Education for Sustainability Flemington School 2007 Our Visit to the Omaranui Landfill, AllBrites and PanPac

Did you know that over 40% of the rubbish that we put into the landfill could be reused or recycled? While we are trying to get rid of our waste we are making bad use of our resources with all the machines we use. It costs about twelve million dollars just to create a landfill valley. It is such a waste of money. In the Napier area there is one landfill with space for four valleys. That adds up to around forty- eight million dollars worth of big holes just to put rubbish in.

At Pan Pack there was a huge factory with lots of logs of wood. There was a little machine which scanned each log after it was put on by the wagner. The scanner classified the timber into piles for different purposes. Pan Pack reused the sawdust waste to make electricity. The electricity is made from trees. Pan Pack uses twice the amount of electricity used by Napier. They need all of this electricity to run the factory, and it is good, because they get rid of the waste and it isn’t as expensive as it might be.

Valley A at the landfill was built in It was lined with clay, then a plastic layer was put half way up the landfill. After that they put layers of rubbish and dirt until they had a small rubbish hill. Twelve years later, - this year, it was completely filled. It cost over eight million to make the landfill. From 40-60% of the rubbish in the landfill should have been recycled or reused! Some of the rubbish escapes but there is a fence to stop it from leaving.

It was interesting about the amount of electricity they use at Pan Pac. They make and use twice the amount of electricity as is used in the whole of Napier..But why do they do this? Because they need a reliable power source to keep the factory running. The electricity is made from hog fuel which is a waste sawdust. I think it’s great that every time they cut down a tree for timber, they plant other trees. It is called sustainable logging.

At least every week a man comes to take the tyres away for other uses like roads, rubber and racing track barriers. I found a use for them myself, making huts, but they didn’t let me. The most interesting thing was people bring tyres and pay to dump them. Then the man comes and is paid to take them away. They don’t put tyres in the landfill because they don’t decompose easily and they float to the top.

This picture shows us how the rubbish at AllBrites is pushed on to a conveyer belt by a little digger called a cat. It is then turned into bales and then shipped all over the world so it can be recycled. I think this is a good idea because if we keep dumping it all in a landfill our children’s children will end up living on rubbish.

At the Omarunui landfill there is a leachate pond. A black liquid from the bottom of the landfill is pumped into the pond. There were recent worries that it would overflow with all the rain and poison the water system. The leachate is pumped in from Valley D at 3 litres per minute but is turned off after 30 minutes and the leachate from Valley A comes in at 2 litres per minute and isn’t turned off! Leachate is bad because it is poisonous and if it leaks into an underground waterway it will poison the plants and animals that live in and drink the water. The landfill gives off methane gas. It can be burnt to make electricity.