1983 tip closing urged

Press, 3 November 1981, Page 6

1983 tip closing urged

Doubts about the Waimairi County metropolitan landfill site should not deter the Christchurch City Council from trying to phase out its Bexley tip in 1983, the resource: recovery committee said yesterday. . • - “The principles remain the same regardless of where the facilities are sited,” said Cf D. C. Close. The council should continue to support a refuse scheme funding option that would a Bromley metropolitan rubbish station and a new landfill to be used in the 1984-85 year. But the City Engineer, Mr P. G. Scoular, said in a report that it was doubtful whether the 1983 target for closing the city, tip could now be achieved,?/? Councillors said thah goal should still be' - worked towards. "That is out > continued policy,” said Cr Rex Lester.’ The City Council’s capital works commitment to the metropolitan: scheme met over five years from loans — would be or 60 per

i cent of the total scheme’s 1 capital works cost, under the 2 preferred funding option. 1; That figure includes an inflas 'tion cost escalation estimate - of 20 per cent a year. 3 Councillors said that capitai works' commitments ? should be met from loans, i but annual running -and inr vestigation costs should still 1 be met from revenue. i - t. Recycling collection | Mr Scoular said the total of blue rubbish bags being collected had not been rer duced in neighbourhoods } where special recycling col--1 lections were already being f; done. 1 . - Those collections now covered about 25 per cent of 1 the city.; -. . Amounts of recyclable •/.materials being, collected' * (• jwefe,!‘not really Compared with the substam* ■ Lytial amounts of rubbish as a whole,” said the streetworks t engineer, Mr Hz E. Surtees. So far, material • being collected seemed to be

extra rubbish not normally put out in bags, Mr Scoular said. ■ But some councillors said that bag space normally taken up by reusable rubbish might now contain ’other waste, such as garden clippings. ■ As soon as the special collections covered the city, early next year, it would be easier to tell all residents how they could prepare particular products -for recycling, Mr Surtees said. Cr Close said he was: not surprised that the . over-all amounts of rubbish in plastic bags had not yet decreased.: One council goal is : to analyse samples of domestic rubbish from selected areas before and after the start of house-to-house collections. . Such an analysis xquld be A repeated after six months and. a-year to measure com-. ; muhity acceptance Of recycling.' . ! v So far the -council is not getting accurate collection figures from the household scheme because all\fubbish

/ is being 'processed at the r Bexley tip recycling centre, with material taken there by j individuals and firms. / A combination of 1 materials for September 24 r to October 21 at the re- . cycling centre amounted to an estimated value of $1790, f of which from $6OO to *s7oo , was probably from materials > taken separately to the 5 . centre.. . 'From August 30 to Sep- . tember 23,- 381' vehicles had used the tip centre; comt pared with 293 vehicles dur--1 ing September 24 to October »?■ 21. That was the lowest number since the centre’s first /month of activity in June. ?' Litter.. Study f New Zealand litter seemed i to' have dropped, during 1978s ~79, and the trend was main- ' tained. in 1980; a . special - Litter Control Council study ; has shown. Litter counts t • have been done by 44 .local - i bodies, arid covered seven . i Christchurch City Council i areas.

Paper was the most common litter item, 54.67 per cent of the total litter counted. Cigarette butts were far ahead of cbnfectionery and food wrappings as the most common type of paper jitter. At the lower end of the scale in the paper category were milk cartons (.29 per cent, compared with 27.43 per cent for cigarette butts) and paper tissues. Glass represented 3.32 per cent of. the total litter counted. Reusable beer bottles accounted for 4 more litter than non-returnable soft-drink, wine and spirit bottles. Soft-drink cans were the most predominant part of the can count, followed by beer cans. Cr Geoff Stone said the 1978-79 survey “shows how rapidly out of- date these surveys can be” since it did not show the effects of flavoured milk cartons and plastic bottles now coming on to the soUth Island market.