Te Awamutu incinerator plant decision six weeks away

Saturday, 5 July 2025

Hearing chairman Brian Dwyer, left, and panel member Nicholas Manukau mull over submissions during the three-week hearing held at FMG Stadium in Hamilton.

Weeks of intense scrutiny, expert evidence, and passionate protest have ended and a decision on the controversial Paewira waste-to-energy plant is expected by mid-August.

On Friday, three weeks of Environmental Protection Authority-run hearings on the unpopular proposal to build the $200 million plant on Racecourse Road in Te Awamutu ended with the applicant’s lawyer, Bronwyn Carruthers KC, delivering her final statement and rebuttal.

Global Contracting Solutions has applied to build the waste-to-energy plant, described as a “toxic incinerator” by detractors, to burn more than 170,000 tonnes of waste and rubbish annually to turn into 15MW of electricity, and divert waste from landfill.

Global Contracting Solutions legal counsel Bronwyn Carruthers, KC, delivered her final statements to the independent panel on Friday.

Supporters of the Paewira plant say the town would benefit from the creation of new jobs, less waste going to landfills, and say the technology is safe, and state of the art.

A three-person independent hearing panel, made up of chairman Brian Dwyer, Nicholas Manukau, and Myles McCauley, kicked off proceedings at FMG Stadium in Hamilton on June 16 with Dwyer saying it was a “particularly serious matter and has stirred controversy in the community … it’s our job to look at this objectively for that community”.

The proposed site is within 600m of three schools, borders a residential area, and a Fonterra milk processing plant.

Members of Don’t Burn Waipā, a lobby group set up to oppose the application, were present throughout the hearings.

In her rebuttal, Carruthers said, contrary to some evidence heard, GCS would know exactly what was going into the incinerator - which was not an unknown amount of flock, tyres, and other materials - due to processes used in sorting materials while on feed lines.

“It’s not novel technology, or in any way unscientific … ash and other waste will be disposed of legally.”

She said GCS was happy to monitor all possible adverse affects, which she said were minor, and would also test ground water quality more than a year before the plant is finished to establish a baseline for future testing, and would also install ground water monitoring bores.

Site map for Te Awamutu’s proposed Paewira waste-to-energy plant.

She said “length of life” predictions of toxic emissions ending peoples’ lives years earlier than expected, would, if anything, amount to only weeks, “not months or years”.

“In our submission, the heath affects are acceptable.”

Carruthers argued that a future housing development on racecourse land had a “limited ability for housing” and Paewira would not compromise that, or the nearby Fonterra milk processing plant as consent conditions would manage any adverse effects.

She also confirmed new plans for carbon capture technology, not applied for originally, would need a fresh consent application to the Waipā District Council, and another significant investment from the developers.

Previously, lawyers representing the Environmental Defence Society and Zero Waste Network said a wide range of toxic materials would be burned at the plant, including plastic, used tyres, and flock (combustible materials left over once recyclables have been stripped out of vehicles and whiteware).

At the conclusion of the hearings, Dwyer said “robust and understandable conditions that can be enforced” would be crucial to a consent.

He said the hearings had seen a lot of public interest and he was surprised by how many people tuned in to watch proceedings online.

The panel’s decision is expected to be made by mid-August, and will outline whether consent is granted or declined, any conditions attached to the consents (if granted), and the reasons for the decision.