Te Puke part of $36m recycling investment from Government

Fund will go toward the upgrading of seven high-tech recycling plants in New Zealand. Photo / File

Te Puke has been included in a $36.7 million investment in recycling infrastructure.

The fund will go toward the upgrading of seven high-tech recycling plants from Northland to Canterbury to reduce the amount of rubbish ending up in New Zealand's landfills, Associate Minister for the Environment Eugenie Sage announced today.

This includes a waste-plastic baler being installed in Te Puke, as well as Northland and Canterbury.

"This $36.7 million investment and implementing the kerbside report recommendations will help improve recycling infrastructure and materials recovery," Sage said.

"Currently New Zealand's recycling system relies on a lot of manual sorting of materials so that they can be reprocessed. It's not pleasant work, especially when people put rubbish in their recycling bin.

"Investing in high-tech optical sorters will make for safer workplaces and speed up the sorting process to separate different materials, such as paper and plastics."

Sage said the investment in waste infrastructure would help ensure a better recycling and resource recovery system, with an important focus on the creation of new jobs.

"Internationally the experience is that there are more jobs, and more skilled jobs, in resource recovery than in old-fashioned waste collection and disposal to landfill," she said.

The $36.7m is part of the $124m the Government previously announced it was investing from the Covid-19 Response and Recovery Fund in a number of waste infrastructure initiatives across the country.

Local Government New Zealand president Stuart Crosby welcomed today's announcement.

"Our communities have consistently been calling for urgent action on waste and recycling, and the Government is hearing that and responding.

"LGNZ is looking forward to working with the Government on a strategic plan for waste. This will be critical when the additional funding comes on stream through the waste minimisation fund.

"A strategic approach will help to give us the scale we need to economically process waste and recyclables onshore," Crosby said.

"We look forward to working with the Government to move towards collecting the standardised materials and to identifying and removing any blocks in the way."

Upgrade Material Recovery Facilities at the following sites throughout New Zealand:

Plasback collection facilities in Northland, Bay of Plenty and Canterbury

• Three waste plastic balers and processing equipment will be installed, with agreement in principle for up to $442,000 in a grant co-funding.

EcoCentral's Christchurch facility

• Agreement in principle for up to $1.8m grant funding for a plastics optical sorter.
• Agreement in principle for up to $15m grant funding for a fibre optical and mechanical sorter.

Auckland Council's Auckland Materials Recovery Facility

• Agreement in principle for up to $0.6m grant funding for a plastics optical sorter.
• Agreement in principle for up to $16m grant funding for a fibre optical and mechanical sorter.

EnviroWaste Services Limited's existing New Plymouth facility and a new Hamilton facility

• Two optical (fibre and plastics) sorter units in each of these Materials Recovery Facilities, with agreement in principle for up to $1.9m grant co-funding for the four units.

Smart Environmental's facilities at Thames and new Napier facility

• A plastics optical sorter unit in each of these Materials Recovery Facilities, with agreement in principle for up to $1m grant co-funding.