A dead man was found in a stack of cardboard at a Hamilton recycling business

The horrified workers who found a body in a Hamilton cardboard recycling plant stumbled across a leg before calling police.

The body was discovered on Tuesday morning at OJI Fibre Solutions and FullCircle Recycling premises, on Frankton's Pukeko St.

Police were still investigating how the body came to be in the cardboard. An autopsy on Wednesday was expected to shed light on who it was and how it got there.

MARK TAYLOR FAIRFAX NZ Hamilton's OJI Fibre where a body was found in a stack of cardboard.

The company was staying tight-lipped.

"Oji Fibre Solutions has advised today that it will not be responding to media queries with regard to police presence at its Hamilton Baling site.

"The New Zealand Police have the site locked down at present and we are doing everything we can to help them. At this point in time, it would not be prudent for us to say anything further. We anticipate being able to provide further information later this week," chief executive Jon Ryder said.

Several employees were outside the premises at the street entrance in high visibility vests. Police were believed to be inside the large shed on the property.



A witness who worked nearby, said police were present when he turned up to work in the morning.

Employees noticed a weird smell, he said, which they thought was from a dead animal.

But upon searching through the cardboard, employees happened upon a human leg. They then stopped searching and called police, the witness said.



A neighbour said she did not see any police at the business at all during the day, but did notice that the plant's boss was stopping trucks from going inside.

Usually the trucks drove straight through the gates at the weighing station, she said.

An employee, who was standing outside the business, refused to comment.

The company produces market pulp, paper and fibre based packaging.

A bale of cardboard is cardboard stacked together, similar to a hay bale, in preparation for recycling.

New Zealand's OJI offices were closed for the day.