A new regional recycling facility is being recommended for a large Ballantyne Rd section in Wānaka, to operate alongside Queenstown’s aged and failing material recovery facility in Glenda Dr.
The Queenstown Lakes District Council’s infrastructure committee will consider a staff report recommending the Wānaka site as a "short to medium-term option" at a meeting in Wānaka on Thursday.
A site master plan and detailed investigations have not yet been done.
QLDC strategy planning manager Sophie Mander and property and infrastructure general manager Tony Avery said in a report dated November 6 a new material resources facility was required to process recyclable material collected from residential and commercial customers in the Queenstown Lakes and Central Otago districts.
"Council has been considering its options for a replacement for its ageing material recovery facility in Glenda Dr, Queenstown, to reduce the risks associated with the current facility failing and recyclable material being landfilled," they said.
Staff had looked at other sites in the Queenstown Lakes district, in Cromwell and outside the district.
Attempts to find a suitable site in the Wakatipu Basin were unsuccessful.
However, the council’s purchase of a 8.3ha private landfill in Ballantyne Rd for $3.36 million last year presented an option to co-locate a material recovery facility alongside other existing waste-related services.
The site, next to Wānaka Wastebusters and Wānaka Greenwaste, was the highest-scoring of local options. Geotech investigations have begun.
A financial analysis had identified the costs associated with developing a facility for Queenstown did not vary significantly across the other sites considered.
They recommended a "hybrid approach" in that the council progressed work in the short to medium-term at Ballantyne Rd to reduce risks of the Glenda Dr site failing, before deciding on a long-term option.
