Mixed organics (both garden and food waste) are collected as normal through the kerbside service. The mixed organics are taken to the Council's three transfer stations to be mixed with rubbish, loaded into trucks and taken to Kate Valley Landfill, a waste management facility in Hurunui. This is where we send your red bin waste.

Under its current resource consents, Kate Valley Landfill may be able to accept up to approximately 18,000 tonnes of mixed kerbside organics. This may be possible by February 2024 – the earliest time possible as the Council decision won’t be made until December 2023.

Kate Valley Landfill would need a change to its resource consent to accept the full amount of mixed kerbside organics the city produces. We don’t know how long that will take, but the most optimistic prediction would be July 2024.

The diagram shows how this would work.

All implications shown below (effect on rates, emissions, etc) are based on sending the full amount of mixed kerbside organics to Kate Valley Landfill. We calculated the implications over five years, because this is the estimated timeframe until a permanent solution is up and running.

Risk of offensive and objectionable odour from the plant affecting local community

What we do now: Medium to high risk

This option: Medium risk (until we can stop all processing at the plant, probably July 2024 at the earliest)

Implementation time

Send up to 18,000 tonnes of organics to Kate Valley Landfill: Possibly by February 2024.

Send all 55,0000 tonnes of organics to Kate Valley Landfill: Not possible until July 2024 at the earliest.

Estimated cost (over five years)

What we do now: $112 million

This option: $154 million ($42 million more than the existing five-year cost)

Estimated effect on rates (over five years)

What we do now (expected rates portion for 2023/24 per property): $116. This is a fixed cost that everyone pays, which covers the cost of collecting and processing organics. This is a proportion of the total amount you pay for your recycling and organics service.

This option: About 1.1% increase - this is the annual rates impact over five years.

Dollar amount: $820 over five years. Cost per year is $164. (The exact amount would be finalised in the 2024–34 Long Term Plan process.)

Estimated greenhouse gas emissions (generated over five years)

Greenhouse gas emissions are measured in carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2-e). This measure combines the effects of different emissions, such as methane and carbon dioxide.

What we do now: 48,232 tonnes of CO2-e.

This option:

Kate Valley Landfill (excess organics processed at the Organics Processing Plant): 152,832 tonnes of CO2-e, an increase of 104,600 tonnes CO2-e.

Kate Valley Landfill (excess organics sent to North Island processors): 154,081 tonnes CO2-e, an increase of 105,849 tonnes CO2-e.

Note: Of all the options proposed, this option has the biggest effect on emissions and would result in more than three times the emissions currently generated at the Organics Processing Plant over five years. This amount of CO2-e (105,000 tonnes) generates the same greenhouse gas emissions as someone taking 443,787 return flights between Christchurch and Auckland.*

Read more about how we calculated our greenhouse gas emissions on the main project page.

Alignment with sustainability policies

Along with central government, we have policies and strategies for managing organics.

What we do now: Aligns

This option: Doesn’t align – it significantly increases greenhouse gas emissions through transportation and disposal of organics to landfill.

Read these policies and strategies on the main project page.

* This is based on Air New Zealand’s calculation for a single passenger’s share of carbon emissions for a return Christchurch-Auckland flight of 236.6kg CO2-e. This is the amount of carbon you would need to account for to ‘offset’ your return flight.