Residents who live in Onehunga and its neighbouring suburbs can now do their part to help reduce the amount of waste going to landfill with the opening of the Onehunga Community Recycling Centre (CRC).
Auckland Councillor Richard Hills shares the value of CRCs, saying, “Aucklanders are keeping more than 6700 tonnes out of landfill each year by dropping off items at the nine existing CRC’s across the region. That’s the equivalent of 236 double decker buses.”
“This community hub will focus on reuse, repair, repurposing, and upcycling, while reducing carbon emissions, and creating local jobs and training opportunities in the process. It will offer local residents a place where they can drop off their unwanted items and purchase second hand goods affordably.”
The operator, Onehunga Zero Waste, is a partnership between community enterprise Synergy Project Trust and Localised - the commercial arm of the Zero Waste Network. This partnership is a registered charitable trust and is an accredited Māori / Pasifika social enterprise.
The Onehunga CRC will play an important part of Auckland’s goal of achieving Zero Waste by 2040 and creating a circular economy.
Auckland Mayor Phil Goff says, “CRC’s offer wider benefits to their local community having created 80 jobs and providing work opportunities and pathways to people who face barriers to employment.
“When something breaks in our modern world it is often more expensive to repair than to buy a new one, and usually it goes to the landfill. We want to be part of changing this.
“The CRC’s also play a vital role in emission reduction by keeping resources in circulation and minimising waste sent to landfill,” says Mayor Goff.
Support from MFE
The CRC was officially opened by Environment Minister David Parker and will welcome the public from Wednesday 3 August.
The new CRC was supported with $2.2 million funding from the Ministry for the Environment. It is Auckland’s first purpose-built Community Recycling Centre.
“This new CRC, and the growing network of them throughout Auckland, support the Government’s plan to reduce the amount of rubbish otherwise going to landfills nationwide,” David Parker said.
“The Government is pleased to have helped to support this Community Recycling Centre, making it easier for so many residents in the Maungakiekie-Tamaki Local Board area to do the right thing with products that are at the end of their lives.
”Along with the Government’s standardisation of recycling services across the country, centres like this will be an important part of the circular economy.”
There are currently nine CRC’s operating across the region, plus the Onehunga CRC. The next new ones due to open are in Western Springs and Manurewa. In the next 10 years a total of 21 Community Recycling Centres are intended, so that most Aucklanders will live within a 20-minute drive of a CRC.
