Recycling keeps city out of the dumps

By GREGG WYCHERLEY

The opening of the country's largest dump has been delayed for five years partly because Auckland City is producing less rubbish.

Waste disposal company Envirowaste Services gained consent in October 2001 to build an 87ha dump near Te Kauwhata bordering the Waikato River. It planned to have the site running this year.

Now the company will not open the Hampton Downs landfill until 2008, thanks in part to a massive recycling effort in Auckland City.

A drive to minimise waste that began in 2001, with each home getting a half-size wheelie bin, has helped to extend the life of Envirowaste's Greenmount landfill in East Tamaki, which was due to close in June.

City households have reduced by just over a third the amount of rubbish going to Greenmount by recycling paper and bottles (the target was 50 per cent).

Envirowaste CEO Paul Deverall said Aucklanders' rubbish saving was one of a number of factors influencing the decision.

"That is one aspect of it. There are some market shifts as well ... some of it is technical elements in the landfill."

Auckland City works committee chairman Bill Christian said research showed Aucklanders could recycle or compost another two-thirds of their waste.

He said there were savings for the city in not having to send rubbish the extra distance to Hampton Downs.

Envirowaste applied for a five-year extension to its resource consent late last year and hopes to gain consent to keep the site open, allowing it to delay opening the Hampton Downs landfill.

Next month Envirowaste will make submissions to a hearing on a 650-man prison the Ministry of Corrections wants to build near the landfill.

Wendy Finlayson, one of two appellants opposing an Environment Court decision approving the landfill, said the company should build an incineration plant on the site, avoiding problems of leaching and smells.

She said it was unfair that a small number of Waikato residents should be made "sacrificial lambs" for what remained primarily Auckland's problem.

* The Hampton Downs landfill has resource consent to take up to 30 million cu m of solid waste during the next 25 years. Two-thirds of the rubbish would come from Auckland; the rest from Waikato and Bay of Plenty.

Lighter load of rubbish

Auckland City halved the size of wheelie bins in June 2001. Since then:

* The average amount of household waste fell from 16kg to 10.5kg a week.

* The city set out to reduce rubbish by 50 per cent. It has achieved 34 per cent.

* In the December quarter, households recycled 3646 tonnes of glass, plastic and metal containers and 5640 tonnes of paper and cardboard. A total of 19,478 tonnes of rubbish went to the tip.

Herald feature: Environment