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Landfills aren’t the answer
The recent withdrawal of Te Rūnanga o Ngāti Whātua’s opposition to the proposed Dome Valley landfill has been met with understandable disappointment.
I acknowledge the deep hurt and frustration felt by the many in our community who have fought tirelessly against this proposal. This fight should never have rested solely on the shoulders of the community. It should have been front and centre for our national and local politicians, advisors and the Ministry for the Environment.
But for far too long, they have chosen to bury their heads in the sand when it comes to confronting the reality of our waste management system, particularly when it involves outdated, environmentally destructive solutions.
Let’s be blunt: This proposal is the use of third world methods to poison our land and waters. And it’s being sold to us with a stunning level of misinformation. One claim by the landfill applicant states that 90 per cent of landfill gas will be captured. A figure above 55 per cent capture is considered highly optimistic in the real world.
More concerning is the lack of attention to the internationally recognised effects of the emissions of PFAS (polyfluoroalkyl substances) from both leachates and air emissions. Internationally, these forever chemicals are emerging as major pollution sources from landfilling that find their way to air, soil and bodies of water.
However, New Zealand continues to emit them by dumping over 13 million tonnes of waste into landfills every year.
In contrast, modern waste-to-energy (WtE) technology, embraced by many of our trading partners, is being dismissed here with outdated arguments. Critics claim that WtE undermines recycling. Yet the international evidence tells a different story. Singapore recycles 67 per cent of its waste, with the remaining third processed through WtE and only one per cent going to landfill. Germany matches that 67 per cent recycling rate, all while operating over 150 WtE plants. These countries aren’t sacrificing recycling – they’re complementing it with smart, clean energy solutions.
Concerns about public health impacts from WtE plants may have been valid decades ago, but technology has moved on. The emissions standards for modern WtE facilities are among the most stringent in the world, and the technology has evolved dramatically. Unfortunately, some voices in this debate fail to acknowledge this progress or compare it against the known and ongoing harms of landfill emissions and leachate.
It seems ironic that there is a proposal to extend Redvale, one of New Zealand’s largest landfills, beyond its consent of 2028 to 2036, extending the use of outdated practices. Neither this extension or the proposal to construct a 1.4 million-tonne-a-year landfill in Dome Valley, feeding into a tributary of the Kaipara Harbour – our nation’s largest estuarine ecosystem – should not proceed without a rigorous, science-based comparison to modern alternatives.
New Zealand deserves an informed, future-focused discussion about how we deal with the waste that we cannot reduce, recycle or reuse. Our trading partners have already moved on from the blunt instrument of landfill. It’s time we did the same.
Let’s stop pretending that landfilling waste in sensitive environments is acceptable, and start demanding accountability and innovation from those entrusted with our environmental future.
Craig Jepson, Mangawhai
Wayne’s words
You’ve done it again, Mahurangi Matters – always informing and occasionally amusing, as in the article on “Wayne’s Words” (MM, May 12). Most of the quotes caused me to chuckle, but one that resonated was where the chairman of AT was accused of waffling on about some pointless document. Years ago, schools were ordered to produce a mission statement. Staff and boards of trustees had a frustrating time attempting to produce something that would satisfy the powers-that-be. These documents were then stuck on a shelf somewhere, and they made absolutely no difference to the running of the schools or the welfare of the children.
Maureen Young, Warkworth
Lack of infrastructure leaves locals in lurch
As the wastewater pipeline from Warkworth to Snells Beach reaches completion you would hope that the same management, workers and machinery set up to do that job could just move on and complete the Warkworth wastewater scheme but no – because Watercare has failed to plan ahead it means all this ready-to-go infrastructure has to leave and sometime in the future return at lord knows how much extra cost.
The Warkworth wastewater pipeline should have been completed before any major subdivisions were approved north of Warkworth. Developers carve up the land, make huge profits and then move on leaving existing ratepayers to pick up the costs of increased infrastructure. Let’s hope that Mayor Wayne Brown and MP Chris Penk can work together and somehow fast-forward this project. It is unacceptable that oyster farmers will have to wait until 2028 for the project to be completed, that businesses suffer two to three years of cone saturation and that Watercare continues to pour sewage into the Mahurangi River.
Neil Hatfull, Warkworth
