The planned blessing that has irked councillors
“I’m struggling to understand why we are having a blessing to bless this site considering it is a scrap metal yard... It just doesn’t make sense to me."
When’s a blessing appropriate and when isn’t it?
Some Invercargill City Councillors have questioned whether blessings might be overused after council staff organised a blessing to help mark the launch of a battery recycling programme.
Southland is one of many regions that does not currently have a battery disposal pathway.
There have been eight landfill fires this year and the council’s landfill operator has advised WasteNet that electronic lithium batteries have been the primary contributing factor. They will be banned in the waste stream to landfill, due to fire risks.
WasteNet has negotiated an agreement with Phoenix Metal Man’s End-of-Life Battery Recycling and Collection Scheme which will open in Bond St on Tuesday.
A blessing will be held the day before.
At a council meeting on Tuesday, Deputy Mayor Tom Campbell asked: “Do we need to organise a blessing event for a battery recycling programme?”
Invercargill City Council’s infrastructure group manager Erin Moogan said they have been “read the riot act” from contractors around battery disposal for some time because of the fires.
Moogan said there was a lack of public awareness about what to do with batteries.
“Part of the reasoning for wanting to the blessing was the media opportunity to draw attention to that fact that disposing of your lithium batteries, batteries out of your mobile phone etc is not something you can just throw into your bin.”
Although Campbell and others continued with the questioning.
“That shouldn’t really be the function of a blessing though should it? To draw public attention.
“I can see the sense of a blessing to open a bridge or a museum but a battery recycling project, to me that’s actually a misuse,” Campbell said before other councillors joined in on the topic.
Cr Barry Stewart, who is a council representative on WasteNet, sent an email to his WasteNet colleagues on Tuesday saying: “I’m struggling to understand why we are having a blessing to bless this site considering it is a scrap metal yard. It’s the old Palmers ScrapMetal. It just doesn’t make sense to me. Are we going to be doing this for everything?”
Cr Peter Kett said: “When I read that we are going to have a blessing for a dead battery, what the hell is the world coming to?”
Cr Ria Bond did not believe conducting a blessing “to get a bit of media coverage” was the right approach.
Although Moogan clarified that.
“I wasn’t saying we were doing it for media coverage. I was saying we were organising an event for media coverage and then it was decided to add a blessing to that as well,” Moogan said.
Infrastructure chair Ian Pottinger backed the staff for organising such an event for what he said was an essential project.
“The fact there is a blessing there or not, it’s the opening of this facility which has high value to the city.
“I think the media coverage, hopefully, will get people to think about their batteries.”
Moogan thanked Pottinger for his comments.
“The staff have worked incredibly hard on this, they were really excited about it, contractors are really excited about it. Unfortunately, so far, the feedback has not been particularly positive,” Moogan said.
Ironically the angst around the planned blessing has probably helped in that quest to draw more attention around the fact batteries cannot be disposed of in kerbside rubbish bins.
Council mana whenua representative Evelyn Cook, who often conducts blessings, said the blessing is as much about the staff at that place.
“If it was me, I would be thinking about the people and their safety and their wellbeing as I performed the blessing,” Cook said.
I went back and watched the video of the meeting, and it does appear like the issue has been inflated somewhat. Councillors seemed more concerned about the cost of the ceremony, rather than whether the ceremony would be culturally appropriate.
Interesting, the content that followed afterwards was even more interesting: Mayor Clark showed great annoyance at his report on the use of an incinerator (instead of landfill) being left off the agenda. It makes me wonder, who is the private entity providing the incinerator which would be receiving council funding? And in an era where carbon emissions are more dangerous than ever, what good does Nobby Clark think burning all the rubbish is going to do?
Crikey I hope they did not spend too much time talking about this. Surely they have bigger fish to fry.