Chair of the City Council’s Sustainable Transport and Utilities Committee and Chairman of the Recovered Materials Foundation, Cr Denis O’Rourke agrees, “We are trying to encourage people to dig ever deeper into those black bags to extract the maximum amount of recyclables, which makes both financial and waste reduction sense – – a classic win-win.”

In response to the increased tonnages Onyx is currently trialing a new purpose-built for Christchurch recycling truck. It will take 50% more in volume than those currently on the road and with a conveyor belt system it is designed to increase the quality of sorting on the vehicle.

The truck is also designed to be staff-friendly with lower, easier access for depositing the recyclables picked up at the kerbside. It is driven by a dedicated driver with no need to get in and out all the time, as the truck is continually moving with two runners and one sorter.

“While this new vehicle is definitely about quantity, it’s also about maintaining the quality of the materials we collect, so the Recovered Materials Foundation (RMF) can do its job of recycling them into further products and jobs downstream. Onyx is committed to increasing quality at all levels with our partners in the recycling programme,” says Roulston.

The arrival of the new truck comes at the same time as the City’s recycling programme is reinforcing its underlying philosophy of Real Recycling: