A contract of at least 22 years could be up for grabs to take rubbish away from Dunedin and dispose of it outside the city if the planned Smooth Hill landfill is dumped. The Dunedin City Council has requested proposals for out-of-area waste transportation and disposal to see how this might stack up against building a new landfill at Smooth Hill. The council said it wanted accurate, long-term costs for the out-of-area option. If this ended up being backed, a contract would start on July 1, 2028, and run for at least 22 years. All going well, the contract might then be extended for 10 years. Such a scenario has re-emerged, as the council is re-evaluating whether to proceed with Smooth Hill, near Brighton. It is gathering information for a new business case set to consider whether the council should build and own Smooth Hill, whether it should proceed with that landfill but in partnership with a commercial operator, or if it should instead enter into a long-term contract for disposal of city waste outside the area. A decision is due before the council adopts its 2027-37 long-term plan in June next year. In the meantime, the council is seeking more information about what an out-of-area option might involve. Proposals would have to cover both transportation and disposal, the council emphasised in its request. For its part, the council would be required to build a bulk waste transfer facility at its Green Island resource recovery park. The council decided in 2024 its preference was to build Smooth Hill and it then included $92.4 million in its 2025-34 long-term plan for the project. “While short-term costs may be higher than alternative options, long-term forecasts indicate significantly lower overall costs,” the long-term plan said. The contentious project was an election issue last year, particularly for Andrew Simms, who ended up being the highest-polling councillor. He was a vocal critic of Smooth Hill and has continued to describe it as unnecessary capital expenditure. A potential rival for Smooth Hill — AB Lime at Winton, Southland — also weighed in last year. “I genuinely believe that committing close to $100m to the construction of Smooth Hill is a foolhardy decision and I am very concerned about the robustness of some of the key assumptions of the analysis that has been provided in support of the project,” general manager Steve Smith said. Operating Smooth Hill seemed to be close to unworkable, he suggested. City council waste and environmental solutions group manager Chris Henderson said at the time the commercial landfill operator’s submission was noted. “We are confident the various matters raised by AB Lime have been considered and addressed, and that the Smooth Hill landfill, once built, will operate as intended.” Council staff concluded exporting waste out of Dunedin was “not economically favourable when compared with the option of building at Smooth Hill”. In its request for proposals issued last week, the council said at least one response would be incorporated into the new business case. The council spelled out it did not want “speculative or aspirational responses, as proposals must demonstrate capability, long-term capacity and cost”. It was also not interested in multiple contracts — joint respondents would need to collaborate within a single-contract approach. The deadline for proposals was September 3.
