Northland Waste and KDC partner for Hakaru transfer station upgrade

7 Nov, 2022

Northland Waste has been revitalising the Hakaru Re:Sort Transfer Station facility over winter, focusing on diverting more valuable materials from landfills.

The changes include a new customer-friendly area for commodity recycling, an onsite second-hand shop, improved glass and green waste facilities, and a focus on construction and demolition waste recovery.

"We are incredibly proud of the site changes, which will support the public and our teams in their efforts to divert a significant amount of waste from landfill,” explains Northland Waste Regional Manager Andrew Sclater. “With an enhanced focus on waste recovery at the site, we can't wait to share the changes with our community."

The redesigned site allows traffic to flow easily around the centre for customers dropping off their recycling, and clearer recycling to keep the product clean and correctly sorted. The revamped recycling centre allows a greater amount of household recycling and separation.

There’s innovative new signage for the recycling area, with examples of plastic grades clearly displayed to assist customers to recycle correctly.

"We are thrilled with how the new recycling area looks,” adds Andrew. “We are already seeing the benefits with less contamination and better grade separation."

In association with revamped recycling, several other new initiatives at the Hakaru Re:Sort are now operational.

"We heard there was a need to incorporate an onsite shop to sell reusable goods that would have otherwise ended up in landfills, so we have implemented a small resale shop with a vision to expand this in the near future,” says Andrew. “We know a second chance shop for items too good to throw away is a big improvement. It's always mind-blowing what people throw out!”

Other significant improvements include additional capacity for green waste and onsite glass bunkers, with the support of a $30,000 grant from the Glass Packaging Forum. This allows teams to store larger quantities of glass onsite, leading to carbon-reducing transport efficiencies and safer handling.

The site now has an added focus on diverting construction and demolition waste from landfill through Northland Waste’s Re:Fuel your wood waste scheme.

"We have implemented a new wood waste bin on site for the public, and our teams now separate as much wood waste from local builder's skips as possible at the site,” says Andrew. “Wood waste from Hakaru is carted to Puwera, chipped and reused as an alternative fuel source in concrete production. This initiative has improved CO2 emissions as a bio-friendly fuel alternative to using coal. In addition, we have established a purpose-built wood processing facility at Puwera, through a million-dollar investment, for the Northland District to process more recovered wood.”

Andrew says they are very pleased to implement these changes for the Mangawhai community and thank site partner Kaipara District Council for supporting the move to improve and upgrade the Hakaru facility for a more sustainable future.

Changes at Hakaru Re:Sort include a new customer-friendly area for commodity recycling, an onsite second-hand shop, improved glass and green waste facilities, and a focus on construction and demolition waste recovery. PHOT/SUPPLIED

"We are thrilled with how the new recycling area looks. We are already seeing the benefits with less contamination and better grade separation."

– Andrew Sclater, Northland Waste regional manager