Waste-to-energy plant supporters keen on jobs and smaller landfills
Thursday, 3 July 2025
Supporters of the Paewira waste-to-energy plant say their town would benefit from the creation of new jobs, less waste going to landfills, and say the technology is safe, and state of the art.
Hearings for the $200 million project proposed for Racecourse Road in Te Awamutu are in their third and final week at FMG Stadium in Hamilton.
Global Contracting Solutions’ (GCS) plans to build a waste-to-energy plant which would see it incinerate around 175,000 tonnes of rubbish and recycling waste annually to turn into 15MW of electricity and “divert waste from landfill”.
Of 2173 submissions received by the independent hearing panel, 97% opposed the project, with just 1.6% of submitters agreeing with the plans.
The proposed site for the plant is within 600m of three schools, borders a residential area, and a Fonterra milk processing plant.
After two weeks of expert witness and legal testimony, this week has seen a range of lay submitters take the stand, including two Te Awamutu locals who support the proposal.
Tuesday saw passionate locals, including nonogenarian Alice Sare, and the opposition group Don’t Burn Waipā, give their views on the plant, and on Wednesday, two of the few supporters of the project.
John Parsons based his submission on information regarding similar solid waste incinerators used in Europe which stemmed the flow of plastic, and dangerous micro-plastics, into the environment.
“Burning waste reduces the amount of material going to landfill, thereby reducing the amount of greenhouse gases emitted to the atmosphere.”
He said it would also reduce the volume of leachates flowing into the ground, and “land being alienated from more beneficial future use”.
Long-term Te Awamutu resident Richard Hurrell said he was disappointed by the amount of “misinformation against the project” on social media, posted by people “lacking in facts”.
He said he had seen a 25-year-old waste-to-energy plant working in Vancouver, Canada, which was “clean, made no noise and no visual emissions”, and provided power to 25,000 homes.
“The technology is not new and there are hundreds of these sites around the world.
“The technology in this plant is state of the art … has been proven world-wide … and are located in cities, not out in the countryside.
“We have got to move away from digging holes in the ground … so that is something we need to consider.”
Hurrell said current recycling options were becoming limited, and incineration was a good option.
“It’s an industrial site - anything could go there - what if it was a crematorium, how would they like that?”
He said the plant offered local businesses a lot of work, especially during construction, but also said concerns over the volume of truck movements were “fair enough”.
“But it is a main traffic route … there could be some work [done] to improve safety.
“This is a New Zealand company … it has state of the art technology, and will benefit waste reduction and disposal … we need power and industry.”
The hearing is ongoing.