Campaign update 5 Sept 2025

Te Awamutu
After a gruesome four year long process culminating in the three-week long hearing in Hamilton, we were all set to have a decision about the resource consents for the giant Te Awamutu incinerator on 28 August. However, to our surprise the Environmental Protection Agency announced they were pausing any further work on the decision as the company had not paid their bill to the EPA. It has also not paid the Waipā District Council or Waikato Regional Council many tens of thousands of dollars in outstanding bills. The EPA will do nothing more until the bill is paid, so there is no clear conclusion to this.

Opotiki
The District Council in Opotiki finalised their Waste Management and Minimisation Plan where they agreed to investigate both waste-to-energy and resource recovery options for the District (see p19). We can understand the Council wanting solutions for waste - as it is currently trucked to the Tirohia landfill in the Waikato - however, there is no neighbourhood in Opotiki that will want to be the recipients of the dioxins, heavy metals and acid gas emissions that would be the inevitable emissions from a waste-to-energy incinerator. We believe that resource recovery centres represent the best value for communities: creating jobs and opportunities without creating toxic waste. Xtreme Zero Waste in Raglan, for example, recovers about 75% of all the waste they receive.

Another bottom-of-the-pipe project: Process Engineered Fuel (PEF) plant
Envirowaste has commissioned the building of a new facility for processing so-called 'hard to recycle' plastics into Process Engineered Fuel (a fancy name for chipped plastics) that would be burned as a fuel. This is already being used in the Whangārei cement kiln. The company claims that it keeps 30,000 tonnes out of landfill and that this is "energy recovery" and "does not increase harmful emissions." But creating an easy pathway for disposal incentivises using more plastics instead of finding real solutions. It is a decision to maximise harm from waste, including CO2 into the atmosphere, and unlocking toxic pollutants that end up in the ash (that goes to landfill and comes out as leachate) and the air from stack emissions. We already know about the dangerous levels of plastic contamination in our bodies, in our water and in our air. Plastic waste is not a renewable energy resource, and we must urgently work to reduce its production, importation and use using all available regulatory and financial tools.

Global day of action against incineration
On 30 September, the Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives (GAIA) is staging a global day of action against incineration. Here in Aotearoa NZ, we will lead action out on the street in Te Whanganui a Tara/Wellington under the banner of Real Solutions, Not Toxic Pollution. We will also host a webinar that evening on the same theme. We will have more details about this in the next fortnight - hope you can join us.

In the meantime, please share the petition widely so we can build up our opposition to incinerators!