Sustainable solutions: Recycling – Reclaiming – Rehoming

I had long wanted to visit the Ecomatters Recovery Depot in Rosebank Road so when I saw a public tour of the facility advertised, I took the opportunity to check it out – as did around 15 others, keen to see how this facility deals with some of our waste streams.

Sarah-Jane Murray, Team Leader of Waste Initiatives at Ecomatters and Thomas Peters, Assistant Manager facilitated the tour.

For an organisation dealing with waste, the warehouse space is surprisingly small but efficient. There are various waste booths spread around the extremities of the building. They are a drop-off point for many things that can be recycled, repurposed or upcycled but don’t belong in household recycling. It’s all about helping keep more items out of landfill.

E-waste including TVs, computers, printers, audio and video equipment, telephones, home appliances, cables and wires, light bulbs and batteries are tested and sent to the Abilities Group to be broken down into components which are then sent overseas to various locations for recycling. Currently Abilities Group diverts in excess of 4000 tonnes of material from landfill. Around 3% of e-waste is currently recycled in New Zealand. The depot has just begun accepted refrigerators and freezers (a $20 cost applies) which will be responsibly degassed before being sent to metal recycling.

Toothbrushes and toothpaste tubes are collected and sent to global recycling pioneer TerraCycle, a US company which creates new products from more difficult waste items.

Ecostore recyclable sugar cane bottles are separated to return to Ecostore. They can also be used at the New Lynn EcoMatters store, which is a refill station for Ecostore products.

The depot is also a collection point for Rent-a-Bins. For $100 you can hire up to three sets of 40 litre recycle/food scrap/landfill bins with a stand, to ensure a Zero Waste Event. Reusable cutlery and crockery are also available. (www.ecomatters.org.nz/zero-waste/zero-waste

events/)

Then there is the AdoptA-Resource shop, located on a mezzanine in the building. It is something of a treasure trove and re-homes unwanted items from businesses, finding new uses for everything from power cables to hairdressing mannequins, from e-waste to empty toothpaste tubes, and ballpoint pens to curtains. At the moment they have a quantity of dust masks which are available at substantially less than normal retail cost. They have plenty of extension leads (courtesy of the film industry) and heavy duty tie downs in stock. It's just a matter of poking about and seeing what you can find. For a few dollars, I came out with some plastic plant hangers, a pot plant holder, and a number of little cardboard salt shakers, perfect for storing and sprinkling seeds. When an extension lead appeared on a family member’s Christmas wish list, I knew where to go. These leads are charged out at $1 per metre and tested before you take them away.

EcoMatters’ depot is open to the public on Monday and Tuesday from 10am-2pm and located at Unit E, 489 Rosebank Road in Avondale. For more on EcoMatters’ work go to www.ecomatters.org.nz/ wp-content/uploads/2019/11/EcoMatters_Annual_-Report_2019_ DOWNLOAD.pdf. Extension cords are available from the Adopt a Resource area of the Rosebank Road depot. Photo: Ecomatters.

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