Regional recycling to pause for two weeks

Recycling across Nelson-Tasman is being paused for two weeks to allow for essential maintenance at the Materials Recovery Facility in Richmond.

The kerbside collection of yellow-top bins will stop from 7 August until 20 August to provide a “rare” opportunity for the work.

“It’s been on the books for a little while and it’s the perfect time in winter, a quiet time in the year,” says Yuri Schokking, national resource recovery manager for Smart Environmental.

“Unfortunately, a major repair in one of the major in-feed belts is required,” he explains.

“We have to scaffold up and pull it apart to get at it, and a lot of hot work – welding and grinding and stuff – so we can’t have a whole floor of recycling material behind us.”

The recovery facility takes 150 tonnes of plastics, aluminium, and cardboard a week which is why the recycling can’t continue to be collected during the fortnight period.

After eight years of work, the main intake conveyor is now “desperate” for repair.

“We’ve got a whole area of accelerated wear because the chain conveyor has moved over slightly and caused a whole lot of rubbing which now has to be rebuilt.”

Yuri says it’s difficult to know what caused the shift but says a lot of debris – like bottle caps and non-recyclable material – can get jammed in the conveyer.

“It’s hard to say what the catalyst was, it’s just a ‘do it before it fails’ type thing’.”

Though the main conveyor is the main glaring issue, workers will go through the rest of the plant as well and touch up all the other conveyors and machinery at the same time.

“That’s the catalyst to do everything else at the same time, because the plant doesn’t stop – 5 days a week, 52 weeks a year.”

Smart Environmental are also taking the opportunity to refurbish some of their recycling trucks.

The glass bin lifting gear on four collection trucks will be refurbished along with the sidearm on the main recycling sidearm truck. An internal body refurbishment on a dual combination truck will also be completed.

“It’s not a necessary precursor,” Yuri says, as the trucks are already on a regular maintenance cycle.

“It’s just because we’re not doing recycling for two weeks, we’ll give the trucks a good going over.”

The two-week pause will see each household across the region miss out on one load of recycling so Tasman District Council is asking people to hold on to recycling until their next collection week, but if this isn’t possible, you can bring it to your nearest resource recovery centre free of charge.

During the two weeks glass recycling won’t take place in Tasman, though it will continue as normal in Nelson.