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State of the Environment Environment New Zealand 2007 - Summary Online version Section two: Pressures on the environment
Section two: Pressures on the environment
Waste
Waste can represent an inefficient use of valuable resources. Improperly disposed of, waste can also pose a risk to human health and the environment.
The amount of waste generated in New Zealand has increased over time as our population and levels of production and consumption have grown. However, in recent decades, the amount of waste recovered from the waste stream to be reused, recycled, or reprocessed has also increased.
Local action to reduce waste
Second Hand Sundays
Gisborne District Council has made progress over the past few years in reducing the level of community waste being disposed of to landfills and in increasing the rates of recycling. Refuse collection volumes are down 59 per cent since 1999. Recycling tonnages are up 52 per cent since 2000.
A number of innovative Council programmes have contributed to this success. One such initiative is Second Hand Sundays, well-publicised days on which people may put used goods out on the kerbside for others in the community to take away for reuse. Each time this initiative is run, about 50 tonnes of waste is diverted from landfills.
Business and community initiatives
Throughout New Zealand, a large number of non-government organisations have set up programmes to work with the community to reduce waste and promote recycling and resource efficiency. These organisations include professional and industry associations, and not-for-profit organisations such as the Waste Management Institute of New Zealand, New Zealand Business Council for Sustainable Development, Sustainable Business Network, Packaging Council of New Zealand, and Zero Waste New Zealand Trust.
The programmes also include a significant number of community-based recovery and recycling centres, which make an important contribution to the quantities of waste that are reused, recycled, and recovered in New Zealand. They also contribute to the economy by creating employment.
Kai to Compost
Kai to Compost is a food waste collection scheme for restaurants and businesses in Wellington city. The scheme collects food waste from restaurants and takes it to the Living Earth plant at the Southern Landfill, where the material is mixed with green waste and used to produce compost.
A trial scheme was funded by the Ministry for the Environment’s Sustainable Management Fund, Wellington City Council, and Living Earth and involved 50 local businesses. The scheme is now run on a user-pays basis. Up until the end of 2006, the Council had collected 456 tonnes of food waste as part of the programme (177 tonnes in 2005–2006 and 278 tonnes in 2006–2007), which has reduced carbon dioxide emissions by an estimated 411 tonnes.
Kai to compost waste collection scheme.
Source: Courtesy of Mark Coote.
Improving waste management
Between 1995 and 2006, the amount of waste disposed of in New Zealand landfills is estimated to have decreased slightly from 3.180 million tonnes per year to 3.156 million tonnes per year, in spite of a growing population and economy. This is illustrated in Figure 2.5.
Because the economy grew significantly during the same period, this drop represents a decrease of 29 per cent per dollar of gross domestic product (GDP) when adjusted for inflation. In other words, the amount of waste going to landfills was decoupled from economic growth during the period considered. This decoupling can probably be attributed to the increase in recycling and reprocessing, and possibly also to the advent of user charges at landfills and for municipal rubbish collection.
However, we do not know how much waste that would be normally disposed of in landfills was disposed of in other types of disposal facilities during this period. For example, some of this waste may have been diverted to the 300-odd cleanfills that accept inert material such as soil, rock, and concrete rubble that does not have a harmful effect on people or the environment. We also do not know whether a possible reduction in the amount of waste generated in New Zealand was a factor.
The management of landfills in New Zealand has improved during the last decade. In 1995, 327 landfills were operational in New Zealand, and many had poor environmental controls. As Figure 2.5 shows, today, there are around 60 landfills. Of these landfills, 54 per cent are installed with an engineered liner, 77 per cent collect leachate, and 23 per cent recover landfill gas.
Municipal wastewater (made up of sewage, stormwater, and liquid trade waste) is managed as a waste in New Zealand. Today, 56 per cent of the 269 monitored wastewater treatment plants for which information is available operate secondary treatment of wastewater to remove solids and associated contaminants, and a further 36 per cent treat their wastewater to the highest level (tertiary treatment).
Twenty-six wastewater plants, serving almost 30 per cent of the New Zealand population, annually divert 155,000 tonnes of biosolids (sewage sludge) from landfills. Most of the diverted biosolids are used to reclaim land, or applied to forested land as a fertiliser. Even with high levels of recovery and reuse of biosolids, about 80,000 tonnes of residual biosolids from these treatment plants are disposed of in landfills each year.
Figure 2.5: Estimates of waste disposed of to landfill, 1983–2006, and number of landfills operating, 1995–2006
See figure at its full size (including text description).Increased recycling
About 73 per cent of New Zealanders had access to kerbside recycling in 2006, up from 20 per cent in 1996. Ninety-seven per cent had access to either kerbside recycling or drop-off facilities.
