REGEN: Integrated Waste Management

 A study to show that a wide range of Otaki waste streams can be processed into usable energy at the Otaki Transfer Station has been undertaken by some of the Energise Ōtaki members. This research was presented at our 8 July 2020 public meeting.

The public meeting included a presentation about research that has been undertaken by Nufuels Ltd., an Ōtaki based clean energy business, that is looking at the potential for an integrated waste to energy system at the Ōtaki Transfer Station.

This includes extraction of energy from plastics and tyres and conversion to useful fuels (to generate electricity), gas production from food waste and some residual organic wastes. Building an integrated energy management system that can then possibly deliver thermal energy to surrounding businesses would reduce Ōtaki landfill waste. It involves looking at energy balances and the overall economics of such an approach.

The two approaches studied were anaerobic digester for human and food waste, and pyrolysis for tyres and plastics. Read more about these processes in the newspaper article linked to below.