We Say – Wasting time?

It’s six years since officials from Waste Management NZ (WM) stunned Dome Valley residents with the bombshell news that they were planning to build a huge rubbish dump on their doorstep.

In 2018, WM hoped to start building the Wayby Valley tip by 2022 and begin trucking waste there sometime between 2026 and 2028, when its Redvale landfill at Dairy Flat was due to close.

In the meantime, of course, a series of lengthy hearings and court cases have stalled the bid so far, as local residents, iwi, community and environment groups, and even government departments have fought to have the plans denied.

The legal machinations will grind on this month, with appeals at the High Court against an interim decision by the Environment Court in December, as opponents vow to fight on (MM, Jun 24).

Regardless of where one stands on the siting of the landfill, the length of time it is taking to decide the matter does prompt the question of what happens when Redvale closes and a new dump has yet to be built.

WM maintains that there is a looming waste infrastructure crisis, with Redvale taking about half of Auckland’s waste now, but with “no long-term alternative for Auckland and surrounding regions’ waste”.
Auckland Council seems far less concerned about the situation, saying it has looked at current landfills and confirmed that their “combined capacity will see us through to at least 2040”. 

However, it does concede that it needs to look beyond then “with private waste companies who are planning infrastructure”, and points out that it has a proposed action “to consider options for a Resource Recovery & Waste Infrastructure Plan” in its latest draft Waste Management & Minimisation Plan.

With its own focus on increased and improved resource recovery, and increasingly rapid technological advances generally, we can’t help wondering if council, WM and the wider waste disposal industry should, after six long years, take a step back and ask themselves whether digging a mighty hole in a pristine, steep-sided valley, which feeds numerous watercourses to the Kaipara Harbour, really is still the best way forward in terms of managing waste in future.