Keep your recycling for now, if you can

Council is working on an interim solution to sort Marlborough’s recycling following last week’s fire which has forced the closure of the Resource Recovery Centre in Wither Road, Blenheim.

The Resource Recovery Centre, which processes all Marlborough’s recycling including from remote transfer stations from around the region, was seriously damaged in the fire and will be closed for some time.

Council’s Solid Waste Manager Mark Lucas said while district-wide kerbside collection would continue as normal, there were a lot of residents, businesses and industry not included in the kerbside scheme that visit the Resource Recovery Centre on a regular basis to drop off recycling.

“Our plea for those not covered by the kerbside collection scheme is simple – please keep your recycling with you for now, if you can, while we work out a temporary solution. We expect to have an update by the end of this week as to the plan going forward.

“As people will appreciate, we are dealing with a rather fluid and challenging situation following this fire,” Mr Lucas said.

He has also asked if people’s wheelie bins are only half full for recycling to please hold on to them until the next collection.

“We will waive the restriction around bin lids not being completely closed for now while we work through this situation. This will help us alleviate some of the pressure of recycling coming in with no place to process it while the Resource Recovery Centre is closed.”

The Blenheim Transfer Station, Green Waste Facility and the Hazardous Waste Centre are all operating as normal. The Dump Shop is also now trading after a late start this morning.

“The Dump Shop has been segregated off from the Resource Recovery Centre so the public is welcome and donations are being gratefully received.

“We would like to thank Marlborough people for their support to date in providing new items for sale as so much stock from the Dump Shop was badly affected by smoke from the nearby fire,” Mr Lucas said.