When disasters strike, huge amounts of rubbish and debris pile up fast. If it’s not collected quickly, it can:
- Spread disease and contaminate water.
- Block roads and slow down recovery.
- Make communities unsafe and unpleasant.
Waste management is an essential part of any emergency clean up, and WasteMINZ is disappointed that the new emergency management legislation announced last week have disregarded naming the waste sector as essential infrastructure, despite recommendations to do so within the consultation documents and from the sector.
In a WasteMINZ submission earlier this year, we asked for the government to:
- Treat waste services as essential, like power and water, so trucks can access areas and get fuel during emergencies.
- Plan ahead, as councils need support to prepare disaster waste plans and reduce what goes to landfill.
- Develop an expert group to help guide councils after disasters, to speed up clean-up and keep communities safe.
The waste sector is critical in New Zealand’s response to emergency. We have seen in previous natural disasters, such as Cyclone Gabrielle, that managing waste plays a crucial part of ensuring that communities can efficiently start cleaning up and get back to normal. However, without the recognition as essential infrastructure, the ability for the waste sector to work with broader emergency response structures is limited.
The huge scale of waste cannot be understated; the Canterbury earthquake is estimated to have generated 8 million tonnes of waste, and you can see from the graphic below the huge increase in waste from the Auckland Anniversary floods and Cyclone Gabrielle.
We know that there is no further opportunity for consultation, but we strongly recommend that waste services are named as essential infrastructure in emergency management legislation.
