Landfills

A landfill is an area of land onto which waste is deposited. Despite technological improvements (and targets in the National Waste Strategy encouraging local authorities to close or upgrade all substandard landfills by 2010), the basic concept remains the same: landfills are places to hide wasted materials.

The following information is taken from the Zero Waste Trust’s report ’Wasted Opportunities - A Closer Look at Landfilling and Incineration’.

Problems associated with landfills include:

Leachate 

• Is produced from rainfall and surface/ groundwater entry into landfill sites.
• Water mixes with toxic substances (including lead, cadmium, chromium, mercury, tolunene, dioxins, organophosphates and PCB’s) that are leached from materials (such as organic waste).
• Leakage from landfill depends on the permeability of the landfill liner.
• Leachate contaminates ground water supplies and surface water ecosystems.

Landfill gas

• Is a combination of methane and carbon dioxide (both greenhouse gases).
• Under the Kyoto Protocol, New Zealand has international obligations to reduce greenhouse gases.
• This can be achieved through preventing waste generation, diverting organic waste from landfills and improving landfill management.

Health

• Medical evidence shows that living near landfill sites increases the incidence of several types of cancer and the overall risk of birth defects.

Tourism & exports 

• Threats to New Zealand’s clean and green image and threat to primary produce export trade. (For example, EEC trading regulations require imported goods such as meat, fruit etc are produced from environmentally sustainable practices.) 

Landfill economics 

• The current charges for disposal of waste to landfill in New Zealand do not reflect external environmental costs.
• The number of landfills in New Zealand is declining due to the closure of small, poorly managed sites.
• New landfills can generate high profits because once established, they can control monopoly rent.
• Additional costs are generated because residual waste is being trucked further to large new landfills.
• In contrast, recycling represents a declining cost industry; as more waste is diverted to recycling activities, the costs of programme implementation and operation decrease. 

Employment 

• Landfilling waste generates less employment than recycling; for the same amount of material, 3 to 5 times more jobs are created by recycling than landfilling (Creating Wealth from Waste, Robin Murray)

Lost opportunities 

• Materials that are currently being landfilled could be creating an income through recycling materials, creating jobs and saving on import costs.

A Closer Look at Landfilling & Incineration (PDF 643 KB)