Dirt under our fingernails: Daylighting waste at the Dome

Abstract

[...] How might this “productivist bias” be countered by taking erosion, breakdown and decay as our starting points? In this article I explore this possibility with respect to a controversial proposed landfill in Dome Valley, north of Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland.

Soaring global consumption and massive waste production are problems largely masked: the management of the waste stream in wealthy cities has been rendered invisible. Waste is all too visible, however, in the cities of the developing world where waste management infrastructures are often informal and rubbish piles up on roadsides and riverbanks. Despite the good intentions of waste management and minimisation strategies enshrined in recent New Zealand legislation (Waste Minimisation Act 2008) and Auckland’s own Zero Waste by 2040 policy (Auckland Council, 2018), the waste stream to NZ landfills increased by 47% between 2010 and 2019. In Aotearoa New Zealand, escalating construction waste and hazardous waste make up 57% of the Class 1 landfill waste stream, 33% and 24% respectively (Ministry for the Environment, 2021:1). This burgeoning waste has prompted a proposal for a new regional landfill in Dome Valley, north of Auckland (Tonkin and Taylor, 2018). Located adjacent to a forest park and a river, local residents including Māori iwi (tribal groups), have been catalysed to fight the proposal.