In 2005, municipal recycling diverted 329,283 tonnes of paper, plastic, glass, steel, and aluminium from landfills. This equates to 10 per cent of the total tonnage disposed of in landfills. When commercial waste is included, the total amount of material diverted from landfills is estimated to be around 2.4 million tonnes a year.
However, despite these advances, many potentially useful materials continue to be disposed of in New Zealand landfills and cleanfills. Organic waste (garden and food waste), timber, and construction and demolition waste make up nearly 50 per cent of waste disposed of in landfills.
Seventy-three percent of New Zealanders had access to kerbside recycling in 2006.
Source: Ministry for the Environment.
Hazardous waste
Information on hazardous waste is limited in New Zealand, because of a lack of formal record keeping and reporting on waste flows in the past. As well as this, a significant proportion of hazardous waste is handled by private waste operators, whose data is considered commercially sensitive.
Local authority trade waste bylaws control a large proportion of New Zealand’s hazardous wastes, of which as much as 70–85 per cent are liquid and discharged to municipal wastewater treatment systems. In 2004, solid hazardous waste was estimated to account for 11 per cent of waste disposed of in landfills. About one-quarter of this waste is rendered inert (stabilised) at waste treatment facilities before disposal. Some major industries – for example, the mining industry – treat and dispose of hazardous waste separately from municipal systems.
Local action on hazardous waste
Used oil
About 33 to 40 million litres of used oil is generated in New Zealand each year. In 1997, around three-quarters of this amount was dumped at landfills, burnt, poured onto roads to control dust, used to lubricate chainsaws and stain fences, and lost or discarded in various unknown ways. Today, the Used Oil Recovery Programme collects and reuses 21 million litres of used oil a year.
Waste electrical and electronic equipment
Waste electrical and electronic equipment, including products that contain hazardous components such as batteries, computers, cell phones, televisions, and lighting appliances (for example, fluorescent tubes), are disposed of in landfills in New Zealand every year at a rate of up to 80,000 tonnes. Several industry schemes to reuse, recycle, or recover waste electrical goods have been introduced in New Zealand in the last decade.
Used vehicles
Vehicles that have come to the end of their useful life can cause a waste problem even if they are sent to the scrap yard. Various hazardous substances (for example, used oil, refrigerant, batteries, and circuit boards) must be removed from end-of-life vehicles for proper management. About 100,000 vehicles are legally disposed of every year, but another 25,000 cars are dumped illegally, at a cost of $6 million to local authorities.
Government action to minimise waste
The Govt3 programme was established by the Ministry for the Environment in 2003 to encourage government departments to show leadership in waste minimisation as well as sustainability in buildings, transport, and the purchase of office consumables and equipment.
In the waste area, the Govt3 programme helps agencies reduce the waste they send to landfills by recycling and composting it instead.
By July 2007, 48 agencies had joined the Govt3 programme.
Nearly 300 tonnes of old computer equipment and mobile phones were collected free-of-charge during New Zealand's first national 'e-day' in September 2007.
Source: Ministry for the Environment.
The changing face of waste management
Since 1997, significant gains have been made in New Zealand in managing the effects of waste on human health and the environment. These have been driven primarily by stricter controls on waste disposal and management under the Resource Management Act 1991, the Hazardous Substances and New Organisms Act 1996, and the Local Government Acts (1974 and 2002).
In response to these controls, our waste management practices have improved through the closure of substandard landfills, better management of remaining landfills, and greater recycling efforts. Councils have also made progress in implementing waste management plans, waste bylaws, and the 2002 New Zealand Waste Strategy.
While hazardous waste flows are still not well understood because of the lack of available data, hazardous substances and their wastes are now better controlled through the Hazardous Substances and New Organisms Act 1996, trade waste bylaws, and national environmental standards.
Nonetheless, New Zealanders continue to throw away large quantities of potentially valuable materials. Many of these could be recovered and reused or recycled.
In parallel, New Zealand industries are increasingly aware of the cost benefits of using raw materials more efficiently. Several industry groups have taken the lead in minimising the waste generated from their production processes. We need to build on this if we are to move toward becoming a ‘zero waste’ society.
Encouraging industry to take further responsibility for minimising waste generation, producing ‘low-waste’ goods, and promoting ‘lower-waste’ purchasing choices is likely to be an integral part of future waste initiatives in New Zealand. Consumers, too, can play their part in purchasing low-waste products, or products that are made from or packaged in recycled or recyclable materials.
