Parkhouse Road Refuse Station closed for at least a week following fire

4 January 2006

The significant fire at the Parkhouse Road Refuse Station on Tuesday evening (3 January) means the station will be closed for at least a week.

Meta NZ Ltd (which operates the stations) advises customers to use the alternative stations of Styx Mill in Redwood, or Metro Place in Bromley, both of which continue to operate normally. Limited facilities allowing for the drop off of 100% green waste only will be available at Parkhouse Road from Saturday, 7 January.

It is hoped that the station will fully re-open for normal operations on Wednesday 11 January.

Meta NZ Operations Manager John Ross says the fire was noticed in the general refuse pit area around closing time on Tuesday. There were no members of the public present, and few staff. Fire services were called immediately and managed to contain the damage within the refuse pit area.

The fire damaged the structure of the building, and water used to fight it has damaged the compacting machinery beneath the pit. While that machinery and the pit building are repaired the station will be closed.

The cause of the fire has not yet been established, but it seems likely it was caused by inappropriate materials being dumped in the pit. Small fires occasionally occur in the pits and are usually the result of people dumping things such as BBQ or fire ash that have not entirely cooled, or offloading potentially flammable, hazardous material into the pit.

Domestic quantities of hazardous materials (eg gas bottles) should be left at the recycling points of each station, where they are handled and disposed of safely and appropriately.

• TerraNova and Meta NZ -- Meta NZ Ltd took over operation of the three refuse stations from Christchurch City Council on July 1 2005. Meta NZ was formed by TerraNova, a not-for-profit organisation that has been a driver in resource recovery, reuse and recycling since 1997. TerraNova processes the material collected through kerbside recycling, runs SuperShed and the country’s biggest Waste Exchange service, offers education services relating to waste minimisation to Waimakariri and Christchurch schools, and advocates and facilitates recycling, reuse and waste minimisation initiatives at local and national level. TerraNova was previously known as the Recovered Materials Foundation, changing its name in October 2005.

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