Green waste
If you live in Buller, you can drop off your garden green waste for FREE at the Westport and Reefton Transfer Stations.
Council offers free garden green waste disposal for people in Buller during a seven-month pilot period between December 2024 – June 2025.
What can you drop off?
You can bring anything that grows in your garden like hedge trimmings, tree branches or grass clippings.
What can’t you drop off?
Flax, cabbage tree leaves, and wood/logs over 300mm in diameter are not compostable items and need to be disposed of separately.
When loading your green waste keep an eye out for rocks, plastic items or other rubbish. This prevents accidental damage to the mulching machine.
People living in Karamea, Inangahua, Maruia and Springs Junction can also transport their green waste to the Westport or Reefton Transfer Stations.
What happens with your green waste?
Your green waste will be shredded with an industrial mulching machine and transported to the Westport Wastewater Treatment Plant. This is where wastewater, including human waste, goes to be treated.
Once it has been through the whole treatment process, we are left with an end-product called sludge. The sludge and the mulched green waste are mixed and will be turned and stored to decompose at the Westport Wastewater Treatment Plant.
The end-product is compost that will be tested. Depending on the results, it can be utilised for a variety of end-uses such as a soil conditioner for landscaping.
This is a joint initiative between Council’s waste and wastewater teams that allows Council to turn wastewater sludge locally into a useful product. You can find out more about this pilot initiative in our Media Release.
The key to the success of this initiative is that only suitable garden green waste is dropped off. Unsuitable items like flax, cabbage tree leaves or rocks must be disposed of separately.
