"It has been negotiated for the excess to be taken to Greymouth and Hokitika, as opposed to our regular landfill at Nelson," Mr Cleine said.
"Given the volume, we had to look at something closer than Nelson given the turnaround for the trucks.
"We had over 1200 cubic metres to move, and each truck was carting 20-odd tonnes.
"There has been a bit of urgency around it too as we have been stockpiling at Holcim (Cape Foulwind) but another business wants to take possession of the site within the next four weeks," Mr Cleine said.
"Our transfer station and the Holcim site has been holding all the hazardous materials. These aren't hazardous through heavy metals for instance, but general floodwater contaminants.
"The longer term leachates that can be expected to come from that will happen once it's in the landfill. Obviously there's more waste to come but that's on an individual basis."
Free rubbish dumping in Westport ended last Sunday.
Buller Emergency Operations Centre public information manager Robin Raymond said 1219.5 cubic metres had been removed up to last Thursday, and a further 178 tonnes had since gone through the weighbridge.
Grey District Council infrastructure services manager Mel Sutherland said McLeans Pit landfill accepted 171 tonnes from Westport in the first two days after the floods, as the roads to Nelson were still closed. They had since had problems with the weighbridge electronics so he could not give a final figure.
Johnson Bros Transport had two trucks with a capacity of 70 cubic metres running between Westport and McLeans Pit each day, and he estimated a total of 2000 to 2500 cubic metres of waste had been moved.
Westland District Council is also about to start accepting flood waste at its Butlers landfill, near Hokitika.
- By Meg Fulford
