Nelson City Council

The Nelson Tasman Joint waste management and minimisation plan was adopted in April 2012.

Summary of Information

Nelson City Council and Tasman District Council propose to adopt a joint Waste Management and Minimisation Plan, which outlines the Councils’ waste management and minimisation aims, funding requirements, and activities for the region over the next 6 years.

What is proposed in the new plan?

In the plan the Councils propose to minimise waste by changing the way in which discarded resources are managed and to reduce the harmful effects of wastes.

The Councils propose to use the waste hierarchy (Reduce, Reuse, Recycling, Recovery, Treatment and Disposal) treatment options in the management of waste. These options will be subject to the principles of Global Citizenship, Kaitiakitanga (Stewardship), Product Stewardship, Full-cost Pricing, Life-cycle principle and the Precautionary Principle.

The vision of the Joint Waste Management and Minimisation Plan (JWMMP) is:

“Valuing resources and eliminating waste”

The plan proposes the following goals:

Goal 1:     Avoiding the Creation of Waste

• Our community has opportunities for avoiding or reducing waste at source.
• Our community has a culture whose values make waste reduction the behaviour of choice.
• The Councils work with each other, central government, industry and other parties to improve product stewardship.

Goal 2:     Improving the Efficiency of Resource Use

• Our community has access to comprehensive services for the management of diverted material.
• The proportion of the total waste and the range of material diverted will be improved and the quality of diverted material enhanced.
• Our community and its visitors are informed and engaged about opportunities to improve their efficiency of resource use.

Goal 3:     Reducing Harmful Effects of Waste

• Our community has access to services for the management of waste.
• We manage our waste management services to avoid or mitigate any adverse public health and environmental effects.
• Waste management and minimisation services and other activities are safe.

The policies and methods in the proposed plan address key issues of the Councils’ joint Waste Assessment, and provide for existing services and Council facilities and other relevant activities. Methods and associated key issues include:

• investigating a joint landfill solution, which may result in one landfill for the Districts or two landfills with each handling a different type of waste, so as to realise the benefits of optimising landfill costs, minimising Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) costs, and ensuring security of income to facilitate waste minimisation
• gathering improved and more extensive information about waste and diverted material, and implementing a bylaw so as to better understand materials being collected and plan future services
• further provisions for diverting organic material from the landfills because this material is our single largest type of waste, contributes significantly to ETS obligations, and has the potential to contribute valuable carbon, nutrients and fibre to soils.

In funding the JWMMP, the Councils will:

• maintain a user-pays charging system where practicable, to provide cost recovery and a system of incentives and disincentives to promote the objectives of the JWMMP; and
• fund the services from targeted rates, user charges, the national waste disposal levy, local waste disposal levy, fees, and general rates where necessary.

Performance indicators will be used to monitor the effectiveness of the policies and methods of the JWMMP. Two of the key indicators will be the quantity of diverted material per person and quantity of waste to landfill per person. The indicators will be reported on each Council’s website and other publications annually.

Reason for proposal

As a Territorial Authority, each Council is required under the Waste Minimisation Act 2008 (WMA) to adopt a Waste Management and Minimisation Plan (WMMP).  A WMMP is a strategic policy document of Council which sets out Council’s objectives, policies and methods for promoting effective and efficient waste management and minimisation in the District.

Section 43 of the Act sets out the required scope of a WMMP and section 44 sets out the requirements when preparing, amending or revoking a WMMP.  The Act requires the Council to review its WMMP no later than 1 July 2012 and then to either:

• adopt the WMMP without amendment, or
• to adopt a new or amended WMMP.

Section 45 of the Act provides for the development of a joint WMMP by two or more territorial authorities and the Nelson City and Tasman District Council have elected to utilise this provision of the Act to develop a joint Waste Assessment under the WMA and now to develop a joint WMMP.

Downloads

• Download the Joint Waste Management and Minimisation Plan Summary of information 9 December 2011 (160KB PDF).
• Download a copy of the Joint Waste Assessment March 2011 (1.8MB PDF).
• Download the Proposed Joint Waste Management and Minimisation Plan October 2011 (651KB PDF).
• Download the Joint Waste Management and Minimisation Plan submission form 9 December 2011 (86KB PDF).

The Statement of Proposal and copies of the joint Waste Assessment are also available for viewing during normal office hours at the following Nelson City and Tasman District Council offices and Libraries

Nelson City Council:

Tasman District Council:

Please direct any enquiries to:

David Stephenson at david.stephenson@tasman.govt.nz or +64 3 543 8483 or Johan Thiart johan.thiart@ncc.govt.nz or +64 3 546 0332.