Regeneration Not Incineration
At Res.Awesome we love to keep our community informed and we don’t mind if we bust some sustainability myths along the way!
We are here to talk about the latest proposal for a $350 million project which entails building a Waste to Energy Plant in Waimate. This proposed ‘solution’ to our waste problem would aim to see our waste transported to Waimate by the truckload and then incinerated; harvesting energy to be pumped back into Kiwi homes and various businesses via electricity. While this is a lovely idea that many believe would see our waste problem disappear, science does not endorse this business venture.
Res.Awesome is all about Resource Recovery which involves recycling, reusing, repairing, rotting, rehoming, repurposing and keeping our resources circulating. Waste-to-energy plants do not adopt this mantra and we are here to explain why. Let’s delve in!
"How can you produce renewable electricity if you are burning up non-renewable resources?
Regeneration not Incineration created by the Zerowaste Network Aotearoa
What is it and how does it work?
Municipal solid waste (a fancy term for garbage or trash) is a mix of biomass or biogenic products, paper, cardboard, food waste, green clippings, leaves, wood and leather products. It also includes plastics and other synthetic materials made from petroleum, as well as materials such as glass, metals + tyres. Municipal solid waste is used at waste-to-energy plants to produce energy.
The cycle i:
Direct combustion
Conventional gasification; a process that does not rely on combustion, rather a thermal conversion of the organic materials at very high temperatures
Plasma arch gasification; a process where plasma arc or plasma torch and carbon electrodes, tungsten, copper, hafnium and zirconium are used to initiate the gasification reaction
Pyrolysis; a process of thermochemical decomposition of the organic materials without the use of oxygen
Vitrification; the transformation of a substance into a glass
These kinds of plants generate power from the heat created via the above processes. Some of the steam produced from the plant would be converted into electricity and delivered to local industries. The plant would purchase waste from around Te Waipounamu and profit from the electricity it then sells back to the area. The company in charge of the proposed waste-to-energy plant set to hit Waimate has guessed that there could be around seventy full rubbish trucks a day dropping off waste from all around the district. The board director of South Island Resource Recovery Ltd, has said “The intent is to migrate a significant amount of the waste from truck to travel by rail over the medium term. The actual timeline for this and other details are currently subject to KiwiRail discussions.” To keep the incinerator pumping, Waimate would have to churn through 348,719 Tonnes of rubbish annually which equates to an average of 955 tonnes per day. This is a massive amount of waste to be depended upon.Because the waste is no longer present in its original form, the misconception is that it disappears from our environment altogether. When waste is incinerated it does not just disappear; physical matter cannot be simply destroyed. When incinerated the waste transforms into a new form of waste; whether it be toxic air emissions, fly ash, bottom ash or liquid discharge. Fly ash is so incredibly toxic that in other cases around the world, it has been encased in concrete and buried in special landfills to reduce it’s harm on the immediate surroundings. The process of combustion and incineration causes harmful waste to be emitted into our atmosphere. Perhaps one of the biggest problems with waste-to-energy plants is that the converted waste form is far more difficult to control, measure and subsequently deal with than the initial raw waste.
Who is proposing it?
The proposal has been dubbed Project Kea, a cute and appropriated name for what we think is a pretty ghastly idea. Project Kea is being proposed by South Island Resource Recovery Limited (SIRRL) - a joint venture between China Tianying Inc, Spanish company Urbaser SAU, and Renew Energy Ltd of New Zealand. Potential locations are being investigated in South Canterbury.
In 2019 there was a similar ploy to build a waste-to-energy incinerator on our beautiful West Coast. The plans were very dodgy and there were allegations of secret deals going on behind closed doors. Documents linked to the proposal revealed that the plan was to create a local landfill designed for dumping the highly toxic, fly ash waste being produced by the incinerator. It is quite clear that the private profits of the company were being prioritised over the health and wellbeing of our people and our land. Thankfully, the deal collapsed and our West Coast was saved from the hazardous pollution this incinerator would cause. Unfortunately, the most recent proposal set to hit Waimate seems to be very similar to the West Coast proposal.
