The Dunedin City Council announced on Wednesday it was reviewing its waste collection services, looking at the feasibility of a new landfill site on Smooth Hill, situated on McLaren Gully Rd and Big Stone Rd.
Stakeholders would be consulted later this year before large-scale consultation with residents next year.
Council staff were out door-knocking on McLaren Gully Rd yesterday, to get householders' preliminary views on the idea.
Council acting general manager for infrastructure and networks Leanne Mash said the properties which were being surveyed were "semi-rural".
Since the 1990s, the site has been designated as a possible alternative landfill to the Green Island site, which will no longer be able to be used as a rubbish dump in the next five to 10 years.
Council waste and environmental solutions group manager Chris Henderson said it was unlikely the Green Island site could be used for residential purposes in future, because although it would be fully capped to present-day requirements the land would still sink over time.The landfill could potentially still be used as a transfer station, or for recreational purposes, such as a dog park.
Ms Mash said the review would give people an opportunity to provide feedback on how the council managed waste, including the introduction of new schemes such as as greenwaste kerbside collection.
"A key challenge is not just managing how much we generate and how to reduce this, but also how to reduce our CO2 emissions.
"We'll also ask for people's ideas regarding an upcoming change. The Green Island Landfill will come to the end of its functional life as a landfill in the next five to 10 years.
"While Green Island is likely to remain a transfer station longer term, we'll investigate how long landfill operations could continue at Green Island, as well as how and where we dispose of rubbish beyond them."
It could take five to seven years to work through public consultation and regulatory processes to physically establish a new waste disposal facility.
Ms Mash said how to manage a potentially increased amount of traffic travelling from the waste transfer station to the landfill was also something that would have to be considered.
Mr Henderson said the council would preferably like to get rid of rubbish bags completely, to prevent plastic ending up in the landfill and also to prevent animals damaging the easily pierced plastic rubbish bags.
Council senior waste strategy and planning officer Catherine Irvine said zero waste - one of the council's targets - was about preventing waste to the fullest extent possible, but there would always be some types of rubbish that had to go to the landfill.
