Gobbling up Tauranga's waste wood

Bay of Plenty MP Todd Muller, Goodwood Ltd’s Paul Neutze and Associate Environment Minister Scott Simpson with a shower of waste wood created by the new $288,000 wood grinder. Photos: Bruce Barnard.

It gobbles up Tauranga's untreated waste wood and converts it into animal bedding for the dairy industry, garden mulch, commercial motorway mulch and playground bark.

The gobbler is a new $288,000 wood grinder which was bought by Tauranga based Goodwood Ltd with a grant from the government's waste minimisation fund.

This morning Coromandel MP and associate Environment Minister Scott Simpson and Bay of Plenty MP Todd Muller were at the company to see the wood grinder cranked up.

'There is a significant volume of waste wood deposited into landfill in Tauranga, an estimated 44 tonnes per week of this untreated timber that could be recycled,” says Scott.

The new grinder enables a four-fold increase in production, meaning Goodwood can process bigger volumes of waste wood that would normally be sent to the tip.

'In April alone the company received 40 tonnes of old kiwifruit boxes alone,” adds Scott.

The company also received a further $79,000 to increase the efficiency of its wood processing and reduce production costs. It'll also enable the company to recover waste wood across the Bay of Plenty and Waikato regions.

The government's waste minimization fund is funded by a levy of $10 per tonne charged on waste disposed at landfills. More than $6 million has been awarded to more than 100 projects like the Goodwood wood grinder.

You may also like....

6 comments

Awesome

Posted on 19-05-2017 12:43 | By old trucker

I saw this the other day while i was giving me horse Nightmare a walk out there, great way to save all this wood, wonder could i get a personal loan and buy one and go Contracting,my thoughts only,No1 in News Sunlive,Thankyou,10-4.


hope their gone

Posted on 19-05-2017 14:33 | By ratepayer

what about the nails??


golly gosh

Posted on 20-05-2017 12:07 | By old trucker

To By ratepayer, they have a MAGNET, i would say built in,like we had on our HUGE Crusher conveyer, ( 11,000) tons in a 12 hour shift, i know what im talking about as i use to operate one, (50 ton) boulders munched up to 60 mil pieces and fed to Concentrator at 1,000 tons per hr, awesome job in those days and clearing $2,200 a week, those days are long gone as this was made up of all the overtime,it was a great life with several trips overseas in that, No1 is Sunlive for News, Thankyou ,10-4.


Sorta what..........

Posted on 20-05-2017 23:04 | By groutby

...........the commercial business have been doing for awhile then...just bigger !!...?....so, why do government Ministers seem to think this is something new?


Fuel?

Posted on 21-05-2017 07:55 | By Papamoaner

Dried out, might make good fuel for a blast furnace. Wood contains no sulphur, so a good clean fuel.


@groutby

Posted on 21-05-2017 17:07 | By Papamoaner

I think what they mean is that it's fairly new to grind surplus wooden items like pallets etc, as opposed to felled or trimmed trees. Need to make sure the wood is not treated if it is to be used elsewhere - arsenic is an accumulative poison. I imagine they're onto that.


Leave a Comment


You must be logged in to make a comment.