The strategy’s "hierarchy of options" has been acknowledged by the company behind a proposed $350 million waste-to-energy plant near Glenavy.
South Island Resource Recovery Ltd (SIRRL) says its "Project Kea" would be the first of its kind for New Zealand - turning 365,000 tonnes of waste a year into 30 megawatts of power as electricity.
The joint venture company has lodged resource consent with the Waimate District Council and Environment Canterbury.
Environment Minster David Parker said any decisions regarding consent for the plant would be a matter for the local authorities.
Decision-makers must meet their obligations under the Resource Management Act, he said.
The waste strategy did not directly affect the regulation of activities governed under other legislation.
Instead it set "the direction of travel" for minimising waste, he said.
The waste strategy itself, released last month, said it would set the direction for New Zealand’s strategy for dealing with waste from now to 2050.
Instead of a "linear economy" where products were created, used, and disposed of, the new waste strategy was intended to move the country towards a "circular economy".
"In a true circular economy, there is no waste," it said.
The strategy called on New Zealanders to "reduce, rethink, redesign" and then "re-use, repair and repurpose" before deciding to dispose of something.
At that point, disposing of residual waste was the least favoured option.
Preferably, the strategy said people should "recover value".
Mr Parker said the waste strategy "does not preclude the existence of waste-to-energy plants but the strategy does place waste-to-energy towards the bottom of the hierarchy of options".
"Such plants are at the ‘recover value’ level," he said.
"However, waste-to-energy plants are not ‘one-size-fits-all’ — the strategy notes they have a role in some contexts and outlines a number of relevant considerations to help guide decision-making."
SIRRL director Paul Taylor said the company supported the Government’s waste strategy, and the position of waste-to-energy plants within it.
"The alternative is landfills which are being phased out in Europe due to environmental concerns yet are still prominently used throughout Aotearoa New Zealand.
"Our nation’s comparatively poor waste minimisation and recycling rates compounds this problem, and, like Europe, part of the answer lies in the best available energy-from-waste technology."
He agreed waste-to-energy plants were not one-size-fits-all.
While the waste strategy explicitly discounted "pyrolysis and gasification of municipal solid waste" as unlikely to align with a circular economy’s goals "due to their negative effects on the climate, dependency on continued linear waste generation and likelihood of causing hazardous discharge", Mr Taylor said the proposed SIRRL plant would not use pyrolysis or older methods.
"It will use the best available technology including a plasma treatment system and a seven-step flue gas process to ensure that it is clearly well within both New Zealand’s air quality standards and European standards on industrial emissions."
Recent public meetings were met with about 100 protesters in Waimate last month.
At present the company and the regional council are at odds as to whether a cultural impact assessment is required as part of a complete application.
The matter went to a hearing last week.
