Nearly five tonnes of recycled material has been dumped in Queenstown because of staff shortages and market challenges.
The Queenstown Lakes District Council released in a statement yesterday that 4.8 tonnes of unprocessed recycling was sent to landfill on Wednesday because of Waste Management staff shortages, recyclable market challenges and the summer peak.
Council solid waste contracts manager Laura Gledhill said it was a disappointing outcome that must be avoided in the future. Waste Management took the decision to send the material to landfill after storage of the material became untenable.
"We are monitoring the situation closely and working with Waste Management to ensure these issues are resolved quickly," she said.
"We have since installed open-top bins and a temporary bunker to increase storage of material prior to processing.
"Waste Management is also exploring how operational hours could be extended as well as options to send material to alternative processing facilities outside our district to help take pressure off the Frankton site."
Ms Gledhill said a council audit last winter showed 93% of the 1136 mixed-recycling bins checked had perfect or near-perfect recycling.
"Local households have been doing an awesome job putting the right material in the right kerbside bins. This is a significant help to the team at the Materials Recovery Facility who largely hand-sort our district’s mixed recycling, and it’s so important that the community have the confidence to continue to recycle."
Transfer stations in Frankton and Wanaka remain open to the public 8am to 5pm six days a week from Monday to Saturday. The temporary closure on Sundays announced in November was recently extended to January 29.
The council continued to support Waste Management in its recruitment efforts and was exploring all options to reduce the risk of future disruptions.
Roles available include drivers, and recycling and transfer station operators.
