Whanganui District Council seeks funding for multimillion-dollar recycling park

Whanganui's kerbside recycling service has more than halved the amount of product coming into the Whanganui Resource Recovery Centre. Photo / Bevan Conley

A multimillion-dollar recycling park is on the table for Whanganui but government funding needs to be secured first.

Whanganui District Council has applied for Ministry for the Environment funding to complete a feasibility study.

A report from council waste services manager Morgan Harrison said if that was successful, the study could lead to a second application for a capital build, expected to cost between $3 million and $9m.

The park “fits in nicely” with the scope of the ministry’s revised Waste Minimisation Fund, it said.

Funding is available for new or expanded resource recovery and processing facilities and for developing new or scaling up existing technologies, such as options for hard-to-recycle plastics.

Introducing container return schemes and finding ways to collaborate with regional neighbours can also be covered.

Harrison’s report said the feasibility study would identify what services would be provided, a location, likely products and tonnages, build and operational costs and how the facility would be governed and operated.

The council runs a kerbside recycling service and the Whanganui Resource Recovery Centre (WRRC) on Maria Place.

It took over operations at the WRRC from the centre’s trust on June 24 last year.

Since then, 100 tonnes of rubbish had been disposed of and 200 items of stockpiled e-waste were sent away for recycling, Harrison’s report said.

She told district councillors last week that E-Cycle had agreed to take the e-waste.

“We are working with our local recyclers around flat-screen TVs,” she said.

“Anything other than flat-screen TVs would likely go to Auckland or Palmerston North for recycling.”

Councillor Rob Vinsen says there have been improvements at the WRRC since the council took over operations. Photo / NZME

The centre received 178.2 tonnes of product in the second quarter of the 2024/25 financial year, down from 442.34 tonnes for the same period in 2023/24 (before the kerbside service began).

Harrison said the WRRC started polystyrene recycling last October, with almost a tonne delivered to the centre since.

Last year, council delegates were “blown away” by a visit to Toowoomba’s waste management centre – a purpose-built site covering 20ha.

Then-council customer services general manager Marianne Cavanagh said the sole intention of the Toowoomba site was “just keeping everything out of landfill”.

“When you drive in, you can drop off your green waste, your mattress, your refrigerator,” she said.

“Pretty much anything you can think of, they have a section for it, including a barrel for dead animals.”

Palmerston North’s Awapuni Resource Recovery Park sorts through 20 tonnes of material a day, with 30-35 truckloads arriving every week.

Councillor Rob Vinsen said the council had done “a marvellous job” at the WRRC since it took over.

“The place is tidy and there are better displays. People know they can put batteries here and soft plastics there.

“It makes the resource recovery centre such an important part of this recycling programme.”

The council will introduce a kerbside food scraps collection service on July 1.

A recent audit of landfill bins on the city’s fringes revealed 27% of their contents were food scraps, in line with bins from urban areas.

Mike Tweed is a multimedia journalist at the Whanganui Chronicle. Since starting in March 2020, he has dabbled in everything from sport to music. At present his focus is local government, primarily the Whanganui District Council.