Waimate

South Island Resource Recovery Limited (SIRRL) made an application with the Overseas Investment Office (OIO) in May 2023 to acquire sensitive land, and significant business assets. The decision was made by land information Minister Chris Penk and Associate Finance Minister David Seymour following a recommendation from the OIO to approve the application. Because the application was deemed of national interest, sign off was also required by Finance Minister Nicola Willis, who determined the application was “not contrary to New Zealand’s National Interests.” Read more

South Island Resource Recovery Limited (SIRRL) has enlisted the services of Public Relations firm Convergence to oversee the public rollout of ‘Project Kea’, the proposal to truck 365,000 tonnes of waste to Glenavy, near Waimate, to be disposed of by incineration. Convergence was in close contact with Waimate District Council in August 2021 before the public release of the proposal. This involved the company requesting a list of the town’s “key influencers” in an attempt to gain local support for Project Kea. The company also asked Mayor Craig Rowley for a “supporting statement.” Convergence, as part of their responsibilities, provided a website to disseminate more information about the proposal. However, this website, which was intended to inform the public, was found to contain misleading and false information. Furthermore, it failed to include crucial details about the actual proposal, potentially impacting the public’s understanding and perception of Project Kea. Many people in Waimate believe that the public relations company has been used to manipulate the Waimate community. Learn more about Convergence and its role in Project Kea below. CONVERGENCE

North & South magazine reporter George Driver asked New Zealand’s two largest waste management companies whether they would support ‘Project Kea’, and their response was NO. “I don’t want to state the obvious,” he says, “But you’ve got the largest waste company in New Zealand, which used to be owned by a Chinese company that operated 10 of these facilities in China, so why aren’t we doing it?” – Evan Maehl, managing director – Waste Management NZ. Read N&S Article Will SIRRL require the importation of waste to feed ‘Project Kea’ ? Below, you can read more about the composition of the waste South Island Resource Recovery Limited intends to burn and where they claim they will source that waste. WASTE

This Natural England article on the GOV.UK website highlights how air pollution, including nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) produced from the combustion of plastics, has devastating effects on pollinator insects. This should be of concern to all of us, not least the food-producing shareholders of Renew Energy Limited (REL), the New Zealand arm of South Island Resource Recovery Limited (SIRRL) Read Article Here

A honey producer, winemaker and grain grower make up some of the shareholders and directors of a company wanting to build a huge rubbish incinerator, BUT NOT IN THEIR BACKYARDS, in the heart of a food-producing district in Waimate.Philip Alfred Leslie Cropp is a honey producer based in Nelson. Paul Robert Taylor is a cereal grain and seed grower from the Ashburton area. Robert Bruce Grey is a wine grower from the Nelson region. What all these food growers have in common is a significant shareholding in Renew Energy Limited (REL), the New Zealand company with a 40% stake in South Island Resource Recovery Limited (SIRRL), the company behind ‘Project Kea’. See below for more on the shareholders of Renew Energy Limited (REL) REL Shareholders

Why is Waste-to-Energy incineration a bad idea for Aotearoa?  In this article, Michael Szarbo from Greenpeace asks the question, ‘How is a heavily state-subsidised Chinese W-t-E model going to work in NZ?’ and why any NZ council would be foolhardy to sign any contracts with SIRRL or any other W-t-E company.   Read Article here Competitive waste market Waste-to-energy companies in China claim subsidies and tax breaks from the Government by claiming to be renewable energy providers. These companies are also sometimes exempt from waste disposal tariffs. These incentives have seen a boom in waste-to-energy builds, and companies are eager to claim the economic advantages.However, these incentives don’t exist in New Zealand. This means any plant in Aotearoa would need to burn as much waste as possible to produce revenue from gate fees and the sale of generated electricity. This incentive encourages the plant operators to burn as much waste as possible to create electricity. Without the required 365,000 tonnes of waste the company intends to burn, ‘Project Kea’ would run at a loss.In New Zealand, waste management companies and councils play a significant role in controlling the waste stream, often with shareholder stakes in landfills. For SIRRL to be competitive in this market, two things are required: available waste and the ability to provide significantly lower gate fees as an incentive to draw customers. While lower gate fees may incentivise customers to support waste-to-energy, they also reduce potential revenue. Waste management companies in New Zealand have raised questions about SIRRL’s stated available waste calculations. This is a significant concern, as the accuracy of these calculations directly impacts the company’s ability to compete in the waste-to-energy market. 

