With time running out on the Dunedin City Council’s Green Island landfill, plans to develop a new landfill at Smooth Hill are in motion.
Now, a new report for the Otago Mayoral Forum suggests neighbouring Clutha and Waitaki could truck waste to Dunedin if the city establishes a new Class 1 landfill.
But Nash & Ross managing director Mick Ross said there was no need for a new one as his company’s Kaikorai Valley Rd landfill had almost everything the city needed.
Nash & Ross recently bought a green waste processing site in Mcleod Rd, which used a shredder to compost waste for reuse, he said.
The only items the business could not process were food and medical waste.
The company also had a suitable building which could be converted into a transfer station for food and medical waste to be sent to out-of-town processing facilities.
For the proposal to work, residents would have to be diligent about separating their waste out correctly, such as with the upcoming four-bin system being implemented by the council next year, he said.
The business was keen to work alongside other waste management businesses to create a cheap and effective system.
The company had tried to make a case for the landfill as the best solution, but the council "didn’t really want a bar of it".
Mr Ross believed the council wanted one business to manage every aspect of its operation, which ruled out locals.
The council had "stubbornly" picked its option and stuck to it, regardless of there being better solution available, he said.
Building a landfill was not as simple as finding a gully and filling it with rubbish, he said.
It was an expensive and complicated facility, which would cost millions to build.
"It’s going to cost a fortune.
"We’ve already got most of what they want."
Environmental Consultants Otago principal and senior environmental planner Ciaran Keogh said the Nash & Ross site was the best in Otago for landfilling and waste reprocessing.
The firm worked with Nash & Ross and processed its applications, so he was familiar with the logistics of the site and the business, he said.
Nash & Ross had about 2million cum of available space and potential for further expansion, Mr Keogh said.
It could take about 20 years of the city’s waste without any waste recovery or reduction being undertaken.
The future of waste disposal was "at a point of considerable flux" with government policy leaning towards recycling instead of landfilling.
Even without having the facilities to process food waste on site, Nash & Ross had "physically the best site in the region", he said.
"Food and other organic wastes should not be going into landfills of the future."
The contentious Smooth Hill landfill plan has been in the public eye since a string of public meetings in Brighton nearly two years ago.
Last year, the overwhelming majority of 283 submissions were against the city council’s plan.
Council consents to operate the Green Island landfill expire in October next year.
Council waste and environmental solutions group manager Chris Henderson said the council assessed alternative sites and technologies as part of the resource consent application process for the proposed Smooth Hill site.
He was unable to comment further, he said.
Hearings on the Smooth Hill site are due to begin next month.
