Redevelopment plans for Green Island Resource Recovery Park (GIRRP).
From mid-2025, the Dunedin City Council (DCC) will redevelop GIRRP at its current site beside Green Island Landfill. This $79 million project is part of Dunedin’s commitment to reducing carbon emissions and reducing waste going to landfill.
All services provided by the existing GIRRP will remain in operation during the redevelopment.
We plan to start construction during the last half of 2025. We aim to complete construction around the end of 2027.
In January 2025, the DCC received resource consent from the Otago Regional Council (ORC) to proceed with the redevelopment.
We have maintained a long-term conversation with key stakeholders about the GIRRP, keeping them well informed about redevelopment planning, designs and the resource consent application process. This has included pop-up information sessions in the Green Island community and talks with neighbours.
Why are we redeveloping the Green Island Resource Recovery Park?
The changes will better support the DCC’s kerbside bin collection service, which includes yellow-lidded bins for mixed-recycling, blue bins for glass, red-lidded bins for general waste and green-lidded bins for food scraps and garden waste.
The changes will enable us to process all our kerbside recycling material locally. At the moment, we send the contents of our yellow- and green-lidded bins to Timaru for processing. We will upgrade our recycling facilities as much as possible, as part of Dunedin’s aims to reduce carbon emissions and reduce waste.
Find out about the separate, planned closure of Green Island Landfill, which is situated beside the GIRRP.
What is at Green Island Resource Recovery Park now?
- Areas where people can drop off their recyclable material.
- A green waste area where people can take their garden waste.
- A Rummage shop where people can donate or buy pre-loved items
- A waste transfer station where people take rubbish that will go straight to the landfill.
- An education centre
- An organics receival building (ORB) that was constructed before 1 June 2024 for sorting material collected from the green-lidded bins and any other green waste brought to the GIRRP, which is then composted. The ORB is not open to the public.
What is changing at the Green Island Resource Recovery Park?
New or upgraded facilities:
- A new, state of the art composting facility, including bunkers and a maturation area. It will further process the food scraps and garden waste that has been sorted in the ORB. The composting facility is designed to minimise odour and produce a quality, saleable product for reuse.
- A new materials recovery facility (MRF) to sort and bale items collected from yellow-lidded recycling bins. It will involve modern automation and AI controlled optical sorters to help separate materials before they are trucked off site for resale to the recycling markets.
- Repositioned and upgraded glass bunkers for sorting and storage of glass collected in the blue crates.
- A repositioned and upgraded bulk waste transfer station. This is where general waste, included the waste collected in the red lidded bins, will be compacted, and processed ready for transferring to landfill.
- A repositioned and upgraded recycling drop off area.
Existing facilities that will remain:
- The Rummage shop.
- Green/garden waste drop off area.
- The education centre.
Planning for the future of Green Island Landfill
Want to find out more?
Watch out for articles in the Green Island Informer (link to external website, new window) community newsletter. There will also be regular updates here online.
Latest updates
June 2025
DCC awarded Irish company, Turmec, and its Australian partner, The Environmental Group Limited, a $11.9 million contract to supply specialist, high-end sorting machinery to process materials from kerbside collection yellow-lidded mixed recycling bins.
The equipment will form the backbone of a new MRF at the GIRRP, a major redevelopment of which is scheduled to begin later this year. See the media release.
December 2024
DCC is granted consent by the ORC to redevelop GIRRP.
July 2024
Construction of an ORB on the GIRRP site is complete. The building contains shredding machinery which prepares the food scraps and garden waste from the new kerbside collection bins service for composting. Initially, the shredded material will be trucked to the composting facility at Redruth, Timaru. We are planning to add a state-of-the-art composting facility to the GIRRP site in future.
March 2024
We lodged a resource consent application with the ORC for development of the GIRRP.
November 2023
Construction has begun on an ORB on the GIRRP site. It will be used to receive food scraps and garden waste collected as part of the new kerbside collection service beginning on 1 July 2024. Construction of the ORB has begun and is expected to be complete around early June 2024, at a cost of approximately $3.6m. Remaining facilities, including composting and processing, are due be operational in 2025. The ORB will be a rectangular steel design, adjacent to a parking area for trucks, with some landscaping and plantings.
September 2023
Pop-up information sessions took place during 2023.
DCC staff informed people about the plans for Green Island Landfill and kerbside recycling.
Thank you to those who stopped by our previous pop-ups at:
- 10am - 1pm, Saturday, 9 September 2023 at the ‘Greater Green Island Get Together’
- 10am - 12 noon Sunday, 12 March 2023 at Fresh Choice Supermarket, Green Island
- 10am - 12 noon Saturday, 11 March 2023 at Sunnyvale Community Centre sportsground
- 4pm - 6pm Thursday, 9 March 2023 at Fresh Choice Supermarket, Green Island
- 2pm - 4pm Sunday, 5 March 2023 at Green Island Landfill, near Rummage
- 10am - 12 noon and 2pm - 4pm Sunday 26 February 2023 at Fresh Choice Supermarket, Green Island.
Frequently asked questions (FAQs)
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Will the public still be able to take rubbish and recycling, and access the Rummage shop at the GIRRP while redevelopment construction is taking place?
Yes, access to the Rummage Shop will continue throughout the redevelopment. You will still be able to drop off recycling and rubbish too. Please take care to follow any directions and safety instructions during the construction period.
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Will the new composting facility or the ORB be smelly or attract pests?
The new composting facility will be a state-of-the-art system designed to minimise odour and pests. The ORB receives and shreds material from the green-lidded food scraps and garden waste kerbside bin collection service. Material then immediately gets transferred to the composting facility. The ORB is cleaned daily. Therefore, it should not produce odour or attract pests.
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When will the GIRRP redevelopment start and when is it due to end?
We plan to start construction during the last half of 2025. We aim to complete construction around the end of 2027.
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How much will the redevelopment cost?
We have budgeted for a construction cost of $79 million for the redevelopment of GIRRP.
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How much more material do you think the redeveloped GIRRP will divert from going to the landfill compared to now?
We hope to divert an additional 20,000 - 30,000 tonnes per year once all the facilities are fully operational.
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When did the public get to have a say about the GIRRP redevelopment?
The GIRRP was included in the DCC’s 2021-31 public consultation process. The key stakeholders, including Green Island community stakeholders were also notified and able to submit to the consent application process which took place between March and December 2024.