Saving city wastes and making money

Forest and Bird, Issue 294, 1 November 1999, Page 10

Saving city wastes and making money

— Source:

Timaru District Council.

Brian Gallagher,

n Timaru residents have been asked to choose whether to bury 40,000 tonnes of ‘rubbish’ annually, or recycle it. Present methods of disposal would fill its comparatively new Redruth site within 24 years and cost $29 million. The alternative ‘waste strategy’ would divert up to 98 percent of ‘rubbish’. The strategy would include composting vegetation and kitchen wastes, presently 46 percent of the waste stream. By using worms in the composting process — ‘vermicomposting’

— a compost concentrate is produced. It is claimed this product could increase production of grapes by 50 percent, lucerne by 90 percent and broad beans by 400 percent. If this proves to be so, the product could be worth over a million dollars a year and create ancillary jobs and businesses. According to its council promoters, Timaru residents could play their part by using two rubbish bins to help simplify rubbish sorting. One bin takes organic garden and kitchen wastes; the second bin is divid-

ed into a recyclable side and a non-recyclable side. Spoil, clay and rubble presently comprise 10 percent of waste which could be used instead for filling construction sites. A materials-listing service, The Trading Post, will watch out for people’s requirements for reusable items, while a shop called The Last Post will sell assorted second-hand items. An education centre to introduce these ideas is suggested, with a spin-off opportunity to encourage debate and improvements in water use, sewage disposal,

drainage, rivers and marine health. So far surveys have shown that 88-89 percent of the community supports the concept of re-using rubbish. Now council staff are costing the proposal in detail, and identifying the commercial markets for products such as the wormcast compost. Ratepayers will then have hard figures from which to choose their favoured option, to take effect sometime in the next three to five years.