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End of Porirua's Polystyrene Recycler?

End of Porirua's Polystyrene Recycler?

Poly Palace, the environmentally savy polystyrene re-manufacturer and recycler opposite Trash Palace at Spicer Landfill is terminating its recycling contract with Porirua City Council and seeking compensation. "We have been negotiating what should have been a straight forward right of renewal of our contract for over a year" says Poly Palace owner - operator Mr Richard Moore.

In 2014 PCC effectively rescued Poly Palace from financial collapse by providing funding for the polystyrene received through the free public drop-off at Spicer Landfill, in the same manner that free plastics recycling is funded. Last October the contract renegotiation culminated in PCC agreeing with Poly Palace to continue the funding for five years. However with PCC's restructuring this agreement was not honoured and the funding ended in February.

With cost reduction for consumers in mind, Mr Moore developed all the machinery used in his innovative zero-waste polystyrene recycling operation. "The funding for polystyrene recycling enabled me to invest in improving the through-put of the process and I now have the potential to manage all the waste polystyrene consumer packaging in the Wellington Region" says Mr Moore. "I have developed a globally unique process for making 100% recycled consumer packaging into a superior bearing strength concrete floor insulation we call'Ecoslab', This means less polystyrene imports and potentially zero polystyrene waste in landfills in the Wellington Region, while we build 'greener' healthier and CO2 mitigating homes that last for many generations. In many ways its recycling nirvana" says Mr Moore.

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Loading 'Ecoslab' in the Trash Palace yard for delivery to New Plymouth last week, demonstrating the expanding niche market for this 100% recycled eco-product.

With recycling commodity prices at 10 year lows Mr Moore believes his solution was an outstanding recycling success for essentially valueless plastic packaging waste.

In February last year Mr Moore relocated two large silos onto his site at Spicer Landfill for storage. These Silos were donated by Cryovac Sealed Air, with ratepayers funding $12000 towards the cost of the relocation. "These silos were the solution to the storage of waste polystyrene and a path for growth of the business" says Mr Moore.

Unfortunately the silos as well as other key parts of the process sit idle while consultants engaged by PCC engage other consultants to advise on their use. "We had the opportunity, we had the funding and I had the prototype machinery developed and operational but PCC obfuscated the opportunity". says Mr Moore "The same thing happened when PCC backed out of Poly Palace's successful waste minimisation funding application in the first round of Waste Minimisation Fund, because PCC wanted to'retain control',explains Mr Moore.

I am the only contractor that achieved zero-waste to landfill by PCCs zero-waste target of 2015 and I am recycling a material that is widely regarded as not recyclable. In return PCC has effectively chosen to cut Poly Palace's funding while increasing funding for commodity plastics recycling with unknown recycling outcomes.

"The final word came from my family" says Mr Moore. "My eldest daughter who was four when I started this is now sixteen and she said to me, 'Give it up Dad, nobody cares enough. Stop building a better world for other peoples children and spend more time with your own' ".

ENDS

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