Too much rubbish for Wellington to handle, council set to expand landfill

Monday, 26 August 2019

With only four years left until the Southern Landfill is full, it's time to talk about what we do with our waste next.

Rubbish piling into Wellington's Southern Landfill is reaching the brim with as little as four years left until it's full.

The public already opposed plans for an extension in 2013 which proposed filling rubbish into the top of Careys Gulley until it met the existing site. Instead, there were calls for alternatives to burying waste that could reduce intake and ensure the site's longevity.

But the Wellington City Council has told residents technological limits, legislation, the public's attitude and commercial realities made it 'too risky' to apply alternatives in New Zealand. Size was also a challenge for some technologies.

'We believe that alternatives are probably still a decade away and that landfilling is the most appropriate option for now,' council Waste Operations manager Emily Taylor-Hall said.

The Southern Landfill diverts about 8000 tonnes of waste each year.

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'Regionally our target is to reduce waste from 600 kilograms per person, per year, to 400kg per person by 2026. That still leaves us with significant waste that needs to be managed.'

She said while it may be the best way forward, the council believed it would be a temporary solution before 'a future without landfill'.

In the meantime, the existing landfill would be full in about four years and the council's resource consent is due to expire in April 2026.

Wellingtonians have been asked to share their views on the city's waste-managment solutions which included the disposal of treated sewage sludge from Moa Point (which arrives every morning and makes up about 20 per cent of the landfill's total waste), contaminated material, and about 100,000 cubic metres of waste a year.

If the extension passed it would open an extra 2.5 million cubic-metres of landfill. Alternatives could include closing the landfill, building a waste-to-energy plant, or using biological processes.

Taylor-Hall said the landfill was not filling any faster than anticipated but the amount of waste that was being taken to landfill in recent years had levelled off. However, it would not change the current four-year projection.

People were more aware of their waste footprint, with slight increases seen in kerbside recycling but it would still take time to change people's attitudes toward waste.

Wellington City Council has told residents technological limits, legislation, the public's attitude and commercial realities maKe it 'too risky' to apply alternatives in New Zealand.

About a quarter of the rubbish sent to the landfill is food scraps and about 15.7 per cent of what arrives could have been recovered and recycled elsewhere or included in kerbside recycling.

The landfill diverts about 8000 tonnes of waste each year including: 5800 tonnes of green waste and 1600 tonnes of food waste to compost, 575 tonnes of scrap metal and salvages about 250 tonnes of material which is sold-on at the tip's shop. Another 11,500 tonnes of recyclable material is collected each year.

About $23.5 million has been budgeted over the next 10 years for the landfill's extension.

The council will hold a series of information sessions at the Brooklyn Community Centre on Sunday, September 29, and plans to host further sessions in Ōwhiro Bay about the site's extension and alternatives.

The Southern Landfill opened in 1974 on Happy Valley Road, Ōwhiro Bay when it was set aside for landfill. It has about 100 years of filling space left, according TO the Wellington City Council website.637813382