Northern Advocate
  • Northern Advocate home
  • Latest news
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Sport
  • Property
  • Video
  • Death notices
  • Classifieds

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • On The Up
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology
  • Sport
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Residential property listings

Locations

  • Far North
  • Kaitaia
  • Kaikohe
  • Bay of Islands
  • Whangārei
  • Kaipara
  • Mangawhai
  • Dargaville

Media

  • Video
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-Editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

Weather

  • Kaitaia
  • Whangārei
  • Dargaville

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Northern Advocate

Separation anxiety - the recycling debate

Northern Advocate
29 Jun, 2019 09:30 PM4 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

Associate Environment Minister Eugenie Sage speaks at recycling plant in Wellington. Video / Jason Walls

It's all part in parcel of the issue. Getty Images.

COMMENT:
Last year in September I started my column with this:
"Sitting in the Invercargill airport, I kept on wondering why people were giving me stranger looks than normal. Oh, then I remembered it might be the bloody big bandage wrapped around
my head.
''The night before I had fallen over backwards and clipped the back of my head on a wall heater. Wall heaters are very common in Invercargill, I reflected as a cheerful Irish nurse stapled my scalp. Jon my colleague and friend had taken me in to the A & E from our hotel in a calm no nonsense manner. We were down in Invercargill to look at an alternative model of employing disabled people that we could possibly replicate in a hybrid fashion in Whangārei".

We were down there visiting Southland Disability Enterprises (SDE) who employ disabled people to sort the recycling needs of the region. My most vivid memory of the recycling plant was how loud it was. We had been asked by the Whangārei District Council to submit a proposal engaging disabled people to run a recycling sorting plant – a social enterprise type model. The contract was coming up for review in April this year.

Southland Disability Enterprises (SDE) have recently been in the news. They were on the brink of losing their contract which enables them to employ 83 disabled people. WasteNet, which is an entity that deals with waste from the Southland, Gore and Invercargill councils, had declared that SDE were not the preferred contractor.

The organisation went into survival mode. They publicly announced that they would have to close and lobbied the Invercargill City Council. Much gnashing of teeth and letters to the editor ensued. Public meetings and protests were staged. Twenty thousand signatures were collected on a petition.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

The argument put forward by those protesting was that the tender process should not be totally down to the dollar figure and that social outcomes should be factored into the decision-making process.

Part in parcel of the recycling issue. Getty Images
Part in parcel of the recycling issue. Getty Images

Invercargill City Council debated the issue and voted on whether to adopt WasteNet's recommendation and go with the other tenderer. After intense discussion and debate, the council was split evenly and the decision came down to the mayor, Sir Tim Shadbolt, who voted against the recommendation and SDE got a 12-month extension of its contract to sort recycling.

The decision was challenged. The process was robustly discussed in the council as to whether it was legal or not, whether the tender process was adhered to. The decision so far remains unchanged. But the good thing was that the issue was widely discussed and debated. The collective conversation no doubt resonated as loudly as the recycling plant itself.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

This is the opposite to any public discussion about recycling in Whangārei this year. After a lot of work we developed a proposal and submitted it to the council. We did not hear anything back. There was no invitation to present it to the council.

Apparently after a complicated and elongated process, I understand that Northland Waste has retained their recycling contract. Further to that, they will introduce two recycling bins so glass will be separated from plastics and metals.

This is in opposition to a concept that was being promoted last year where all recycling would be co-mingled into one wheelie bin, thereby stripping all the potential value from the recycled product (mixed recycled material is worth nothing).

Maybe with this new recycling approach there is still an opportunity to not only add value to the recycled product but also add value to our community through developing a social enterprise.

What do you think — a place for mutually added value? The noise of the recycling debate in Whangārei needs to rival that of our noisy Southland compatriots.

Jonny Wilkinson is the CEO of Tiaho Trust - Disability, A Matter of Perception — A Whangārei-based disability advocacy organisation.

Save

    Share this article

Latest from Northern Advocate

Northern Advocate

'I didn’t have time to think': Well-known local rescues woman from rising flood

Northern Advocate

'Frankly dangerous': Gang member's alleged reckless driving near police lands him in court

Northern Advocate

Invasive sea spurge found at Spirits Bay, threatening native plants


Sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Northern Advocate

'I didn’t have time to think': Well-known local rescues woman from rising flood
Northern Advocate

'I didn’t have time to think': Well-known local rescues woman from rising flood

Roddy Pihema saved a woman and her dog from rising floodwaters in Kawakawa.

16 Jul 06:00 AM
'Frankly dangerous': Gang member's alleged reckless driving near police lands him in court
Northern Advocate

'Frankly dangerous': Gang member's alleged reckless driving near police lands him in court

16 Jul 04:04 AM
Invasive sea spurge found at Spirits Bay, threatening native plants
Northern Advocate

Invasive sea spurge found at Spirits Bay, threatening native plants

16 Jul 04:00 AM


Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky
Sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

06 Jul 09:47 PM
NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • The Northern Advocate e-edition
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Subscribe to the Northern Advocate
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • The Northern Advocate
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP