Hastings' wobbly warehouse waste turned to compost

Work usually slows down at Christmas time but not for Nigel Halpin who is busy converting 2000 tons of vegetables into compost.

His company, BioRich, has been tasked with converting all the waste from the doomed warehouse on Caroline Rd into natural fertiliser.

The vicinity was used as a coolstore by PolarCold Stores Ltd which stored frozen peas, beans and sweet corn in massive crates, but the food was rendered useless after the building's roof caved in nearly two weeks ago and the power was cut.

The frozen vegetables began to thaw out, leaving the company no alternative but to get rid of them.

The building's demolition was signed off and the food products sitting inside were set to head to landfill.

BioRich has now been tasked with converting all the unwanted product into compost, working to convert 500 tonnes a day for the next four days.

"Orginally there were ambitions for it to go to stock feed but that didn't work out, so we got a phone call from the council when the product was about to be taken to landfill," Halpin said.

"The council obviously want to remove any organics they can from landfill so they rang us up and now we have plenty of work ahead of us."

Halpin said they were using at least 10 staff members in loaders and trucks to thaw out and compost 1600 tonnes of peas, as well as sweet corn and carrots.

When he went to the warehouse to inspect the product, he said the crates of peas were the only items stopping the roof from fully collapsing.

"I had a look inside to see assess the scale of the problem and the roof was just sitting on pillages full of peas - it was quite incredible."

BioRich, based in Awatoto, is about diverting organic matter (carbon) from ending up in places where it can do harm. Halpin said by placing organic waste into landfill, it would break down in an uncontrolled manner, releasing methane greenhouse gases into the atmosphere and pollutants into waterways.

"We were quite excited to receive the phone call about organics staying out of the landfill and we have the means to be able to deal with this kind of situation."

PolarCold CEO Stephen Foote said he could not be more pleased that the organic matter was being put to good use.

"I think it's a very good environmental way to dispose of it, so we're very happy that it's not going to landfill and BioRich is doing a really good job.

"I would exepct that the warehouse will be emptied over the weekend and it will go on into Monday, but we're making good progress at the moment."

Foote said it was too early to know whether they were going to rebuild the warehouse or move to another site in Hawke's Bay.