Environment Canterbury and Waimate District Council request more information from SIRRL. ECan stated that the requested information is required to assist in preparing the Key Issues report, which the Council will be required to provide to the EPA under S149G RMA. The 22-page request by ECan included Dr Emily Wilton’s assessment of SIRRL’s air quality emissions report, for which Wilton requested further information from SIRRL. Dr Wilton’s notes highlighted “inconsistencies” between the company’s operational, technical overview and air quality assessment reports in SIRRL’s resource consent application. Read ECan request here “It’s important for the people to have answers” – Paul Taylor, SIRRL. In an April 2023 Stuff article, director Paul Taylor said SIRRL had gone to the “next level” in many of the reports they commissioned, which “were not necessarily required”, but they did it “because we felt it’s important for the people to be able to have answers to those questions.”  As July 2024 rolls around, ‘the people’ still await ‘answers to those questions’, suggesting SIRRL continue to believe information about this proposal is ‘not necessarily required’.

After receiving an extensive recommendation report from the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA), Environment Minister David Parker has referred the Project Kea proposal to the Environment Court. On 31 August 2023, the Minister for the Environment ‘called in’, or issued a direction, to refer the application to the Environment Court. The direction was issued under section 142(2) of the Resource Management Act (RMA).The Minister asked the EPA for advice on whether the application was of national significance and, if so, whether it should be referred to a Board of Inquiry or the Environment Court. EPA’s role in the processing of ‘Project Kea”. The EPA will publicly notify SIRRL’s application so people can make submissions. Then, they will pass on the application and the submissions to the Environment Court, setting the timeframe for the next steps in the process. The EPA is not involved in the decision-making process. The EPA states they are organising public notification of the direction and the applications under section 149C of the RMA. They also state that they will provide further information about public notification and the submission process on their webpage when it becomes available.   Also available on the EPA’s webpage: The Minister for the Environment’s direction to refer the application to the Environment Court (PDF, 398KB) EPA advice about referring the SIRRL application to the Environment Court (PDF, 2.8MB) EPA Website

Waitaki electorate candidates (left to right and top to bottom); Miles Anderson (National), Ethan Reille (Labour), Roger Small (Democracy NZ), Sean Beamish (ACT), Pleasance Hansen (Green), Ray Bailey (NZ Loyal). All the candidates, except Ray Bailey, who was not present, were asked to answer yes or no to whether they supported the Project Kea proposal. Act’s Sean Beamish stated that he hadn’t heard of the proposal and, therefore, could not provide comment. Miles Anderson (National), Ethan Reille (Labour), Roger Small (Democracy NZ) and Pleasance Hansen (Green) all voiced their opposition to the Project Kea proposal, indicating a consensus against it.

REL managing director Paul Taylor tries to secure a heads-of-agreement between Timaru District Council and baling contractor ERP Group to store 50,000 – 70,000 tonnes of waste at Redruth landfill for the proposed W-t-E incinerator in Waimate. The agreement states, “Renew Energy will be independently responsible for supplying 350,000 tonnes of waste per annum to the plant.”  This agreement shows how Renew Energy will be responsible for supplying the waste and their intention to continue to partner with ERP Group, despite the company’s poor waste management practices, which ultimately resulted in ERP Group owner Michael Corcoran, moving to Australia and leaving his landlords with thousands of tonnes of baled waste, destined for the proposed ‘Project Kea’ incinerator in Waimate. The cleanup of the illegally stored waste Corcoran left behind was reported to cost several million dollars. Read the heads of agreement request and response by Timaru District Council below. Heads of Agreement More on ERP Group and their involvement with REL, below. ERP GROUP