Materials Processing Ltd, the Hamilton New Zealand solid waste recovery experts are based in the Upper North Island regions including Northland, Bay of Plenty and Waikato regions.

The company carries out a major part of its work at a Kawerau Pulp & Paper Mill where it recovers 95% of wood waste material 10,000 cubic metres a month - that was previously going to an industrial landfill. The company's portable grinding unit converts the waste into fuel for the boilers at Kawerau, not only from the pulp & paper mill but also from a sawmill and tissue mill in the area and supplies approximately a third of the fuel required for the boilers. The land fill site is being excavated & reprocessed with 60% of the material being recovered

The company also has a portable concrete crushing plant that works throughout the Waikato & Bay of Plenty, crushing waste concrete into material, which is usually used for roading aggregates or into builders mix for making new concrete products.

In Rotorua, the company has a long-term contract with the District Council to handle all their recycling. It processes all the domestic green waste and vegetation and all the wood waste heading to the landfill from the saw mills as well as concrete and aggregates, plastics, cardboard and scrap steel. A public drop-off centre is based close to the city centre, providing free recycling plus an "Urban Ore Store" where bric-a-brac & clothing is sold for reuse.

A new site in Mangawhai Heads which sells landscape products now offers a recycling facility. Cardboard, paper, plastic bottles, bags and film, steel and aluminium cans, scrap metal, wood and green waste, concrete and rubbish bags for transfer are all accepted. Many of the MPL end-products are available at the Mangawhai Heads site as landscape products such as mulch, compost, aggregates and pavers made from recycled concrete.

Staff in the company are becoming passionate conservationists. Turnover is low, and new opportunities are continually being identified so the work is varied and challenging.

In spite of the value of the products recovered, however, the costs are high. Recycling should be recognised as an alternative means of waste disposal on a par with landfills, but with unlimited potential.