Whanganui Resource Recovery Centre busy over festive season as inappropriate items dumped

Dale Cobb says people need to get better acquainted with the products the centre can and can't take. Photo / Mike Tweed

The community has flocked to Whanganui’s resource recovery centre over the festive season, but not everyone is following the rules.

Manager Dale Cobb said staff needed to clean up for almost two hours before the gates opened one morning this week.

Oil from dumped takeaway containers was the main culprit on that occasion.

“With a team of three it usually takes about 15-20 minutes to set up for the day but this time around it took a lot longer,” Cobb said.

“In trying to fix it, we didn’t have the patience of the people filing in through the front.

“People are on holiday, there’s no rush, and we’re working. We are just asking for a bit of understanding.”

Cobb said he commended the Whanganui community for making the effort to come to the centre, but logic often seemed to go out the window when they arrived.

Products ended up being thrown around “willy-nilly”, including meat.

“He went home with a blood-splattered shirt because I threw it straight back at him,” Cobb said.

“People will always bring things that we can’t recycle and we understand that, but some are coming to the centre once a week or fortnight who still need to be told where products go.

“Take the time to get to know the products we collect. With plastics, there are only three numbers. It’s one, two and five and that’s all they need to know.”

People had offloaded paint, food products, porcelain benches, polystyrene, soft plastics and other plastics the centre could not accept.

From the staff’s perspective, most conflicts occurred sorting those plastics, and it mainly involved males, Cobb said.

“It’s not about making people look like a fool, that’s not our intention at all.

“I hate to say this but, hand on heart, men are absolutely hopeless. I love it when women come to the centre because we know there’s a good chance they know what they’re doing.

“As for the guys, we need to lift our game. The attitude seems to be ‘It’s not my problem’, or ‘I pay rates and my rates pay your wages’.”

Despite those assumptions, ratepayers didn’t pay the wages of staff at the centre, Cobb said.

Kerbside recycling will begin in Whanganui next year but the centre will remain open.

“That will affect us in some way or other, and we are right in the middle of the tender process that the council has initiated for that service,” Cobb said.

“If we are successful in securing a sort-line then there’s obviously room for us to build and grow. It’s in the lap of the gods, to be honest. We need to make sure we are capable of doing that role.”

The Whanganui Resource Recovery Centre is open seven days a week, with the back area (through the gates) open from 9am to 4.30pm.

“Gates will be closed on January 1 and January 2,” Cobb said.

“The place is just jam-packed, literally. You would think we had a Boxing Day sale.

“My message to Whanganui is to keep doing what you’re doing because we are setting the benchmark; just take the time to get to know how things work.”