Deal possible on unwanted car bodies

Press, 29 September 1988, Page 8

Deal possible on unwanted car bodies

By

NIGEL MALTHUS

A potential crisis in the disposal of unwanted car bodies could be averted, the Christchurch Metropolitan Refuse Disposal Committee was told yesterday.

Auckland-based Pacific Metal Industries has taken ferrous scrap from Christchurch for some years, running a transportable crusher to compact car bodies before railing them to Auckland for recycling. The firm withdrew the service in June, leading to fears that the 4000 to 6000 cars wrecked each year in Christchurch might end up clogging wreckers’ yards or littering riverbeds. Cr Ron Wright, chairman of the Refuse Disposal Committee, said yesterday that after an approach from the Christchurch City Council, a representative of the firm had "offered some hope” for an alternative scheme. He was to come to Christchurch in a week or two to discuss it. Christchurch could become a centre for processing ferrous scrap, and sending it to Auckland or even Japan, said Cr Wright. Pacific Metal Industries’ parent company, Pacific Steel, still wanted the scrap, said Cr Wright. Although the approach to the company had been

a City Council initiative, the other constituent councils of the committee would be kept informed, said Cr Wright. Wet paper An argument has developed between the Refuse Disposal Committee and the Canterbury Paper Company, Ltd, over hundreds of tonnes of paper that had to be dumped after a fire in the firm’s Addington warehouse in May. The company refuses to pay a bill of more than $14,000 for dumping charges at the Waimairi landfill site, claiming it should have been charged on a volume basis rather than weight. The paper had been hauled out by fire-fighters during the spectacular fire, which destroyed the warehouse and most of its contents. The paper was sodden with water and about twice its dry weight, according to a letter from the company’s solicitors, tabled at yesterday’s committee meeting. The letter questioned the “reasonableness” of

the weight-based charge and asked for a reduction. •The committee had refused, pointing out that a 10 per cent discount, as offered to all large regular users of the landfill dumping site, had been allowed, and that a mixed weight-volume charging system would be "unworkable and very complex.” The company had since made another approach, offering a payment of $6OOO. The committee decided to refer the dispute to its solicitors, and to set up a special sub-committee with power to negotiate and reach agreement with the company. Late-night dumping The committee has agreed on a special “latenight” opening for the Styx Mill Road refuse transfer station to gauge demand for keeping the station open after the normal closing time of 4 p.m. during daylight time. The trial will be held at a week-end before Christmas, the date still to be decided.