Rakaia Community Recyclers

The small community of Rakaia near Ashburton, in Mid Canterbury has developed a very successful recycling programme.

A group of volunteers have instigated a wet and dry waste collection scheme. Two bags are distributed to each household in the community, and residents are asked to place all organic "wet" waste in one bags, and all "dry" waste in the other bag. Wet waste includes all food scraps, pet droppings, wet paper and vacuum cleaner bags. Dry waste includes all other clean waste (people are asked to wash food containers).

These two bags are collected on the same day as the Council waste collection, and are taken to a sorting shed at the Resource Recovery Centre.
Here, the dry waste is tipped onto a conveyor belt by volunteers and sorted into its various recyclable components, with about 25% residual waste going into a skip at the far end of the conveyor belt.
The wet waste is shredded and is processed by a large cement mixer before being fed to a large worm farm.

Residents are asked to separate out hazardous waste and place this in a separate bag, marked with a supplied hazardous sticker. Included in the hazardous waste are disposable nappies, sharp items and blood-contaminated items.

Currently about 80% of the community is using the wet and dry bag scheme instead of the Council waste collection and the group is recycling about 65 % of this waste.

Contact:

Neil Pluck
Phone: 03 302 7031
Email: