1.2 Purpose of this waste assessment - Waikato District Council

4.0 Waste within theWaikato district4.1 IntroductionThis section focuses on waste that is generated within the Waikato district. Waikato has a number of strategicwaste processing and disposal facilities that accept waste from outside of the district, and flows of thesematerials are discussed in section 5.0.For local government planning purposes, the most important metrics relating to solid waste are the tonnageand composition of waste disposed of to landfill and the tonnage and composition of ‘diverted materials’.The WMA makes a clear distinction between these two types of ‘waste’ materials; ‘waste’ being defined as“any thing that is disposed of or discarded”, while ‘diverted materials’ is defined as “any thing that is no longerrequired for its original purpose and, but for commercial or other waste minimisation activities, would bedisposed of or discarded”.Measurements of waste disposed of to landfill are more readily compiled and more reliable than measurementsof diverted materials. Waste to landfill is a well-defined, discrete material flow, handled by a relatively smallnumber of operators with all material generally being weighed and recorded at a common point – the landfillweighbridge.On the other hand, there is no general consensus on the boundaries of what constitutes a ‘diverted material’.Some materials, such as scrap metal and kraft cardboard collected for recycling, are widely accepted as beingdiverted materials, but for other materials, such as those handled by second-hand dealers, there is no suchagreement. Compounding the difficulties of quantifying diverted materials is the large number of businessesoperating in the industry (usually undocumented) and the wide range of unrelated disposal pathways for thematerials. The commercial sensitivity of quantitative information is another major complication, with manybusinesses in the industry being reluctant to voluntarily provide data.In relation to the objectives of the NZ Waste Strategy to ‘reduce harm’ and ‘increase resource efficiency’, athird distinct waste stream is of importance – cleanfill. ‘Cleanfills’ are meant to provide a low-cost alternative tolandfills for inert wastes that have no environmental impact when disposed of to land. However, as the Ministryfor the Environment’s 2002 guidelines for the management of cleanfills states:“...over time the term ‘cleanfill’ has been stretched and modified. Many cleanfills now mistakenly accept a multitudeof construction and demolition waste, contaminated soils, green waste and many other materials that can result in anadverse effect on the environment”.It is very difficult to gather any data on waste material that is disposed of to ‘cleanfills’. ‘Cleanfills’ thatoperate with resource consents are rarely required to report on the quantity of material that is disposed of.Unconsented ‘cleanfills’ (both legal and illegal) present even greater difficulties with regards to data.As well as these ‘formal’ disposal pathways, waste can be disposed of through more ‘informal’ pathways,including illegal dumping and, particularly in rural areas, on-site incineration and burial.As a result of these factors, this summary of waste data and waste flows will focus on waste that is disposedof to landfill. Data on diverted materials will be limited to the council-controlled recycling systems (ie kerbsiderecycling and transfer station drop-offs) and ‘commodities’ (ie paper, kraft, glass, plastic and metal containers)collected by commercial recyclers.4.2 Waste flows in the Waikato districtUsing information provided by the council and private waste operators, the flows of residual waste materials inthe district have been mapped as shown in Figure 2.24