Transfer Station Bluegums Landfill Council Contract 2013/13 Industrial/Commercial/Residential Bluegums Landfill Private Contractors Kerbside Refuse Collection Bluegums Landfill Private Contractors Bluegums can also take some hazardous materials such as Asbestos or contaminated soils that have satisfied the site’s waste acceptance criteria. The weighbridge and associated software on site provides details on customers, waste type and tonnages. This information was used to build up a picture of the amount of waste and its makeup received annually. Other Hazardous wastes such as chemicals and their spent containers are managed by the Council, under contract, through the Hazardous Waste Storage Facility, next to the Blenheim transfer station. 5.1.2 Diverted materials and how they are handled The waste hierarchy orders preferred waste management options. The most preferred option is reduction or re-use, followed by recovery, recycling, treatment and, lastly, disposal. The Council have taken this into account when considering the options for material diversion. Reduction and reuse can be achieved on an individual basis and reinforced by education and information programmes that encourage the community to think about the generation of waste and what they can do at a household or business level to stop it being produced in the first place eg; the stopping of mail shot deliveries to the home or business or the networking of materials for others to use eg; pallet reuse. Recovery options are limited within the region. Whilst a number of companies have looked at recovery of landfill gas for heat or energy production this has not emerged as an economically viable proposal to date. Other areas such as biomass and production of green coke have also been researched and developed to a certain degree. At this stage none of these options have scaled to an operational site that can receive diverted materials from the region’s waste streams eg; treated timber. Recycling facilities are provided across the majority of the community for domestic materials. The Council will seek to increase this recycling rate through the construction of the CIF and the rural community recycling programme both of which have been submitted to the Draft 2015-2025 Long Term Plan. Treatment other than the handling of hazardous waste and some difficult materials received at Bluegums Landfill is not seen as a major issue during the term of this WMMP. Disposal may be the last resort but the facility at Bluegums is engineered to the relevant national standards for landfill design and construction. This site will provide the community with an end disposal point for the next 53 years based on current inputs. The site operations, gas and leachate management systems are all designed to minimise any environmental impact and protect the public health. Turning to the materials that are currently diverted, the following information outlines how they are managed. Cardboard, paper and plastics There are two destinations for cardboard, paper and plastics within the region, the RRC and the Riverlands MRF, both within the vicinity of Blenheim. Incoming materials are sorted and baled ready for onward sale to an appropriate broker or end user. Page 20