Green Island landfill's future.
Planning for the closure of Green Island Landfill and future site management
As part of our Waste Futures programme of projects and Dunedin’s wider commitment to reducing carbon emissions and reducing waste going to landfill, we will be making changes to the use of Green Island Landfill site in coming years.
These changes include planning for the closure of the Green Island Landfill itself around 2029-30.
The Green Island Resource Recovery Park beside the landfill will remain open and is being redeveloped. Find out more about our plans for the Green Island Resource Recovery Park.
Resource consent
In March 2024, the Dunedin City Council (DCC) applied to the Otago Regional Council (ORC) for resource consent to continue to use the Green Island Landfill until it closes completely. The application included plans for care and management of the landfill site after its closure.
The ORC publicly notified the DCC consent application on 16 November 2024. The ORC held a public consent process from 16 November to 13 December 2024. Hearings for those who made submissions took place in mid-March 2024. The consent application was then granted by the ORC.
What’s planned?
Staged closure of the landfill
The Green Island Landfill has operated since the 1950s. It has been Dunedin’s main landfill since 1981 and is filling up, which means we need to plan for its closure over the coming years and how we transition to a new landfill facility. Based on Dunedin’s current waste disposal rates, we expect that the Green Island landfill can keep taking our city’s waste until around 2029/30.
Between now and then the landfill will be closed and capped in stages. Stage one was capped in early 2024 with the second stage due to be capped in 2025
Site aftercare and use
When the landfill is completely closed, opportunities will open up for recreational use in the area around it. Examples could be walking and biking tracks beside the Kaikorai Estuary. We’ll talk to you more about these opportunities in the future.
Green Island Landfill planned layout, including new Resource Recovery Park. Click to enlarge
Want to find out more?
Watch out for articles in the Green Island Informer community newsletter. There will also be regular updates here online.
Latest updates
November 2024
The DCC has applied to the Otago Regional Council for resource consent to continue to use the Green Island landfill itself until it closes completely around 2029. Visit the ORC website for copies of the DCC Green Island landfill application documents and details about how to make a submission.
July 2024
Construction of an Organics Receival Building (ORB) on the Green Island Resource Recovery Park site is complete. The building contains shredding machinery which prepares the food scraps and garden waste from the new kerbside collection bins service for composting. Initially, the shredded material will be trucked to the composting facility at Redruth, Timaru. We are planning to add a state-of-the-art composting facility to the Green Island Resource Recovery site in future.
April 2024
At the end of March 2024, we lodged a resource consent application with the Otago Regional Council for development of the Resource Recovery Park.
November 2023
Construction has begun on an Organics Receival Building (ORB) on the Green Island Resource Recovery Park site. It will be used to receive food scraps and garden waste collected as part of the new kerbside collection service beginning on 1 July 2024. Construction of the ORB building has begun and is expected to be complete around early June 2024, at a cost of approximately $3.6m. Remaining facilities, including composting and processing, are due be operational in 2025. The ORB building will be a rectangular steel design, adjacent to a parking area for trucks, with some landscaping and plantings.
September 2023
Pop-up information sessions took place during 2023.
DCC staff informed people about the plans for Green Island Landfill and kerbside recycling.
Thank you to those who stopped by our previous pop-ups at:
- 10am-1pm, Saturday, 9 September 2023 at the ‘Greater Green Island Get Together’
- 10am-12 noon Sunday, 12 March 2023 at Fresh Choice Supermarket, Green Island
- 10am-12 noon Saturday, 11 March 2023 at Sunnyvale Community Centre sportsground
- 4-6 pm Thursday, 9 March 2023 at Fresh Choice Supermarket, Green Island
- 2-4 pm Sunday, 5 March 2023 at Green Island Landfill, near Rummage
- 10-12 noon and 2-4 pm Sunday 26 February 2023 at Fresh Choice Supermarket, Green Island.
Green Island Landfill FAQs
-
When will the Green Island landfill close for good?
Based on Dunedin’s current waste disposal rates, we expect that the Green Island landfill can keep taking our city’s waste for about another six years, so it will need to close for good around 2029/2030. Between now and then it will be closed and capped in stages. The first stage of capping has already been completed.
-
Why do you need to apply for replacement resource consents when the plan is to close the landfill?
While the site is designated in the Dunedin City District Plan (2GP) for the purpose of a landfill we still need consents from Otago Regional Council (ORC) to continue to operate the landfill until it closes, and after care of the site.
-
What are the replacement resource consents for?
We have applied to the ORC to replace consents that expired in October 2023. These replacement consents relate to discharges to land, water, and air and ground disturbance.
-
How would the ongoing effects of the landfill be managed?
The replacement consent process would give us a good opportunity to update some of the management practices on the site and put in place more measures to manage effects such as odour and noise.
-
• What do you mean by caring for the closed Green Island Landfill site and managing its ongoing effects?
Caring for and managing the closed Green Island Landfills site will involve maintaining the landfill cap and the vegetation around the site, as well as managing landfill gas, stormwater, and leachate to prevent any discharges into the estuary or wider environment.
-
• Would there be activity to do with recycling and rubbish at Green Island even after the landfill has closed?
Yes, there will be recycling and rubbish drop-off and processing activity at the DCC’s Resource Recovery Park in Green Island. All material from the new DCC kerbside bin collection services would still go to Green Island Recovery Park for processing.
-
• Would the public and businesses still be able to take rubbish to the Green Island Resource Recovery Park when the landfill is closed?
Yes, after Green Island Landfill is closed you would still be able to take your rubbish to the Green Island Resource Recovery Park transfer station or to any other DCC transfer station, as you can now. Once you drop off your rubbish at a DCC transfer station it would be put into trucks for delivery via State Highway 1 to the new city landfill. Smooth Hill would be a modern, Class 1 landfill facility, run to the latest health and safety standards, and as such the public would not deliver rubbish directly to the site.
-
• Could the public and businesses drive to Smooth Hill to dispose of rubbish if it becomes the new city’s landfill?
No, you wouldn’t be able to drive to Smooth Hill to dispose of your rubbish. Smooth Hill would be a modern, Class 1 landfill facility, run to the latest health and safety standards, as such the public would not deliver rubbish directly to the site. There will be DCC transfer stations in the city for you to take rubbish to, e.g., at Green Island Resource Recovery Park. Rubbish taken to DCC transfer stations would be put into trucks for delivery via State Highway 1 to the landfill.