2 August 2000 |
Council Recommended To Change Compost Plant Plans
A startup undercover compost plant taking around a quarter of the City's organic waste is now being recommended to the Council for investigation following talks with a Japanese businessman over the last 18 months.
Originally Mr Hazaka was offering to build a large plant at his entire cost for around 15million dollars that would take all of Christchurch's green waste, food waste and sewage biosolids. However as negotiations progressed it emerged that the City was being asked to fund all of the construction costs itself.
From what we have learnt over the past 18 months, said Waste Manager Mike Stockwell, it would be better to build a small startup undercover plant of around four lanes instead of a large 18 lane plant. This way we can learn as we go by increasing the plant size in future stages as we transfer the compost manufacture from open air windrowing to an indoor operation.
Mr Stockwell said, an advantage of an indoor plant is that it will enable the Council to compost food scraps and sewage biosolids along with green waste in a situation where odour and dust can be controlled. This will be appreciated by neighbouring businesses and houses.
He said that we are still negotiating with Mr Hazaka about the possibility of using of his technology in a small startup plant.
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