Media Release 18.11.2018
From: Chris Leitch, Leader
Subject: Minister's Door Closed on Waste-to-Energy Plants
Despite attempts for months by experts in waste-to-energy technology to get an appointment to see her, Green’s Associate
Environment Minister Eugenie Sage has refused all approaches, claiming WtE plants “don’t fit with the government’s waste
reduction plans”.
But the German Federal Environment Agency says that “there are several reasons that the claim that waste incineration is
thwarting waste prevention efforts is unsustainable’.
They also say “waste incineration is making a contribution to climate protection and helps save natural resources” in
Germany.
Emissions from the new generation plants are negligible, while rubbish dumps generated methane, said to be the worst of
greenhouse gases, and CO2.
Ms Sage appears to have a luddite view of new technology in the waste disposal field preferring to see waste buried in
the ground leaving the after effects, like thepossibility of toxins leaching into waterways, for future generations to
deal with.
She is out of step with the Green Party in Germany who are promoting a complete ban on land-filling by 2020.
They maintain that landfill sites are “black boxes with uncontrolled biological and chemical processes that need
intensive care for generations, with a permanent danger of leaks and tears”, likely to “cause major impacts on
groundwater and soil”.
Over 2000 pyrolytic plants operate across the world in countries like Japan, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, Belgium
and other European countries and recover a substantial value of material from the waste stream before turning the
remainder into electricity, slag for use in road building, and ash.
Social Credit would fund the building of a WtE plant south of Auckland where demand for rubbish disposal and electricity
are both fastest growing, and ensure ownership remained in New Zealand hands.
We want the government to pass legislation requiring at least 60% of waste to be re-processed by 2025 rather than being
dumped into landfills.
Those countries with waste to energy plants are taking responsibility for their own rubbish disposal where-as Ms Sage
appears happy for New Zealand to send much of ours off-shore for someone else to deal with and simply bury the rest in
the ground and hope it goes away.
Ends