23 April 2024
Official information request No. 8140013480
(Please quote this in any correspondence)
Jane Reed
By email:
[FYI request #26314 email]
Tēnā koe Jane
Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act 1987
Re: Waste to Energy Plant - Kaipara
Thank you for your email of 4 April 2024. Your specific request and our response are set out
below.
Kaipara Mayor Craig Jepson, has recently claimed in a News article, dated 10 March 2024,
that a proposed Waste to Energy Plant is closer to being built in Kaipara. For this WtE plant
to be viable, it would require landfil /general waste from Auckland to be supplied to fuel this
plant.
1) Has Auckland Council entered into any discussions/negotiations with the proposed
Kaipara WtE plant to supply the plant with Aucklands landfil /general waste as fuel for the
WtE plant?
Kaipara Mayor Craig Jepson has raised the proposed waste to energy plant with Auckland
Mayor Wayne Brown for discussion, but no negotiations with Kaipara District Council or the
plant’s proponents have been entered into.
2) If Auckland Council have entered into negotiations/discussions of supplying, what is the
time frame for waste to be sent to Kaipara?
At this time, no negotiations have been entered into and there is no proposed time frame for
waste to be sent to Kaipara from Auckland.
3)If Auckland were to accept this proposal, what is the expected daily volume of waste &
number of truck loads to Kaipara?
Auckland has existing infrastructure for disposal of waste from the region, detailed in the
Auckland Council Waste Assessment 2023. At this time, no negotiations have been entered
into and there is no proposed or expected daily volume of waste and number of truck loads
that would be sent to Kaipara from Auckland as opposed to existing destinations.
Private Bag 92300, Auckland 1142 | aucklandcouncil.govt.nz | Ph 09 301 0101
4) WtE plants are calorific in their waste requirements, if Auckland were to support the WtE
plant, how would the councils waste minimisation goals be met & maintained?
The Auckland Council Waste Assessment 2023, particularly
Appendix C, outlines the
proposed position on energy from waste as developed from our review of this topic –
summarised in section 12.13 of t
he draft Waste Management and Minimisation Plan 2024. In
short, our review of waste from energy notes the many forms that this may take – and that
some proposals such as capturing landfil gas and energy from anaerobic digestion of food
scraps may be appropriate. Other more complex proposals, such as the proposed Kaipara
waste to energy plant, wil have a variety of impacts that would need to be assessed for how
they could ensure we meet and maintain our waste minimisation goals, which include our
aspirational vision for Auckland to be Zero Waste by 2040.
5) Roads north of Auckland are fragile & as experienced through Cyclone Gabrielle, road
closures are a frequent occurrence
How would Auckland manage the backlog of waste, sitting around should roads close?
As explained above, Auckland has existing infrastructure for disposal of waste from the region,
detailed in t
he Auckland Council Waste Assessment 2023. At this time, no negotiations have
been entered into with Kaipara District Council and there is no proposed or expected volume
of waste that would be sent to Kaipara from Auckland as opposed to existing destinations.
Decisions relating to the information that is being released to you were made by
Parul
Sood, General Manager Waste Solutions.
Should you believe Auckland Council has not responded appropriately to your request, you
have the right by way of complaint, under section 27(3) of the LGOIMA, to apply to the
Ombudsman to seek an investigation and review of the decision.
Information about how to make a complaint is available at www.ombudsman.parliament.nz
or freephone 0800 802 602.
If you have any further queries, please contact me on 09 301 0101 quoting official information
request number 8140013480.
Ngā mihi
Angela Hare
Senior Privacy & LGOIMA Business Partner
Governance Services
Private Bag 92300, Auckland 1142 | aucklandcouncil.govt.nz | Ph 09 301 0101
