Editorial: Trash is a tricky business

Rubbish around Northland's Ngaiotonga Scenic Reserve.

The notion of sustaining the life of a landfill is a sound one. If you are filling a hole in your backyard with rubbish, it makes sound environmental sense to avoid having to dig another hole.

And another one. And another one. Especially when you fill it with rubbish that takes a long time to break down.

What if Whangarei was a small island? Let's say I own the hole the rubbish goes into, and I charge each islander a nominal rate to put rubbish in it.

The island isn't that big and eventually I am going to run out of land to fill with rubbish.
We don't want the island to end up being a graveyard for non-biodegradable waste with land that can't be built on, or sustain crops or animals.

So I make a plea to the islanders - less rubbish, please!

What would happen, do you think, if the islanders found out rubbish from two other islands - let's call them "Far North" and "Auckland" - were going into our island's hole?

I would count myself lucky if they didn't knock me over the head and throw me into my hole. And I would expect to be interrogated first.

Do the other islands pay you more than we do to dump their waste? Why don't they look after their own waste?

Why do you need all this money to look after your hole - isn't it just a hole in the ground that you squash stuff into?

Whangarei isn't an island. Landfills aren't just holes in the ground. But some will say it stinks when locals are asked to make an effort to reduce their rubbish when imported trash still pours in.

The business of rubbish is not as simplistic as this island analogy. The solution to extending our landfill's life isn't as simplistic as asking locals to slash trash, either.

Because for locals to cut trash, they need to be given a convincing answer when they ask, "What's in it for me?" In other words, where is the incentive?

And at the moment, there isn't a huge incentive to sustain the life of a Whangarei landfill that Auckland waste is being poured into. Even less so when that Auckland waste is crucial to the landfill's large-scale operation, and thus its profit.