Residents oppose luxury Auckland island's waste facility
Wed, 12th Aug 2026 (Today)
Residents living near a large Auckland reserve are tired of being a dumping ground for a luxury island's homeowners and holidaymakers.
Sandspit Residents and Ratepayer Association's Greg Doherty faced the Auckland Council's Policy, Planning and Development Committee on Tuesday, asking it to consider another way to service rubbish for Kawau Island.
The reserve has provided Kawau Island households a rubbish service since 2021.
Kawau Island, one of the largest islands that make up the Hauraki Gulf near Warkworth and filled with hundreds of holiday homes, can only be accessed by a boat or ferry from Sandspit Reserve.
Residents and visitors have to haul their rubbish back to the mainland to the reserve, to a secured enclosure with a pin-code entry-gate.
Doherty said the temporary waste enclosure was only intended to last three to five years, and has now exceeded its lifespan, operating without a resource consent.
"Operationally, it has failed - there is frequent illegal dumping, persistent overfilling, nuisance, odour and visible degradation of the reserve," Doherty said.
Kawau Island landowners - 40 of whom are permanent resident households and 300 of whom own holiday homes - do not pay a waste service targeted rate.
This means the Kawau Island waste and recycling service is fully subsidised by the regional waste targeted rate.
"Mainland ratepayers are effectively subsidising a private island service. This status quo is illegal, unfair and unsustainable."
Doherty said Sandspit Reserve, 65 kilometres north of Auckland on the Matakana Coast, was the gateway to Kawau Bay.
The reserve's estuarine flats and coastal habitat support local sea birds and have high natural and cultural value.
"Yet for decades, the area has suffered from poor waste management and accumulating rubbish."
Doherty asked the committee to consider a self-transport, direct-payment rubbish disposal model for Kawau residents and visitors.
It would require landowners and visitors to take their rubbish and recycling to a mainland transfer station, 3km away from the reserve, at their own cost.
Doherty said it was the fairest and most sustainable long-term solution available.
"This decision is about more than waste infrastructure. It is about environmental stewardship, fiscal fairness, council accountability and partnership with mana whenua."
The committee has three other options to consider - all of which introduce a targeted rate for either an upgrade to the current waste enclosure, a new one at a different location on the reserve and a self-transport service to a mainland transfer station with pre-paid bags.
According to council documents, Mana Whenua Ngāti Manuhiri did not support a permanent waste collection enclosure within the reserve, raising concerns about illegal dumping and impact on the bird habitat and ecology of the estuary.
Doherty said an upgrade or a relocated rubbish enclosure would not solve the illegal dumping in the area.
"Most importantly, these options disregard Ngāti Manuhiri's explicit opposition to a permanent waste facility at the gateway to their ancestral waters."
The committee will make a decision at next month's meeting.
LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.
