Green Waste – Expressions of Interest

Central Otago District Council is seeking expressions of interest from individuals, companies or organisations to make beneficial use of green waste resources in the district. “Coming up with some practical options and solutions for green waste will be a key focus of this project” says Sophie Mander, the Waste Minimisation Officer for Central Otago District Council.

Managing green waste was identified during consultation on Council’s Solid Waste Minimisation Strategy as a key area for investigation.

Ms Mander said “We estimate greenwaste to be up to 40% by volume of the total material disposed to landfill and greenwaste disposal sites. This reinforces that greenwaste is a major area of opportunity.”

Continued disposal of greenwaste to landfill creates a number of issues that need to be addressed:

· Lost opportunity to enrich local soils with organic material and reduce water use.

· High cost of disposal at Victoria Flats landfill.

· High cost of transport to Victoria Flats landfill in the Gibbston Valley.

· Higher methane emissions from decomposition of green waste mixed with other materials. This will result in higher waste disposal costs once the Emissions Trading Scheme for landfills is introduced in 2013.

“Central Otago’s low population and large distances between townships is likely to make large scale centralised processing very costly, so we are keen to hear about small scale, affordable, local solutions”.

Any questions regarding this green waste project should be referred to Sophie Manager, Council’s Waste Minimisation Officer.