Rubbish-based fuel future ‘exciting’

Press, 20 October 1981, Page 6

Rubbish-based fuel future ‘exciting’

The potential for pelletising rubbish ’ to produce a smokeless domestic fuel was “quite exciting” in view of Christchurch air pollution problems, said the City council's General Manager and Town clerk (Mr J. H. Gray) yesterday. Local body engineers here were aware of the. possibilities under improved technology, and were monitoring developments, • Mr Gray told the council in a report on his recent overseas trip. The technique of producing an industrial fuel additive from sorted rubbish was already effective, he said, and some British authorities were producing such a fuel. British reaction to the City Council's scheme of household recycling collections — with; residents sorting out reusable materials before they entered the rubbish

stream — were favourable, Mr Gray said. “They reckoned the City council was on the right lines with its programme by having the materials separated first. I had sent position papers on our programme on ahead, and they thought we were pretty innovative in tackling it this way,” he said. “The other way — sorting out rubbish at a factory — you need highly-expensive,. experimental technology.” Since dispersal of air-pol-lution was undoubtedly one of the city’s major goals since it was a health problem, a public subsidy of some kind of refuse-derived smokeless fuel might be acceptable if there was a reasonable: balance between costs and benefits. It was apparent that no individual recycled product broke even financially in

Britain, but there was a growing acceptance that a public subsidy for recycling was justified on resource conservation grounds. ' ■’ ■”■ ■ • ''' '. ' Recycling income The council’s , household collections of recyclable materials are now making an average, income of $5OO a week, said Cr G.-D. Stanley, chairman of the resource recovery committee. During the first collectionweek in September, the income was $387. Since then, . rounds originally covering 18 per cent- of the city have been slowly increased. Cr Stanley iaid that a third of the city might be covered by the ehd of November. He had authorised the purchase of a second collection vehicle.