The organisation that provided Central Otago's only recycling operation for 15 years is about to be recycled itself.
Central Otago WasteBusters called a special meeting in Alexandra last night to discuss its future and decided to transfer its assets to Wanaka Wastebusters so a recycling business would continue in the district.
The chairman of the Central Otago organisation, Andrew Bush, said it was ''a bit premature'' to talk about winding up, but conceded the group was ''technically insolvent''.
''We're surviving only on the [Central Otago District] council's deficit payments,'' he said.
The group used to operate a kerbside collection and rural drop-off services and employed 38 volunteers as well as 19 full-time staff and 10 part-time staff.
It faced insolvency last year and was bailed out by the council.
After a review of recycling services in the district, WasteBusters was advised it had lost the council contract to deliver those services.
The new contract, won by refuse collection contractor AllWaste, began on Monday.
Mr Bush told about 30 people at last night's meeting the group had enough funding to keep operating until the end of June and then all remaining staff would be made redundant.
It had $28,000 in the bank, which would go towards paying off its debt to the council.
It wanted to transfer assets to Wanaka Wastebusters, which would continue a recycling facility in the district, employ some of the existing staff and bid for part of the district recycling contract.
It had been ''gut-wrenching'' to make redundancies over the past few weeks, Mr Bush said.
Wanaka Wastebusters manager Sue Coutts said the council was considering the group's bid to provide drop-off recycling services in Alexandra, the Teviot Valley and the Maniototo, continue the reuse shop in Alexandra and provide a service for commercial clients.
Louise Joyce, of Earnscleugh, asked why the Central Otago group was in trouble.
Mr Bush said it was a range of factors - lower commodity prices, WasteBusters' board not reacting fast enough to update equipment, and insufficient funds.
The board supported handing over its assets to the Wanaka group.
Ruth McNamara, of Alexandra, asked about a merger rather than a takeover.
Ms Coutts said the Wanaka group had considered that but it would not be viable to operate two separate recycling operations, especially as the Central Otago operation was no longer a going concern.
