Remarkable Recyclers

Remarkable Recyclers

This community business operates a household recycling collection in Wanaka under contract to the Queensland Lakes District Council.  It was established in 2005 as a joint venture between Wanaka Wastebusters, a charitable trust that had been running a recycling centre in Wanaka for over 5 years,  and the Community Business & Environment Centre of Kaitaia.

Wastebusters felt it lacked the resources and expertise to win the council's tender in its own right and felt its chances of success would be substantially improved by inviting CBEC to be a joint venture partner.

That joint venture was called Remarkable Recyclers Ltd, in honour of the mountain range dominating the Wanaka landscape. Their tender was based on principles of zero waste, local empowerment and local economic development. The joint venture's aim was to combine the local experience and commitment of the Wastebusters team with the contract tendering and management experience of CBEC.

The tender was successful and operation of the household recycling collection service started in late 2005. Under a seperate contract Remarkable Recyclers has also been successful in negotiating with council to sort and dispose of the materials recovered by the collection operation.

Unlike the standard business model of today CBEC's objective is not to build a business empire around New Zealand. Instead, they aim to share their experience and expertise through joint ventures like this and help local recycling organisations achieve the income base and management experience to move to economic self-sufficiency.

 

Prometheus has been happy to provide the necessary start-up capital for this remarkable recycling operation and looks forward to future involvement with both Remarkable Recyclers and Wanaka Wastebusters as they seek to widen the provision of waste minimisation and resource recovery services throughout the Queenstown district.