Scrapping of waste monitoring programme defended

Environment Minister Nick Smith. File photo / NZ Herald

Environment Minister Nick Smith has rejected criticism his Government is putting the environment at risk by scrapping funding for a monitoring programme that tracked liquid and hazardous waste.

The Government has stopped its annual $103,000 funding of the WasteTRACK programme, a voluntary, web-based scheme which was set up a decade ago for contractors and others to trace the movement of waste, such as septic tank sludge, from pick-up to disposal.

Its benefits, listed in a previous Government report, included ensuring safe transportation of wastes to approved treatment or disposal facilities, preventing the unauthorised discharge into the environment and helping authorities develop good policies.

While the Ministry for the Environment initially agreed to continue its funding on the basis that its take-up improved from the 15 of 67 councils using it, a 2013 review led to a decision last year to cease funding.

This triggered concerns, flagged in a report prepared for the Liquid and Hazardous Waste Operators Certification Council which oversaw the scheme, that problems of an unlevel playing field for waste operators would be "exacerbated".

This was because there would no longer be any incentive on waste operators to dispose of waste appropriately where they could otherwise avoid paying the waste disposal levy by diverting waste away from levied disposal facilities, the report stated.

"It will also continue to contribute to a lack of reliable information by which to monitor the effectiveness of waste management policies and systems at both the local and national levels."

Geoff Young, national president of the New Zealand Trade and Industrial Waste Forum, said the scheme was flawed but the industry had put forward workable and cost-effective measures to improve it.

He said its scrapping would open the door to "where we were 10 years ago, to some some operators doing some pretty dodgy disposal, which of course reduced their cost of operation".

Labour's environment spokesperson, Megan Woods, said the funding pull had put the environment "at risk", as contamination of waterways or the ground could cost millions of dollars to fix and presented clear health risks.

But Dr Smith said the WasteTRACK scheme had been a "flop" that had been criticised by councils and contractors for being repetitive and poor value for money.

"WasteTRACK was a failed initiative that never got take-up by either local authorities or industry," he said.

"Due time was given for it to improve and to deliver, it failed to so, and that is why the ministry made the decision not to continue funding."

The tracking of high-risk wastes such as acids and pesticides was already enforced through regulatory requirements on contractors by the Environmental Protection Authority, he said.

WasteTRACK's woes:

• Launched in 2006 by the previous Labour Government's then Environment Minister David Benson-Pope

• Was a voluntary scheme used by councils and contractors to track the movement on liquid and hazardous waste from pick-up to disposal, and built into waste management policy by some councils.

• Its annual $103,000 funding has been stopped by the Ministry for the Environment following a review in 2013, amid poor take-up and some criticism by councils and contractors.