Official Information Request - 21 April 2020

Sent: Thursday, 23 April 2020 3:51 pm

Subject: Official Information Request - waste management - plastics and tyre

I refer to your three Official Information requests of 21 April 2020 regarding waste management, in particular plastics and tyres, for the 2019/20 year and respond below as per your questions:

Request 1

1. Quantities of industrial plastic waste to landfill within your jurisdiction.
2. Specifically, quantities of Motor Vehicle plastic components waste to landfill.
3. The quantities of any known industrial plastic waste, motor vehicle plastic storage and/or related plastic mountain, within your jurisdiction.
4. The landfill/s used to dispose of any of these plastics generated within your jurisdiction.

Rotorua no longer has an active landfill. The landfill site is being operated as a refuse transfer station managed by Waste Management. RLC has limited involvement with the operation of this land transfer station and does not have any data on disposal of commercial plastic waste to landfill. Waste from the refuse transfer station is transported to Tirohia landfill.

Request 2

1. Quantities of household plastic waste to landfills within your jurisdiction.a) categorized by type 1 & 2s and 3-7s.b) what landfill in your jurisdiction are the plastics being disposed to?
2. The quantities of any known storage/plastic mountains, within your jurisdiction.

As noted in request 1, Rotorua no longer has an active landfill. All Council's municipal plastic waste (numbers 1-7), collected separately in yellow bins, is recycled. A small amount of these plastics may find their way into the refuse stream due to misplacement or contamination, however we do not monitor the composition of refuse. We are not aware of any plastic storage in Rotorua.

Request 3

1. Quantities of Motor Vehicle Tyres to landfill within your jurisdiction.
2. The name of the landfill that is used for redundant tyres generated within your jurisdiction.
3. The quantities of any known motor vehicle tyres storage/tyre mountain/s, within your jurisdiction.

As noted in request 1, Rotorua no longer has an active landfill. Disposal of tyres has always been the responsibility of tyre dealers and RLC has had no direct involvement in this. Dumped tyres have been stored at the landfill site and freely given away to farmers or contractors to use the tyres for other use (eg: playground mats). In 2016, Smart Environmental were contracted to undertake waste collection in Rotorua. Smart Environmental has ties with farmer groups and any dumped tyres are passed onto farmers for alternate use. The only know tyre pile in Rotorua Lakes Council's jurisdiction is at the landfill site. These are tyres that were collected by Council and could not be put to alternate use.

You have the right to seek an investigation and review by the Ombudsman of this decision. Complaints can be sent by email to info@ombudsman.parliament.nz, by fax to (04) 471 2254, or by post to The Ombudsman, PO Box 10152, Wellington 6143.

Publication of responses to LGOIMA requests

Please note: Our LGOIMA responses may be published on the Rotorua Lakes Council website after they have been responded to, with requesters' personal details withheld. If you have any concerns about this please contact the Council on info@rotorualc.nz .

Regards