relied solely on volunteers.
“We would like to build on that. They are young people doing great stuff for us.”
He said they had looked at three potential new sites, with a fourth now being explored.
Vinsen said the submission had entered the council’s Long Term Plan process and would “be considered at the appropriate time”.
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.
