Mt Maunganui recycling plant receives funding

Goodwood wood recycling yard. Photo: Supplied

Goodwood, a Mount Maunganui-based wood waste recycling plant will be receiving further Government funding, it was announced today.

An extra 4,000 tonnes of offcuts and scraps of untreated wood per year will soon be able to be recycled into useful products such as horticultural and garden mulch, playground safety surfacing and animal bedding as a result of a $660,000 investment from the Waste Minimisation Fund, announced Associate Environment Minister Eugenie Sage at Goodwood's Mount Maunganui yard.

'New Zealanders care deeply about our environment. Goodwood Limited is a great example of our circular economy in action - producing high quality products from off-cuts and waste that would otherwise go to landfill” says Sage.

'The new funding allows Goodwood to expand their capacity by 50 per cent, through the purchase of a truck and 10 open-top containers for businesses to stockpile wood waste on-site.'

'It will also allow the purchase of heavy equipment for the Hamilton yard, eliminating the need to transport machinery back and forth between the Mount Maunganui and Waikato yards.

'The Mount Maunganui-based business has collected more than 30,000 tonnes of untreated wood waste from businesses, mostly sawmills, throughout the Bay of Plenty and Waikato regions – and diverts it from landfill by transforming it into useful, sustainable items.”

Goodwood began as a small one person operation back in 2015, joining forces with the Tauranga City Council to prevent 44 tonnes of untreated timber waste going to landfills each week. Goodwood received $79,000 funding from the WMF in 2016 for yard equipment. It now has manufacturing yards in Mount Maunganui and a wood waste collection yard at Horotiu, north of Hamilton.

'With the new project underway, Goodwood employs nine locals and makes a useful contribution to ensuring people are employed in the Bay of Plenty,” says Sage.

The Government is committed to reducing the amount of waste going to landfill and to increasing material recovery and recycling.

'Businesses, industry, families and communities all have a role to play in reducing our waste in Aotearoa New Zealand.

'We have a rubbish record on waste to landfill that this Government is working alongside New Zealanders to change.

'This wood waste recovery project has been trialled and proven it can succeed in the Bay of Plenty, it would be great to see similar operations elsewhere” says Sage.

Wood chips are used for playgrounds. Photo: Goodwood Facebook page.

The Waste Minimisation Fund (WMF) is funded through the waste disposal levy that was introduced under the Waste Minimisation Act 2008.

Fifty per cent of the money collected from the levy is distributed to councils to spend in accordance with their Waste Management and Minimisation Plans. The remainder, minus administration costs is used for the WMF, which is managed by the Ministry for the Environment.

The purpose of the Act is to encourage waste minimisation and a decrease in waste disposal.

A list of projects that have been awarded WMF funding can be viewed on the Ministry for the Environment's website www.mfe.govt.nz/more/funding/waste-minimisation-fund/projects-funded-date.

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