Parkhouse Road Refuse Station reopens

15 January 2006

Parkhouse Road Refuse Station has reopened after a significant fire forced it to close for just over a week. Meta NZ Ltd (which operates the stations) advises customers that it is now business as usual at all refuse stations in Christchurch.

Meta NZ Operations Manager John Ross says the fire was noticed in the general refuse pit area around closing time on Tuesday (3 January). 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 damaged the compacting machinery beneath the pit.

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.

• 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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