28 July, 2025

Recycling operation bounces back after blaze

Back in action… Abilities workers (from left) Michael Oram from Forrest Hill, Irene Johnston from Sunnynook and Michele Sadler from Hillcrest are happy to be reunited at the not-for-profit group’s new premises in Wairau

Abilities Group staff are settled back into their normal recycling routines after moving into a new warehouse in Wairau, following the huge fire that destroyed their Hillside Rd premises on 24 April.
Thanks to community support, the 110 disabled workers employed by the not-for-profit enterprise were paid throughout the search for a new home.
Teething problems aside over the last month – such as the challenge for some of finding their way to their new work location on Kaimahi Rd – the staff, who mostly live nearby, are happily settled back into routines.
“For them it’s a home away from home, where they’ve got friends and purpose,” says Abilities general manager Michael Van Der Merwe.
Keeping the workers together, while searching for a suitable new location, had always been the aim. Meetings to arrange this were organised with the help of Rotary.
Tears came with the trauma of losing their workplace, but workers’ spirits were buoyed by knowing they had community support, Van Der Merwe said.
More than $280,000 was raised through a fundraising campaign, allowing the wages to keep coming during the weeks out of operation.
“If it wasn’t for Givealittle, that would have been very difficult,” he said.
Operationally, securing a two-year lease on the new warehouse meant commercial operations had resumed, but taking community drop-offs is on hold for now.
Inside, the warehouse is equipped with new compacting machines and workbenches.
The work being done includes paper recycling and contract packaging jobs, such as a longstanding contract with Fonterra under which plastic inners are removed from faulty paper milk-powder sacks, so both the plastic and paper can be baled up and compressed for recycling.
The staff enjoy the teamwork involved, standing around more than 20 timber workbenches made by volunteers after the fire.
This came from a project initiated by local company Edgecity Builders, run by Nick and Sharon Farrelly. Members of the Certified Builders Association, which Nick chairs, gathered from across Auckland for a day, building replacement benches needed for sorting work.
Timber and equipment was donated by Mitre 10 and Hirepool.
“Everything is donated,” says fundraising manager Katie Christoffersen, gesturing at office desks and computers.
Clients had been very supportive, she said. More than 100 companies offered donations and grant providers pitched in, including major supporter Foundation North.
Among other activities during the hiatus, workers went go-karting at Mt Smart with members of the Warriors rugby league team.
Media coverage had drawn offers of help, she said.
A thank-you day will be held for customers and other key supporters in late July.
Christoffersen reflects: “It’s been the busiest two months of my life – exhausting, but so worthwhile.”
Van Der Merwe said the aim was to purchase Abilities Group a “forever home” down the track. This would allow it to employ up to 200 people and save more of the city’s waste from landfill.
The organisation processes 20 tonnes of e-waste a week. For now, this is being done from temporary premises in Henderson, and another satellite base still operating in Poland Rd, Wairau.
The Wairau location is constrained for space, but is where donated electronic goods are assessed, with the likes of computers from companies which have upgraded their technology being checked and onsold or donated to others in need.
The aim is for no more than 5 per cent of the waste being processed to go to landfill.
Some of the materials Abilities’ five trucks collect is from council-backed resource recovery centres, including in Devonport.
Due to space constraints, Abilities has had to pull back on some work, such as Tetra Pak and plastic lid handling.
It has plenty of work to be going on with, as some companies stored their waste, waiting for it to resume operations.
“Because we deal in bulk, we can usually find markets,” says Van Der Merwe. The likes of batteries are sent to South Korea.
“If you have enough of something, you can trade.” But he adds: “You’re always at the mercy of international commodity values.”
Fundraising is always required, but the group does have some assets, owning two smaller buildings in Rosedale which it leases out to help pay its warehouse rent.
Any new base it can afford one day will be in Wairau, Van De Merwe says. “It’s our community, we’ve been in the area for 65 years and we’re embedded in it.”
The organisation’s longest-serving worker has been on the job for 42 years. Others have also been there for decades, some transitioning from the Wairau Special School, which was opposite the Hillside Rd site.
The operation was begun initially by Takapuna Rotary in Barrys Pt Rd, but as it grew and became an independent entity it has moved premises several times.
It occupied the Hillside Rd site for 15 years.
For now, Abilities is open only to commercial customers.
It is hoped community drop-off days will resume soon, at a location to be advised.
The group’s website will offer updates and provide email notifications on request.
Van Der Merwe said a report on the cause of the fire was still awaited.

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