A proposed incinerator being considered by the Waipā Council will cause further damage to the environment and expose communities in Te Awamutu to deadly dioxins and other toxic emissions.

“We are urging people in the community to let the District Council and Regional Council know that they don’t want this facility, before any decision is made about the resource consent,” said Dale-Maree Morgan, a local environmentalist who is leading a new group opposed to the plant.

The incinerator would burn 456 tonnes of waste per day, most of it imported into the community.Environmentalist Dale-Maree Morgan says that there are too many at risk factors which will ultimately impact human lives.

“Bringing in waste from outside our community and poisoning the local people with it are mana-diminishing activities. This threatens community health and the environment.”

“International research indicates that incinerators release toxic emissions and exposure to such toxins risks the health of workers and residents nearby,” she said.

“The current site will be in a residential zone opposite several educational facilities and two premium food producers, Fonterra and Mānuka health. There are no safe measurements for burning dioxins.

Incineration was once touted as the greener, less invasive alternative to landfills, particularly in parts of Europe. But now, incineration plants are being decommissioned in Europe due to the high carbon emissions and toxic waste, leaving behind huge clean up costs to the communities and local rate payers.

“Here in Aotearoa we need to consider the long-term impact a first-time facility like this will have on our whenua,” Morgan said.

In the Waipā district about 22,000 tonnes of waste goes to landfill every year. A further 59,000 tonnes is stockpiled, burned, or buried on farms. The facility would require the importation of waste in particular tyres.

Morgan said that our current air quality regulations say that it is illegal to burn even one tyre because the health and environmental effects are so toxic - yet this project is proposing to burn 35,000 tonnes a year.

“There are strong reports from overseas that the air quality has been impacted heavily by facilities such as the incinerator being proposed here,” she said.

The site is adjacent to the local Mangapiko stream and will be built on a known flood plain, risking more discharge to an already fragile river status..

The plant would use various kinds of waste, including plastics and household rubbish. The plant would create emissions and toxic ash would still need to be sent to landfill.

This plant will be damaging to the work going on to restore the Pirongia - Maungatautari Ecological Corridor. Furthermore, this proposed plant seems to be in opposition to current collective Iwi Environmental strategies and aspirations. 
Whaingaroa/Raglan has a winning formula that would be far more progressive for Waipā.

I orea te tuatara ka patu ki waho!

A problem is solved by continuing to find solutions

© Scoop Media