Quantity of waste recycled

Approximately 30% of the District’s residents participate in recycling schemes. Council operates recycling centres at the District’s landfills and transfer stations, and also collects recyclable materials as part of kerbside rubbish collection. Council collects metal, glass, plastic containers labelled 1 and 2, and newspaper as part of the kerbside collection programme. Council also collects scrap metal, whiteware, automotive batteries and used engine oil at the recycling centres. Businesses can put out paper and cardboard for collection as part of the commercial refuse collection. Hazardous waste storage facilities are situated at Waihou and Morrinsville whereby hazardous material can be disposed of by arrangement.

The WAP survey results for the Morrinsville landfill and Waihou Transfer Station show that 32% of the waste disposed of to the landfill is potentially recyclable. Please refer to figure "Composition of waste disposed at Morrinsville Landfill 1996" on page 34.

Council also composts greenwaste with an estimated 7500 tonnes of waste accepted at the landfills and transfer stations in 1995. Greenwaste is stockpiled and used later as landfill cover.

Number of households which Received waste collection and kerbside recycling

Council provides refuse collection services to approximately 7500 (71%) households in the Matamata-Piako District. This includes domestic rubbish collection and kerbside collection of recyclable materials.

Landfill leachate

The Matamata-Piako District Council monitors the amount and quality of leachate from the District’s landfill to adjacent surface water bodies, up stream and down stream of the landfill location. The Council also monitors bores located at 3-4 sampling sites in the vicinity of the landfills. The monitoring costs the Council approximately $9,000 per annum. Council’s spending has increased over the past few years, indicating that monitoring of water quality is increasingly important to the Matamata-Piako community.