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A waste recovery firm in the South Island is preparing to build a waste-to-energy plant – despite claims by Waste Management, the company proposing a landfill in the Dome Valley, that such plants are impractical in New Zealand.
During recent hearings for the consent application for a regional landfill south of Wellsford, anti-landfill submitters called on commissioners and Auckland Council to consider waste-to-energy alternatives.
In reply, Waste Management argued that the volume of waste needed to make a waste-to-energy plant viable simply wasn’t accessible in New Zealand.
That has not stopped South Island Resource Recovery (SIRRL) from announcing that it will soon apply for a resource consent application to build a $350 million waste-to-energy plant in Waimate and is seeking community feedback.
And SIRRL director Paul Taylor says his firm will build a plant which will make use of waste produced in the South Island alone.
He draws figures from the Climate Change Commission that say the South Island will still produce 750,000 tonnes of waste annually by 2035, despite waste minimisation efforts. He says his model for an energy plant will only require half that amount of feedstock to be viable.
Meanwhile, the commission predicts that the North Island will produce 2.25 million tonnes of waste annually by 2035.
Mr Taylor says the new plant will not require residents to pay more for waste disposal than they already do, being funded either by rates, purchase of rubbish bags and sale of the energy produced.
SIRRL has chosen the Waimate site for its first plant because it is located between the two largest southern population centres, Christchurch and Dunedin, and has access to road and rail networks.
Asked if SIRRL would consider bringing its technology to Rodney or Northland, Mr Taylor says the north is in his sights.
“Once resource consent is granted, it is likely we will look to the North Island for further opportunities to apply the technology.”
At 35 megawatts, the plant’s power generation would be modest compared to the Huntly coal-fired power station, which produces 500 megawatts, or the Arapuni hydroelectric generator on the Waikato River, which produces 200 megawatts.
However, it is more than Waste Management’s Redvale Landfill and Energy Park, which generates 12 megawatts from methane.
SIRRL’s design for a plant would burn waste to produce steam to power turbines. It says that contaminants produced from burning the waste, known as fly ash would be captured and treated with plasma thermal technology.
Electrically charged plasma gas would convert the fly ash into a glass-like substance, which SIRRL anticipates could be crushed and used as road aggregate.
However, news of the company’s intention to build a waste-to-energy plant has been met with criticism from Environment Select Committee chair and Green Party MP, Eugenie Sage.
Ms Sage was quick to criticise SIRRL online, saying that a waste-to-energy plant would drive demand for waste feedstock, incentivising producing more waste instead of recovering it.
But Mr Taylor says that zero-waste targets are unrealistic and best estimates for waste production for the foreseeable future will provide enough feedstock for a waste-to-energy plant.
He says the plant will not burn materials that can be recycled, instead burning waste otherwise destined for landfill.
