Bay can recycle all its rubbish

LAWRENCE GULLERY
Every year AllBrite Industries nationally exports 100,000 tonnes of recyclable product overseas, the same amount which ends up at the Omarunui landfill near Napier.
The tonnage of rubbish at the landfill could be down to zero though, if AllBrite's founder, Michael Coombs, had his way.
And the method to achieve this goal would be simple: Take away the landfill options and force local councils to invest and think more about recycling.
Mr Coombs, who will retire in June from the company he started in Napier almost 30 years ago said it was possible for Hawke's Bay to have a zero-waste policy.
Food can be composted; plastics and paper can be recycled; tin, steel and aluminium are sought-after materials, everything left at a landfill has a recyclable value, he said.
"It's a matter of extracting these materials and putting the right equipment (to process the products) in to make it feasible," Mr Coombs said.
He said Hastings District and Napier City council's investment in the new $12 million Valley D landfill at Omarunui, which could be at capacity in 12 years, was a step in the wrong direction.
Our councils aren't alone though as he points out that Hutt City Council had spent $60 million on a new landfill near Wellington.
"They've spent that amount of money on a landfill so they're not even thinking about recycling," Mr Coombs said.
He said councils had a financial interest in landfills as in the case of Omarunui, which had become an important money spinner for Hastings and Napier.
"So there are no real position at present for recycling to advance, it is only the will of the people that has taken recycling to current levels," he said.
Reducing waste and increasing recycling was possible, as shown by other regions such as Gisborne.
"AllBrite started in Gisborne where they had about 30 tonnes of waste per year, that's down to nine tonnes of waste now," Mr Coombs said.
"One of the biggest advantages was that they didn't have a landfill and we had to find alternatives (such as recycling).
"But we still need to do more in the Gisborne area, we need long-term contracts with councils to achieve the goal of zero waste.
"A lot of councillors and politicians don't believe this is feasible," he said.
An investment in recycling plant improvements as well as education of staff could help improve the percentage of recyclable product to the market and cut back on waste to landfill tonnage.
"Installing new plant equipment can be very expensive in a small community like Gisborne.
"But if we had Gisborne, Wairoa and other parts of Hawke's Bay all together, we would have enough quantity to justify heading towards zero waste," Mr Coombs said.
In the past three decades the AllBrite founder has been asked for his advice on recycling programmes in America and now he is ending his time with the recycling company, working overseas is a career option.
Mr Coombs' son, Tim, is now the managing director of the company while his daughter Cathryn, manages the Tauranga branch.