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Media Response: Mahurangi Matters

Auckland-Regional-Landfill-Latest-Update

Answers to questions


I took a look at the Environmental Protection Agency website and in addition to importing waste from New Caledonia, I see WM also imports waste from French Polynesia.

Can therefore your earlier comments that related to New Caledonia also apply to French Polynesia.
Specifically:

  1. Does all the processed waste from French Polynesia also currently end up in Redvale?
  2. Is it possible that once Redvale closes that processed waste from French Polynesia will possibly end up in the Auckland Regional Landfill should the landfill be built?

As previously explained, New Zealand has an obligation under the Waigani Convention and the Basel Convention (an international treaty on the control of transboundary movements of hazardous wastes and their disposal) to accept and treat waste from Pacific Island countries if they are unable to process it safely within their own countries.

Regardless of its source, all waste must meet the waste acceptance criteria for a New Zealand landfill as set by the landfill’s resource consent conditions. If the waste requires treatment, the treated waste must be sampled and tested to demonstrate that it complies with the waste acceptance criteria before it can be approved for acceptance. Once deemed acceptable, the waste must be accompanied by a waste manifest on arrival at the landfill,
which is checked on entry at the weighbridge where it is recorded.

Therefore, waste from French Polynesia, once treated, could be disposed of at any Class 1 landfill provided it meets the waste acceptance criteria for that landfill.