Bargain shopping with an environmental spin-off

The Resource Recovery Centre at Taupo’s landfill is successfully reducing the amount of rubbish going into the ground.

Staff at the Centre sort through discarded items looking for anything with resale potential. The items are then available for purchase in Resource Recovery Centre’s re-use shop at extremely low prices.

The shop is becoming increasingly popular with those who realise that one person’s trash is another person’s treasure. Chairs, bikes, books and toys are among the most common items for sale, but there are also more unusual items with quite high values such as skis, fishing rods, lawnmowers and barbecues.

Other things the shop sells which could provide considerable savings to keen bargain hunters are indoor and outdoor furniture, toilets, windows, doors, fireplaces, roofing iron, tools, light shades, beds, prams and cots.

Councillor Kathryn Uvhagen says the maxim 'one person's trash is another person's treasure' is very true.

"When I was six years old, my father built me a bike out of an old frame salvaged from the tip. I was so proud of that bike and it kept me going until high school," she says.

At the same time staff are searching for sellable items, they also separate recyclable items which have been inadvertently discarded with waste which also reduces the amount of waste going into the landfill.

Taupo District Council will be running a competition later this term among school-age children to find a new name and logo for the reuse shop. Teachers who are interested in participating should contact the Council’s environmental educator, Sarah Painter on 376 0899.

The Resource Recovery Centre is in Broadlands Road and is open Monday to Friday 8.00am to 5.00pm, and weekends and public holidays from 8.00am to 5.30pm.