A Friedensreich Hundertwasser designed waste to energy incineration plant in Te Awamutu could become a tourist attraction, claims Alastair Brickell.
Alastair Brickell
Brickell, who runs Stargazers Bed and Breakfast in Whitianga, was behind one of eight submissions to Waipā District Council in favour of the building and operation of the plant in Racecourse Road.
The council received 864 submissions objecting to the proposal.
“While these facilities can be large structures there is no need for them to be ugly,” Brickell said.
“The late visionary architect Friedensreich Hundertwasser was a great fan of incineration plants and designed several large ones.”
Hundertwasser died in New Zealand and his legacy includes the Kawakawa toilets and the new Whangarei Hundertwasser Centre which recognises his accomplishments.
“A Hundertwasser designed waste to energy plant in Waipa could be a great compliment to these structures and a tourist attraction in its own right as part of a national Hundertwasser trail,” Brickell said.
“I am not aware if GCS has considered this in their planning but perhaps they might. Te Awamutu is already on the tourist trail with its unique Space Centre and a Hundertwasser style building could well bring in more tourists, even international ones.”
Brickell, a cousin of late potter, writer, conservationist and Driving Creek Railway founder Barry Brickell, said it was important that the proposed plant be considered primarily as a medium scale power station rather than just a waste disposal facility.
“This is especially significant as it produces a very valuable form of electrical energy, one that can be used for increasingly important grid stabilisation,” he said.
“Waste to energy facilities are especially useful as they turn what is otherwise a problem (for example plastic waste) into a valuable resource and considerably reduce waste volumes going to landfill. They are increasingly being used in Europe as well as North America and Asia. The UK now incinerates 48 per cent of its municipal waste compared with only 12 per cent a decade ago.”
Brickell said seven European Union countries had waste to energy plants and, as a consequence, now landfill less than three per cent of their waste.
“In many European countries landfill disposal is severely restricted or actually totally forbidden due to toxic leachate problems. It is not inconceivable that similar restrictions could be legislated in NZ in the future.”
Penny Simmonds
Brickell, who toured the waste to energy plant in Bern, Switzerland, in 2018, said the main concern of objectors was dioxin.
“But new plant designs have essentially solved this problem as the latest designs ensure the entire combustion stream is maintained at 1000°C to 1200°C which very effectively breaks dioxins down,” he said.
“By using the newest technology Sweden has reduced its countrywide annual dioxin production from 100ppm to just 0.5ppm from all its plants so it is no longer an issue for them and need not be in New Zealand.”
The News sought comment from Global Contracting Solutions.
Waipā District Council and Waikato Regional Council asked Environment Minister Penny Simmonds to call the application in rather than follow the usual resource consent process. Simmonds decided a Board of Inquiry would hear the application this year. Waipā District Council and Te Awamutu-Kihikihi Community Board are among those opposing the plan alongside the Don’t Burn Waipā pressure group.
Global Contracting Solutions could borrow from Friedensreich Hunder-twasser’s design for the Spittelau incinerator in Vienna, says Alastair Brickell.
