Money for waste planning

The pending decision on the future of waste disposal for Napier and Hastings has received a welcome boost with the announcement this week that $250,000 from the Government’s Waste Minimisation Fund is being invested in the Waste Futures project.

A plan on how to dispose of rubbish going into the future needs to be made, as the current valley at Omarunui Landfill, jointly owned by the two councils and run by the Omarunui Landfill committee, will be full by 2025, says Hastings District councillor and committee chair Cynthia Bowers.

“It is about not doing the same old, same old. Before we invest tens of millions of dollars on extending Omarunui, we wanted to pause and think about whether that is the best way of doing things. It’s about looking at a range of options and coming up with a solution that takes Hastings and Napier’s waste disposal into a new era,” Ms Bowers said.

The brief of work includes looking at ways Hawke’s Bay residents can further reduce, reuse and recycle waste as well as exploring the available technologies for dealing with the residual material that is currently being land filled, says Napier City councillor and Omarunui Landfill Committee member Michelle Pyke.

“It is exciting that the Ministry for the Environment is backing the Joint Waste Futures project in Hawke’s Bay, which has the potential to lead New Zealand in the way waste material is managed into the future.”

The options will be put before the public next month. The four solutions being intensively investigated are expanding the Omarunui landfill, thermal treatment, mechanical biological treatment and trucking the region’s waste out of the area to a commercial landfill. All options are reliant on increasing residents’ recycling and waste reduction efforts.

To give feedback see: www.myvoicemychoice.co.nz/wastefutures or

www.napier.govt.nz/our-council/consultations/have-your-say/waste-futures/

4 October 2017

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