Marlborough Throws Out Nearly Double The National Average To Landfill

Wednesday, 5 March 2025, 3:33 pm
Article: Maia Hart - Local Democracy Reporter

Marlborough's waste boss wants to tackle rubbish.

Not just because Marlborough throws away too much of it like the entire boat that someone took to landfill recently but because a reduction in the amount dumped could save some money.

"We had a full industrial compressor dropped off as well, and when I say an industrial compressor, it would take a tandem trailer to put it on," Marlborough District Council solid waste manager Mark Lucas said.

"The compressor was full of recyclable products."

Marlborough chucked out about 1330kg of waste per person per year. Lucas said the national average was 740kg.

Government levies that the council pays for waste dumped were going up, and the life expectancy of Blenheim's Bluegums Landfill was going down.

In fact, that life expectancy had decreased even more predicted in a 2022 report which said it would be full by 2050.

The Emissions Trading Scheme liability for emissions from Marlborough landfills was also set to increase significantly, from $818,000 last year to about $2.3 million this year and $2.6m from 2026.

The government's waste disposal levy had also gone up by about $55 a tonne since 2019, Lucas said.

"Everything that we pay like the waste levy, the emissions trading scheme levy, and everything like that is worked on tonnage," he said.

The council last week approved consultation to progress its Draft Waste Management and Minimisation Bylaw 2025, to replace the Waste Bylaw 2017, to reflect new legislation and the new kerbside collection service.

The draft bylaw introduced ways to manage and minimise how much waste was being sent to landfill.

"For instance, the compressor, we can direct that it won't be able to come to the landfill because it's a recyclable item," Lucas said.

"The 2017 bylaw doesn't allow us to do that. The draft bylaw gives us the authority to say, 'no, that's not coming here as a recyclable item, take it away'.

"It just gives us more powers to ensure that what's being taken and accepted at the landfill is the last resort.

"Ultimately, that saves the people money because the recycling in Marlborough is way cheaper than what the landfill is."

Lucas said a large factor was the space that could be gained by compressing the rubbish, which the industry called airspace.

"So the example that I use is you get a standard waste bin, you can fill it up with plastic bags and the bin's full. You can then squash all those plastic bags down and you keep filling it up and you keep filling it up and you keep compressing it down.

"Eventually, that bin's full, and you can't compress it any more. That's what we do at the landfill. All waste is compressed down to the best that we can because we've got limited air space."

At the moment, the landfill had 1.661 million cubic meters of airspace.

"When that is gone, it is gone. It is full. We have to shut the landfill."

The council wanted to double recycling output and significantly reduce waste, and get "better control of the minority who are exploiting the system".

The bylaw would also classify remote transfer stations as waste facilities, to help the council to deal with non-compliance, such as the whole boat that was dumped.

"We do have some issues with a couple of them, and that's in relation to commercial people using them, and we have issued some warning letters on that, as an education thing," Lucas said.

"The new [draft] bylaw, we stipulate what can be delivered at the remote transfer station, which is domestic waste ... basically exactly the same as if they had a curbside collection."

Lucas said the focus would be on education, rather than punitive action.

Other amendments made in the bylaw included more flexible rules for council kerbside collection services, new requirements for waste management plans for large events and multi-unit residential dwellings and new rules to address the nuisance from litter.

Consultation on the Draft Waste Management and Minimisation Bylaw 2025 would start on Monday and close on 17 April. Hearings would be held on 17 May if required.

- LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.

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