20pc of recycling contaminated

• Published date: 24 November 2022
• Publication title: Southland Express

Invercargill city councillors received a report earlier this month at the council’s infrastructure committee which stated the cumulative waste for the first three months of this financial year was 2.56% or 142 tonnes above what went to landfill at the same time last year

At the time, council infrastructure manager Erin Moogan said there was a significant amount of contaminated recycling — more than 20% — needing to be diverted to landfill due to contamination.

The Southland Express approached the council to have a better understanding of the situation.

While there was a decreasing trend on contaminated recycling waste compared with last year, there was still a huge volume of recycling needing to be disposed of in landfill.

Ms Moogan said the Invercargill City Council, which is a member of the three WasteNet councils, recycled about 4800 tonnes of materials last year.

During the 2020-21 financial year, 672 tonnes of contaminated recycling was diverted to the landfill, she said.

‘‘There was a 9.4% reduction (or 70 tonnes) from the 2019-20 financial year, and a 9.5% reduction on the previous five-year average...

‘‘Currently, 20.3% of the total recycling collected is contaminated and needs to be disposed of in the landfill.’’

She refused to say how much this was costing the council, saying the information was ‘‘of a commercially sensitive nature’’.

Soiled nappies, organic waste, and even animal remains were among items disposed of in the yellow recycling bin and contaminating the contents.

Due to this situation, Mrs Moogan said the council...