The Pines Resource Recovery Park 

When the regional council, Environment Canterbury, served notice that the district's four dumps did not comply with new environmental standards and would not be having their resource consents renewed, the Selwyn District Council radically rethought its approach to waste management.

The old holes in the ground were replaced by a high-tech resource recovery park in Burnham School Road, near Rolleston. The facility features a recyclables drop-off centre, a HotRot composting unit which takes food and garden waste and a transfer depot where waste that cannot be composted or recycled is placed in containers that are then driven to the Kate Valley landfill. A safe house for storing hazardous waste is also planned.

Unlike the old dumps, the resource recovery park is open seven days a week and the dumping fees are based on weight. Vehicles drive over a weighbridge as they enter the facility and over another as they depart. The difference between the two readings shows how much waste they have dumped.