Waste-to-energy plants are 'yesterday’s technology', researchers say on Waimate proposal

Monday, 24 April 2023

An artist's impression of the proposed waste to energy plant in Waimate.

Researchers say waste-to-energy plants will set New Zealand back in its journey to reduce emissions and waste.

The claims follow a comment from South Island Resource Recovery Limited’s (SIRRL) director Herman Sioen who earlier said a waste-to-energy plant is a need for every community and is standard practice in Europe.

SIRRL in 2021 announced plans to build a $350 million waste incinerator, and in April 2022 purchased a 15-hectare piece of land in Glenavy for the proposed plant, known as Project Kea.

Hannah Blumhardt, a senior associate at the Institute for Governance and Policy Studies at Victoria University of Wellington and founder of The Rubbish Trip, said a waste-to-energy plant for household waste would be a barrier to New Zealand’s goal of becoming a Circular Economy (CE).

* Glenavy school board raises concerns over proposed waste-to-energy plant

* Self-improvement won't get us out of this mess

Hannah Blumhardt says a waste-to-energy plant for household waste would be a barrier to New Zealand’s goal of becoming a Circular Economy.

“I do not believe a waste-to-energy plant has a place in New Zealand, from both an economic and environmental point of view.

“For these plants to operate efficiently, it needs to process enormous tonnage of waste every single day, and we just don’t produce enough as a country.

An artist’s impression of the plant proposed by SIRRL for its 15-hectare piece of land in Glenavy.

“Even if we could sustain one plant, you’ve got the question of how do you get the waste of the entire country to one plant located in South Canterbury. It’s a logistical nightmare.”

The Ministry for the Environment estimated New Zealand generated 17.49 million tonnes of waste per year, of which an estimated 12.59m tonnes were sent to landfill.

SIRRL on its website said it would “safely convert” 365,000 tonnes of waste minus any recycling, from commercial and domestic waste suppliers, councils, and refuse transfer stations from around the South Island, that would otherwise be dumped into South Island landfills annually, into renewable electricity.

Recycle newspaper into biodegradable plant pots.

Other non-recyclable waste would come from construction companies and contractors. The plant would not take hazardous materials or toxic waste, it said.

The company said the Glenavy site it purchased was centrally located between the South Island’s main waste sources, and with Timaru and Ōamaru close by, “it’s a good location to serve those urban centres”.

“Importantly, the site is also close to major rail, state highway and electricity infrastructure.”

Blumhardt said although landfills were “horrific and not something we want to aspire towards”, it was not “a hungry mouth you need to continually feed every day”.

“A landfill is a better transitional technology towards a circular economy because you can put less and less and less in it over time and that’s good.

“You can’t put less and less and less overtime into an incinerator. It needs to have a massive amount of waste going into it every day. There's no incentive to reduce waste.”

A conceptual rendering from a resource application for the proposal to build a waste-to-energy plant near Glenavy in South Canterbury.

The recently released Ministry for the Environment (MfE) 2023 Te rautaki para/Waste strategy said its vision was for New Zealand to be, by 2050, a low-emissions, low-waste society, built upon a circular economy, being a system that used and reused extracted materials for as long as possible.

One of the Government’s goals to be achieved by 2030 to achieve its vision for New Zealand was recovering value from waste, which meant using available technologies to extract as much value as possible from waste that could not be recycled and was destined for disposal.

A flowchart on how the proposed waste-to-energy plant for Waimate will work.

Waste-to-energy technologies were one of the most common ways of recovering value.

“This is a challenging area that we must approach cautiously, but if we can use truly residual waste without harming the environment we should do so,” the document said.

Blumhardt said the logistics and economics of a waste-to-energy plant did not stack up and if they did stack up New Zealand would probably have a plant already.

Waimate residents at one of six public information sessions held by SIRRL in Marchon March 15.

“It's just so clear that these facilities are not consistent with the strategy the Government is putting in place for a circular economy to reduce emissions and reduce waste generation.

“We need to move from a take, make, dispose system to systems where we get goods to consumers with different business models based on reduction and reuse and increase long life repairable products.”

Blumhardt said waste-to-energy technologies would be a step back on New Zealand’s journey to reduce emissions and waste, and the Government’s take on waste-to-energy technologies in its waste strategy was “not helpful”.

Mark Hilton said incinerators made sense in Europe and elsewhere decades ago when they were generating electricity that would otherwise have been generated using coal or gas.

Blumhardt said international waste-to-energy investors had nowhere else to go because their technology was dying overseas.

“They are going to the ends of the earth literally to find the last remaining countries and jurisdictions who don't yet have experience of these technologies to understand why it's not the solution.

“They are picking off vulnerable communities. Let's not let ourselves be duped by the waste-to-energy industry.”

Blumhardt said New Zealand was in a good position to leapfrog over needing waste-to-energy plants and get straight to the policy change of reducing waste in the first place.

Blumhardt’s research was focused on zero waste and circular economies, and she also worked with Āmiomio Aotearoa, a multi-university research project dealing with law and policy around waste minimisation.

Project Kea was an initiative from the joint venture partnership between Renew Energy Limited (NZ) and China Tianying Incorporated (China). CNTY incorporated European subsidiary, EUZY, owned 19% of SIRRL.

Waste researcher and head of sustainable business at Eunomia Research and Consulting, Mark Hilton, said incinerators made sense in Europe and elsewhere decades ago when they were generating electricity that would otherwise have been generated using coal or gas.

“Gradually they make less sense as electricity grids are decarbonised – and they make very little sense in New Zealand where the grid is already over 80% renewable energy generated and moving gradually to 100%.

“Incinerators are not considered part of the circular economy or suitable for sustainable development finance in Europe, and Governments and businesses are backing away from their use and some (for example in Denmark) are being decommissioned.

“In the UK even some of the large incinerator operators have called for a moratorium on any further ones being built since they are not compatible with a move to a more Circular Economy (CE).”

Hilton said CE created “far more jobs, and better jobs, in repair, remanufacture, reuse and recycling, which are all more labour-intensive but offer real upskilling and career opportunities, often benefiting the most disadvantaged in society”.

“Incineration is essentially yesterday’s technology – a transitional technology that was useful for a time in Europe and elsewhere – New Zealand should leapfrog it to focus on CE.”

Hilton had been working in environmental consultancy and in the waste and resource management field since 1995 in the UK, Europe and the US.

He said Eunomia was completing a study for Waikato Regional Council and Tauranga City Council on the place for energy from waste in the region, using New Zealand data and context.

SIRRL has been approached for comment.