Radio New Zealand - Te Reo Irirangi o Aotearoa

40,000 tonnes of food dumped after quake

Updated at 5:20 pm on 15 September 2010

An estimated 40,000 tonnes of food is being sent to the Christchurch landfill as warehouses write-off most or all of their supplies.

The Transpacific waste company says warehouse owners have given up trying to separate good food from what was ruined in the magnitude 7.1 earthquake on 4 September and are dumping it all.

General manager Gareth James says frozen food will be the next and then rubble from destroyed buildings, some of which is contaminated by asbestos.

Canterbury Regional Council says more than 1 million litres of wine and milk has been diverted into the Waimakariri River to stop it polluting ground water.

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