Waste Hearings Begin In Feilding

Resource consent hearings for a hotly contested waste-to-energy pyrolysis plant are being heard in Feilding this week. The public hearings concern a proposal to use mixed solid waste in a waste-to-energy plant that will produce toxic char and dirty emissions.

The Zero Waste Network Aotearoa will be calling world-class expert evidence in opposition to this consent application. Dr Andrew Rollinson, a reactor engineer with decades of experience with pyrolysis technology, will testify that this proposal is a lemon.

“The proposed facility would take 70 tonnes per day of mixed solid waste and turn this into a toxic char residue and synthetic fuel, while producing dangerous air emissions including carbon dioxide, dioxins, furans and particulate matter,” said ZWN Executive Officer Dorte Wray

“One of our major concerns about this proposal is that it is a disposal option, just like landfill. It is another ambulance at the bottom of the cliff and does nothing to reduce the production of waste. Unlike landfills, however, this proposal would create hazardous waste from what is ordinary household rubbish, and it would require a continuous stream of waste in order to operate. It would lock in long-term production of waste.”

“Building brand new infrastructure to burn valuable resources that will also pollute the local community is precisely the opposite direction to where Aotearoa NZ is headed.”

“Instead we need to invest in zero waste systems. This means building infrastructure and solutions that are at the top of the waste hierarchy: designing out waste, reusing materials and developing repair capabilities. It also means developing world-class recycling systems that separate different material streams so that high quality resources can be turned into products again and again.”

“Business, communities and central government are doing a lot of work to move us to a Circular Economy. We see a step change in economic thinking away from the “take-make-waste” system towards materials flowing around and around with no toxic discharges to land, water or air. Building incinerators and other so-called ‘waste-to-energy’ facilities keeps us producing waste and is counterproductive.”

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