Bringing recyling to one of New Zealand’s remotest places – Stuff

A South Westland businessman has made it his mission to bring recycling to some of the remotest places in New Zealand.

Rainer Oehmig is unapologetically pushy when it comes to recycling.

Its a big effort for me, its 80% of my labour costs but only 5% of my profits but it has to be done, he said.

I push people into recycling. Its still a good thing to do. Somebody has to.

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With no council recycling collections in South Westland, Oehmig wanted to stop residents and businesses from putting recyclables into landfill.

Oehmig moved to New Zealand about 20 years ago after falling in love with the West Coast on several previous trips.

He moved to Okarito, a small settlement in South Westland, where he opened a backpackers hostel and was shocked at the lack of recycling compared to his native Germany.

I kept asking: whats happening with recycling? So I decided to start doing it. It was great. I still love it, he said.

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Rainer Oehmig of South Westland Rubbish Removal with glass destined for recycling in Auckland.

With no background in waste management, he took knowledge from working with Wnaka Wastebusters and was the first to do glass recycling on the West Coast with the help of $140,000 of funding from the Ministry for the Environment.

They said it couldnt be done. I had to buy 1500 wheelie bins for my customers.

Its still carbon-positive shipping the glass to Auckland. It is more energy efficient to make a recycled glass product than create a new one.

Oehmig is contracted to run a recycling drop-off transfer station for the Westland District Council in Franz Josef and runs his own company, South Westland Rubbish Removal.

He built a big shed and bought a baler to sort all the recycling in house and trucks the bails to Christchurch. The glass is then transported from Christchurch to Auckland. The cardboard and plastic is recycled in Christchurch.

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Oehmig sorts and bales plastic and cardboard for recycling in Christchurch.

We use freight companies and send it over on back loads. Before Covid I used to ship 250 tonnes of cardboard, 60 to 80 tonnes of plastic and 400 tonnes of glass.

He said 95% of his business came from tourism operators in Franz Josef and Fox Glacier.

He had offered a free recycling collection for residents, but had to stop since Covid wiped out about 70% of his business when hotels, motels, cafes and backpacker businesses shut their doors in the absence of international tourists.

I had seven employees now I am down to two. I had three trucks, now I only have one. Its been really tough.

The refuse collection subsidises the recycling side of the business.

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Oehmig sends baled cardboard by truck to Christchurch for recycling.

Oehmig said the markets for recyclables were constantly changing, which made things difficult.

At times it feels like we are losing ground we thought we had it sorted, but there is always the next challenge. One day we can recycle something and the next day we cant. Its very much a moving target in many ways.

Some people couldnt care less which makes it hard. If I wasnt really passionate about doing it I would have stopped by now.

One of his proudest achievements was bringing recycling to isolated rural communities.

I get recycling from Haast, one of the most remote places in New Zealand. If it can be done down there it can be done all over the show.

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Bringing recyling to one of New Zealand's remotest places - Stuff