Topic 2: Managing Waste

Effective waste management for our district, requires a bit of a reset. We’ve closed the Levin Landfill, but there are ongoing costs associated with managing the closed landfill as well as landfill debt. We’re proposing to share the solid waste rates including kerbside recycling in a more sustainable and equitable way.

We also want your feedback on the Waste Management and Minimisation Plan 2024 (WMMP), so that our vision and goals for Waste Management align with the community’s aspirations.

2A: Landfill Legacy Rate - Levin Landfill Aftercare and Landfill Debt

Over the past 60 years, Horowhenua residents have benefited from Council’s landfills. The last operational landfill was closed in Levin on October 2021. Our closed landfills require careful ongoing monitoring and maintenance, especially the Levin Landfill, which needs monitoring and maintenance for a minimum of 30 years. To cover these costs, a ‘Landfill Legacy Rate’ is proposed to be introduced. This rate will allow us to repay the existing landfill loan of $4.7m and fund the ongoing monitoring and maintenance of our closed landfills. We would have ideally paid for this in the past but we haven’t yet. As all residents are likely to have benefited from the landfills in some way, the cost will be evenly shared among all properties in the district with the loan being serviced over the next 20 years.

2B: Delivery of Kerbside Recycling Services

Currently Council provides a fortnightly kerbside recycling service to urban properties. The situation for rural properties is less straightforward. Residents who receive the rural kerbside recycling service have never fully paid for the collection and there is no defined extent (or boundary) of the rural service.

A decision needs to be made to either remove the service or determine if there is a workable and fair way to rate some or all rural residents for the service.

A further complexity is that not all rural properties receive the kerbside recycling service, those that do were offered the service during its inception if they already had a private commercial rubbish bin collection service in place.

This service is funded through the Solid Waste Targeted Rate. This rate has three components: kerbside recycling, waste disposal operations such as the transfer station and maintenance of the closed Levin Landfill. We're splitting the rate into the three parts so it is clearer who is being charged for what and to more appropriately share the costs.

There are four options below to show how this could be managed.

2C: Managing and Minimising Waste

Making the best use of the resources we have is fundamental to the health and wellbeing of our community. The question is how we get better at reducing, reusing and recycling our waste and how can Council best support this work.

The government requires all councils to produce a waste management and minimisation plan. The plan helps us to comply with legislation and access waste levy funding from the government. As part of this consultation, we are asking you to provide your input into our draft Waste Management and and Minimisation Plan 2024.

After the decision to close the Levin Landfill, we’ll be honest, we thought we would be in a better position to discuss the big ideas around waste management and minimisation, but quickly realised that we are constrained somewhat by contract renewals and the need to fix the basics first. This means taking an adaptive approach to our waste journey, addressing current issues with kerbside recycling services and being upfront with how we share the costs associated with the Levin Landfill Aftercare and Levin Landfill debt.

While we’ve been quite specific about the solid waste topics and options we’d like you to submit on, we still want to hear your views on the draft Waste Management and Minimisation Plan (included in the supporting documents) and your aspirations and ideas for waste management and minimisation in our district. Your feedback will guide our investigations into a number of waste management and minimisation opportunities that align with our upcoming solid waste contract renewals in July 2026.