Bores sunk in the landfill were lit this week to begin burning off the gas, something the council had to do after the Government introduced a law requiring gas-recovery systems in all large landfills.
Despite the decision to burn the methane, the council hopes electricity and heat from the gas can be harnessed and used, something Mr Auton has been looking into.
He said this week methane was already being collected at the nearby Green Island wastewater treatment plant, where it was being used to heat digesters that treated sludge taken from the wastewater.
The long-term plan for the landfill gas, if there was a good quantity of quality methane, was to pipe it the few hundred metres to the plant, to provide more gas for the digesters.
One of the issues facing both facilities was the loss of waste from the Burnside freezing works, which closed last year.
Until that time, it had provided "copious" quantities of methane-producing waste.
There were some complex sums to be done, Mr Auton said.
But he hoped the gas could economically be piped to the plant, to add to what was used there, and to reduce the use of electricity.
