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NZ’s climate change stars

 

Our modern landfills are taking the equivalent of over 250, 000 cars off the road each year!

Class 1 modern landfills (like Waste Management’s Redvale, Tirohia, Kate Valley, Whiford and Bonny Glen) have reduced gross carbon emissions by 43% since countries around the world started measuring their emissions in 1990.

Today modern landfills only make up 1.3% of Aotearoa’s total carbon footprint, and Waste Management’s modern landfills only contribute 0.1% of this – despite taking most of the waste from the largest population centres in Auckland and Christchurch.

This is information contained in the latest Greenhouse Gas Inventory (page 304, chapter 7 covers waste GHG emissions).

Sustainability Manager Adam Weller says the waste sector in general, but especially class 1 landfills, is a climate change star and heading in the right direction with big reductions in emissions.

Waste Management’s Redvale, Tirohia, Whitford, Kate Valley and Bonny Glenn landfill & energy parks, with their world-class gas capture systems, have saved a whopping 800, 000 tonnes of CO2 equivalent.

To put that in context, if those landfills didn’t have gas capture they would be releasing emissions equivalent to 250, 000 cars on the road each year.

Not only have we stopped greenhouse gas from entering the atmosphere, we’ve created renewable energy – enough to power the equivalent of 25,000 homes in 2022.

Fast facts

  • The waste sector leads the way for carbon reduction in New Zealand
  • Every year our modern landfills and their world-class gas capture systems save 800, 000 tonnes of CO2 equivalent being released into the atmosphere this year, next year and every year
  • This is the equivalent of 250, 000 cars off the road each year, or almost 6% of cars!
  • Modern Class 1 landfills – like Redvale, Tirohia, Kate Valley, Whitford and Bonny Glen – have reduced carbon emissions by 43% since the world started measuring emissions in 1990
  • These landfills only make up 1.3% of Aotearoa’s total footprint, and Waste Management’s modern landfills only contribute 0.1% of this.