Mahurangi Wastebusters are looking to receive a grant of more than $2 million dollars from Auckland Council, thanks to the government’s Covid-19 Response and Recovery Fund.

The funding will be used to upgrade infrastructure and includes the of building sheds to keep staff out of the weather while sorting. 

Since opening in July 2019, Wastebusters have encountered a multitude of problems, including break-ins almost every week, especially at Lawrie Road, digger issues, problems with people bringing in asbestos, a collapse in commodity prices and, of course, the impact of Covid-19 lockdowns, during which waste had to be taken to landfill, instead of being sorted.

In the year from July 2019 to June 2020, Mahurangi Wastebusters diverted 5,988 cubic metres of waste from landfill. The Snells Beach and Wellsford waste transfer stations are both on top of closed landfills, and Auckland Council is doing some vital work to make sure they don't cause any environmental harm. For this reason, Wastebusters can only accept waste from residential and small business customers. They cannot accept hazardous waste, clean or hard fill and vehicles over four tonnes are not permitted.

Wastebusters is looking at ways to take more construction waste, as well as trying to increase its opening hours to make it more convenient for more people.

The latest development for Wastebusters is a new composting service at Lawrie Road. Special five-tonne pest-proof boxes have been brought in to convert compostable food waste from the Matakana Farmers’ Market, Daily Organics Kombucha and the public. Most food scraps are accepted, except meat, fish, bones and cooking oil.