For more than a decade, Oji Fibre Solutions (OjiFS) had been contracted by Enviro NZ to process, market and sell the Dunedin City Council’s kerbside recycling at its Brighton Rd resource recovery facility.
However, at the start of this week about a dozen staff were told the facility’s mixed recycling operations would be closed and they would lose their jobs in four weeks, the Otago Daily Times has been told.
A person with knowledge of the situation said most staff at the plant had been under the impression there were at least two years’ worth of work left to go before a new Enviro NZ Dunedin facility became operational, and that some jobs would transition to the new facility at that time.
But talks on continuing the OjiFS contract failed and only a few staff would remain at the significantly reduced recycling plant.
"Suddenly these poor guys have been told, ‘I’m sorry, you’ve got four weeks left’," the person said.
"I find it pretty poor that it’s gone down this road, just over money.
"I think people have forgotten that there are ‘people’ working. It’s affecting lives here."
OjiFS environment and external relations group manager Philip Millichamp said the company had held the contract since June 2011.
However, it would expire at the end of June this year.
"We understand [Enviro NZ] has a new contract with the [Dunedin City] council, who intend to build a new recovery facility at Green Island.
"OjiFS made an offer ... to operate our recovery facility as part of a transitional arrangement while new facilities were developed, but this offer was not accepted," Mr Millichamp said.
The volume of recycling material to be processed at the OjiFS facility would reduce significantly when the contract ended.
As a result, the contractor who operated the OjiFS facility initiated a consultation process with staff concerning "the sudden substantial downsize" of the facility, "which is unfortunately likely to lead to some redundancies", he said.
An Enviro NZ spokeswoman said from next month the council’s kerbside mixed recycling would be trucked to Enviro NZ’s new recycling processing facility in Timaru, where it would be sorted and separated.
One truck would make the round trip to Timaru once a day.
The Dunedin City Council was "fully aware" of the change to processing arrangements, she said.
Enviro NZ offered local job opportunities, she said.
At present there were eight vacancies in Dunedin, and the company would be recruiting for 20 more roles by July next year when increased kerbside services began, she said.
A council spokesman said
"this temporary arrangement will cease once our own facilities become operational".
