Landfill may be opened to rubbish from other areas

Compactor working at the tip face at Rotorua Landfill. PHOTO/STEPHEN PARKER

Rotorua could become a dumping site for other districts' rubbish next year in order to keep the landfill open.

Rotorua Lakes Council is reviewing the bylaw which stops disposal of waste from outside the district, following a drop in tonnage and revenue from Rotorua's landfill.

Rotorua Lakes Council's revenue from the landfill has dropped from $4.9 million dollars in 2010-2011 to just $3 million in 2014-2015, and the volume of waste entering the landfill has fallen from 53,000 tonnes in 2010-2011 to 28,000 tonnes in 2014-2015.

Rotorua Lakes Council transport solutions director Stavros Michael said the Sanitary Landfill Bylaw 2008 prevents the disposal of waste from outside the district at the landfill.

"This was historically used to protect the asset for the community, however with the dropping tonnage and revenue, council is currently reviewing this bylaw during this financial year."

Rotorua Lakes councillor Janet Wepa said the bylaw review was part of a review of the waste management strategy.

"We used to get about 60,000 tonnes of waste but over the past five years this has declined. We think that may be because we are recycling and there are more people minimising waste, which is a good thing.

"The council's income has gone down."

She said the council would have made a decision on the bylaw by mid-2016.

"We will be looking at what the bylaw covers [which] is what we accept and what we don't accept in the landfill.

"We have got space in our landfill for 50 to 100 years so we do have to think about how to manage it without costing the ratepayer too much."

Mrs Wepa said there could be ongoing issues involved in accepting rubbish from other cities, such as the potential for the Government to impose fines on emissions.

"If we open it up to other places to bring their rubbish - and that's one part of what we have to think about - because one of the issues being that rubbish makes emissions ... in times to come we could see fines of up to $15 million.

"We are trying to find ways to keep our landfill there but manage it in a way that has less impact on the environment and less costs on the ratepayer."

Keep Rotorua Beautiful chairman Craig Morley was not in favour of the idea to bring in rubbish from other districts, but said the council needed to find ways to keep the landfill running.

"As far as funding costs they are trying to secure, I don't think importing someone else's rubbish is the answer from an environmental point of view and from a sustainability point of view. However they do need to try to keep the landfill open."