Hazards and Negative impacts
Significant negative health impacts for surrounding communities
The plant would require large capital investment with little return to the community, profit will be heading mostly off-shore
Ongoing landfill dependence - which does not support the notion of moving towards a circular waste economy. Both recyclable and non-recyclable waste can be used at Waste-To-Energy plants
Pollution caused during the transportation of huge amounts of waste to the plant itself
Pollution caused during the incineration of waste; plants similar to the one being proposed in Waimate have been found to emit more pollutants than coal. The process of burning waste would leach dioxins, lead, mercury, nitrogen oxide and other nasties into our environment
Waste incinerators are not even efficient energy producers; research shows that they are only capable of capturing around 20% of the energy generated by waste incineration
Incineration of waste is a carbon-intensive process; adopting this strategy would completely undermine NZ’s efforts to decrease our carbon emissions and keep up with our carbon neutrality goals
The Waste to Energy plant undermines the push to reduce Aotearoa’s waste; the plant would rely on our population to produce huge amounts of waste. This is the very notion we are trying to move away from, Zero waste principals are key to this shift.
We are behind Greenpeace Aotearoa who have publicly said there is nothing good about the proposal, calling it nightmarish.
“It would be a disaster for public health, for the climate and for efforts to reduce waste”
Cautionary Tales
New Zealand seems to be a bit behind the eight ball when it comes to learning from overseas. Fortunately, it is not too late for us to take action and learn from the mistakes other countries have made in regards to ridding ourselves of waste.
Due to a dependence on waste-to-energy plants, Denmark noticed they were getting further away from their climate emission targets. Denmark has made the decision to close seven of its waste-to-energy incinerators; replacing this infrastructure with updated recycling systems and resource recovery efforts. Although Denmark used a lot of time and energy on these plants it is good to see them leaning into the practices of a circular waste economy.
The UK’s Channel 4 conducted an investigation into waste-to-energy plants and found there was a direct correlation between low recycling rates in the regions tied to incineration contracts.
When compiling a list of sustainable waste methods in 2020, The Technical Expert Group (TEG) deliberately left waste-to-energy plants off the list; along with coal and nuclear.
A similar proposal to build an incineration plant in Sydney in 2018 was blocked when the New South Wales Independent Planning Commission ruled there was ‘‘uncertainty’’ over human health and environmental impacts
The EU is gradually turning away from Waste-To-Energy (WTE) incineration with major European financial institutions excluding it from financial support.
Benefits
More than 300 people would be employed throughout the building process of the plant. Upon completion, the plant could offer 100 direct and indirect roles to the community, including truck drivers involved in trash delivery.
Better Ways to Spend $350 million?
The team at Res.Awesome want Aotearoa to embrace a circular waste economy to ensure our future is low carbon and shines bright for future generations. This entails extending the life of resources where possible and repairing, repurposing, reusing and recycling what ends up in the waste pile. ‘Out of sight, out of mind’ is not an effective strategy when applied to our trash problem. We believe that burning and burying rubbish should be out of the question; when we know better, we must do better.
So much positive change could be achieved with the $350 million allocated for the Waimate incinerator. This money could be used to support communities and create zero-waste hubs similar to Wastebusters in Wanaka and Alexandra. Res.Awesome and other organisations such as the Zero Waste Network Aotearoa know that moving towards a more circular economy would greatly benefit our communities; creating countless jobs, community compost sites and resource recovery infrastructure. $350 million could easily fund the set-up of 100 zero-waste hubs, and, based on Wastebusters staffing, that could mean about 2000 full-time jobs. These are the jobs of the future.
What would you prefer to see in your community?
There are currently at least four proposals to build similar large-scale incinerators around the country. The proposed sites are all aimed at small communities. We can’t help but feel like Aotearoa is being preyed upon by big businesses, trying to make a dollar without sparing a thought for local communities potentially harmed in the process. When we look at evidence from around the world it is clear that large international companies seek out communities who are hungry for more jobs and financial investment, preying on their desire to keep their people employed. 80% of waste incinerators located throughout America are positioned in low-income or minority communities. At Res.Awesome we believe we can come together to create sustainable resource choices that help our community and we must avoid any plans that would endanger the health of our people.
Ultimately we want to see waste production minimised. Waste-to-Energy plants send the wrong message to our communities and big corporations. We need to redesign, reduce, recycle, repair, reuse, rot, rehome and rethink!
There is still time for you to have your say as resource consent applications to Envrionment Canterbury and the Waimate District Council will still be accepted until the end of 2021. There are community drop in meetings at the Waimate Event Centre with a growing number of concerned citizens speaking up. If you are not in the area, do not fear!
Sign the petition to oppose the Waste-to-Energy plant here.
Let’s keep Aotearoa green, clean and free of toxic waste!
Researched + Written by Erin Cox
Edited by Fi Clements
