Christchurch residents bin good

Christchurch residents have earned a collective gold star for their recycling efforts after the city notched-up a significant milestone last month.

In the last two weeks of September every truckload of recyclable material collected as part of the kerbside collection service was accepted for processing at the EcoSort, Materials Recovery Facility (MRF) in Parkhouse Road – a feat that hasn’t been accomplished in Christchurch for more than two years.

“To get through two weeks without any rejected loads is fantastic as it means there is less material ending up at the Kate Valley landfill,’’ says Christchurch City Council Head of Transport and Waste Lynette Ellis.

“I want to say a big thank you to all those residents who have made an effort to ensure they are only putting the correct items out for recycling in their yellow wheelie bin. Your actions are making a difference,’’ Ms Ellis says.

“The goal now is to consistently get 100 per cent of loads accepted for recycling at the processing facility.’’

Each truckload of material taken to the MRF is checked for the level of contamination before it is accepted.  If there is more than 10 per cent of contaminated material in the recycling, it cannot be processed through the facility as the quality of the end product will be too poor to attract any buyers.

During September 98 per cent of trucks arriving at the MRF were accepted for recycling and only 2 per cent were rejected. This is the best monthly result since tracking began in May 2020.

In Christchurch only clean cardboard, paper, tin and aluminium cans, glass bottles, and rigid plastic bottles and containers marked with the numbers 1, 2 or 5 should go in the yellow wheelie bin for recycling.