The group is also uncertain of the future of the Oamaru-based Waitaki Resource Recovery Trust (WRRT), which provides support to Hampden.
On September 17, the council will consider a recommendation from its assets committee it enter a joint venture with Chinese-owned company Waste Management Ltd to provide an Oamaru transfer station and waste disposal after the Oamaru landfill closes in 2016.
Details of the venture still have to be worked out between the two parties, but the council is keen to ensure WRRT and its Chelmer St resource recovery park is involved.
However, Hampden Community Energy, which runs a shop and recycling centre in Hampden, fears the joint venture will dominate waste collected and it, along with WRRT, would cut involvement to a level at which they could not continue to exist.
WRRT, Waste Management and Delta were the three parties who put in proposals to the council.
All parties in that process have been forbidden by the council from commenting.
However, Hampden Community Energy chairman Dugald MacTavish told the Otago Daily Times the council's proposal ran entirely counter to his group's philosophy of maintaining local control over primary resources, including waste.
''Every effort should be made to come up with a proposal which is local before resorting to a joint venture with a multinational,'' he said.
The Hampden group was dependent directly on WRRT for paying wages, providing accounting services and outlets for recycled materials.
''We are concerned ... what the medium- and long-term implications will be of the council accepting the recommendation.''
Although the council's waste plan wanted WRRT as part of a lasting waste management solution for Waitaki, it feared it would lose access to the waste stream, affecting it and the Hampden scheme's viability.
Mr MacTavish said his group wanted an assurance from the council that Waste Management had an agreement with WRRT that secured sufficient access to the waste stream to ensure it could continue.
Other issues raised included the selection criteria used in assessing proposals, the loss of local resources, minimisation of waste, the speed of the process and cost to the community.
