Green Island Landfill: Transforming a circular waste vision into reality
At a glance
Dunedin City Council delivered its Waste Futures 2050 vision, reshaping how the city manages waste and moving toward a more circular approach. That involved gradually reducing reliance on landfill and establishing infrastructure and securing approvals to support long-term recovery, reuse and more sustainable disposal.
Within that broader programme, we worked with Council to move from intent to delivery, focusing on two critical pieces of work. We led the process to secure consent for the Resource Recovery Processing Precinct at Green Island and obtained the approvals required to extend the functional life of Green Island Landfill while the next stages of the city’s waste network were put in place.
The challenge
Existing landfill assets approached the limits of their functional life, while expectations from regulators, communities and the sector continued to shift toward more sustainable, circular approaches to waste.
At the same time, Council progressed significant changes to how waste is collected and managed across the city, increasing the need for infrastructure that supports higher levels of recovery and reduce reliance on landfill.
To move forward, the Council needed to extend the life of existing landfill operations while also putting new systems in place to support resource recovery at scale. Delivering both at once required us to work through complex consenting pathways, environmental considerations and stakeholder requirements, while keeping the wider programme moving.
We took a coordinated approach across planning, engineering and environmental disciplines to support a practical shift from a disposal-based system to one that prioritises diversion and recovery.
Our response
We worked alongside Dunedin City Council as a delivery partner, supporting the programme across governance, technical delivery and consenting.
We led the consenting process for the Resource Recovery Processing Precinct (RRPP), supporting the development of facilities that enable large-scale diversion of materials from landfill. In parallel, we secured approvals to extend the operational life of Green Island Landfill, maintaining continuity of essential waste services while new infrastructure is established.
We brought together engineering, environmental and planning capability to navigate complex regulatory requirements. We worked closely with Council and stakeholders to balance technical needs with environmental outcomes and community expectations and progressed key components of the programme through consent.
We grounded our approach in Council’s wider Waste Futures objectives, with each element contributing to a more connected, recovery-focused system rather than delivering work as standalone pieces of infrastructure.
The impact
These milestones reflect a clear shift from planning to delivery. With consents in place and infrastructure progressing, Dunedin now has the foundations to move toward a more circular waste system.
Our work supports the continued operation of Green Island Landfill in the near term, while allowing more material to be diverted from landfill through the Resource Recovery Processing Precinct.
As the wider programme progresses, new facilities will process recycling, organics and other materials locally, reducing the need to transport waste elsewhere and supporting more efficient, lower-emissions outcomes.
Together, these steps move Dunedin from strategy into implementation and build a more resilient system, reduce reliance on landfill over time and create a practical pathway toward a circular economy.