The Ministry for the Environment has announced $16.8 million in funding for EcoCentral to upgrade the optical and mechanical sorting machines used at its Parkhouse Road Materials Recovery Facility.
Mayor Lianne Dalziel said state-of-the-art sorting equipment will be installed at the plant, where recyclable materials collected at the kerbside by several Canterbury councils, including Christchurch City Council, are sorted and processed.
Dalziel called the funding boost "a game-changer for the EcoCentral and the people of Christchurch".
EcoCentral chief executive Craig Downie said the company's application for funding to upgrade the equipment at the facility was accepted.
"It will enable us to invest in international best-practice optical and mechanical sorting equipment, which will make it easier for us to remove contaminants from the recycling stream and deliver consistently high quality plastic and fibre products," Downie said.
"One of the key advantage of the upgraded equipment is that it will make it possible for us to sort plastics into individual resin types."
Only rigid plastic bottles and containers numbered with a 1, 2 or a 5 are accepted for recycling at the facility.
EcoCentral’s application for the funding was supported by Christchurch City Council.
"The improvements to the Materials Recovery Facility will allow EcoCentral, and us as a council, to demonstrate our commitment to a circular economy through the production of high-quality recycling products," said council resource recovery manager Ross Trotter.
"We are trying to sell our plastics and paper into crowded market places.
"Our local and overseas buyers are demanding product of gold-star standard or they will not buy from us.
"The new optical and mechanical sorting equipment that EcoCentral plans to invest in will help to work towards achieving the type of recyclable material that buyers require."
The $16.8 million grant was part of a $36.7 million Government investment in New Zealand's high-tech recycling plants announced yesterday by Associate Minister for the Environment Eugenie Sage.
"Currently New Zealand’s recycling system relies on a lot of manual sorting of materials so that they can be reprocessed," Sage said.
"It’s not pleasant work, especially when people put rubbish in their recycling bin.
"Investing in high-tech optical sorters will make for safer workplaces and speed up the sorting process to separate different materials, such as paper and plastics.
"Some plastic materials are very difficult to tell apart, even for the professionals. This is where the optical sorter can in a split-second determine the different types of plastic," Sage says.
