Christchurch recycling plant's multi-million dollar upgrade to start in March

A date has been set to start the multi-million dollar upgrade of Christchurch’s recycling plant.

EcoCentral Ltd, which owns the Materials Recovery Facility, received a $16.8 million grant from the Ministry for the Environment’s special Covid-19 Response and Recovery Fund last year to help upgrade the mechanical and optical sorting equipment for plastics and paper/cardboard.

The upgrade is due to start in March 2022, and is expected to be finished in December. The facility will continue to process recyclable material during this time.

With the upgraded equipment, EcoCentral will be able to improve the overall effectiveness of the plant and ensure the recycled materials are of a high quality.

"The paper and cardboard that we process through the MRF gets sent overseas for recycling," said EcoCentral chief executive Craig Downie.

"The market for these products is extremely competitive so we need to provide a very high quality product if we are to secure a buyer.

• $16.8m Govt funding injection to upgrade recycling plant

"Upgrading the optical and mechanical fibre sorting equipment in the Materials Recovery Facility will improve our ability to sort the material collected through the yellow wheelie bins into the separate material types."

"This is key to making sure we maximise the amount of material we are recycling and minimise the amount of waste that is going to landfill."

Downie said it will still be essential people only put accepted items in their yellow wheelie bins, as contaminants damage the equipment and quality of the recyclable materials.

He said the only items that belong in yellow bins are:

• Clean, flattened cardboard and egg cartons
• Clean aluminium cans
• Clear and coloured glass bottles, jars (clean, with lids put in the red bin)
• Metal tins (clean and loose, with lids put in the red bin)
• Plastic containers and bottles numbered 1, 2 and 5 (clean and loose, with lids put in the red bin)
• Aerosol cans
• Paper and magazines (no smaller than a standard envelope)

Christchurch city councillor and chairwoman of the three waters infrastructure and environment committee, Pauline Cotter, said the upgrade of the plant will boost the city’s waste minimisation efforts.

"We made it clear through the Waste Minimisation and Management Plan that we adopted last year that we are committed to reducing the amount of waste being sent to landfill.

"Investing in new technology so that we can maximise the material we recycle will help us achieve that," Cr Cotter said.