How the recovery park was established
The site in use at the old Burwood Landfill and Bottle Lake Forest Park was initially set up under the authority of the National Controller during the emergency. This was done under urgency, to provide a safe place for rubble to be sent while search and rescue operations were underway. It also made economic and environmental sense to set up this facility to ensure waste was not sent to landfill unnecessarily, or dumped illegally.
The Council on 31 March agreed to the establishment of the Burwood Resource Recovery Park for the sorting and recycling of the estimated four million tonnes of rubble from earthquake-damaged commercial and residential buildings. To put this volume of waste in perspective: Kate Valley, the region’s landfill, on average would receive just 250,000 tonnes of waste every year.
Why do we need the recovery park?
It was important for the city that this facility was made available soon after the 22 February earthquake. The Council needed somewhere to put this debris, so that search and rescue teams could get on with the business of saving lives.
It was also needed to make sure that there was a safe place for the rubble created by the demolition of dozens of buildings in the initial weeks following the quake. Without the recovery park in place, there was potential for this waste to be left in the Central City, or worse, dumped in paddocks or on riverbeds.
How the recovery park operates
The Burwood site was made available to Transpacific Industries to develop and operate the sorting area in the days following the 22 February earthquake. Under Civil Defence approvals, work on access roads and security fencing was completed to ensure the site could be safely operated.
The Council, working with the National Controller’s office, Ministry for the Environment staff and Environment Canterbury, considered the recovery park provided a good way forward for the city, as the contractor would take on the financial and operational risks involved in operating the facility. The contractor is required to return the site to its pre-4 September condition on completion of activity at the site.
Traditionally, the sorting of construction and demolition waste is considered a high-risk business because of the large costs involved to the contractor and there is not many businesses that can do it on this scale. The Council found a contractor to take on this job at very short notice during the emergency as there is no current infrastructure that could handle this level of waste. It was imperative that a robust system was put in place as quickly as possible.
The Council has agreed it will continue the process of seeking an Order in Council from the Government to allow this sorting facility to operate under streamlined resource consent processes so that the waste can be sorted in a timely manner for recycling, reuse or disposal.
The Office of the Auditor General has audited the business model used by the contractor. The feedback received by the Council is that the rates being charged represent a fair return to a contractor undertaking this type of business risk.
