Source: Greenpeace
Greenpeace welcomes news that a land-use agreement in Glenavy has lapsed and will not be renewed, which means a proposed $350 million waste to energy incinerator cannot be built there by the company SRRL.
It would have been the first polluting waste to energy incinerator built of its kind in Aotearoa New Zealand.
“This is great news for the climate and for the health of the local community, which has strongly opposed the building of a waste to energy incinerator in Glenavy in the Waimate district. Aotearoa New Zealand’s energy future is in renewable clean energy such as wind and solar, not burning waste with fossil fuels,” says Greenpeace spokesperson Juressa Lee.
Greenpeace Aotearoa has opposed the proposal since it became public in September 2021 and subsequently wrote to the Minister for the Environment to call-in the proposal under the RMA. With a change of government in 2023, the Luxon government decided to include the proposal in its list of projects that could apply for consent under its new Fast-track Approvals legislation, under which community concerns, public health and environmental considerations would be set aside in favour of the company’s own questionable claims for economic benefits.
The local community in the Waimate district, including local iwi, Te Rūnanga o Waihao, Why Waste Waimate, Waimate Doctors and national environmental groups, including Zero Waste Network Aotearoa, 350 Aotearoa and others, have all campaigned to stop the proposed waste incinerator. Greenpeace pays tribute to all of them and shares in their delight at the news.