Over a third of the $900,000 worth of carbon credits from Central Otago’s pine forests will be sold to offset a considerable budget blow-out from the rising cost of waste disposal.

The Central Otago District Council(CODC) own 122ha of commercial forestry blocks near Roxburgh, Alexandra, Cromwell, Naseby and Ranfurly.

The blocks are predominantly Radiata Pine, with two small areas of Corsican Pine, representing 11,000 carbon credits.

On the other side of the equation, payment must be made to the Government through the Emissions Trading Scheme(ETS) to off-set Central Otago's emissions from dumping refuse.

This is done through purchasing ETS units, the price of which is currently “shooting up”, councillors were told last week.

The region’s refuse is trucked to the Victoria Flats landfill which is owned by Queenstown-Lakes District Council.

Central’s contribution equates to about 20 percent of all refuse that ends up at the site.

The price per ETS unit in March last year was around $36 and a series of hikes since then, relating to supply and demand from traders, has now seen it climb to $84.50.

Last year the increases added an unexpected extra $103,000 to CODC’s bill from the Queenstown Lakes District Council for ETS units.

Predictions for this year are for an extra $326,000 - around double what was budgeted for.

Pinus radiata to the rescue . . . trees similar to these will help fund a refuse budget-blowout. Photo: Jill Herron

Councillors approved a budget increase for this year and for both year’s extra funds to be paid from selling carbon credits.

All agreed that creating less waste in the first place would be desirable.

In his report to council, environmental engineering manager Quinton Penniall gave some hope by explaining that a major landfill gas capture and flaring system was commissioned in June last year to help reduce emissions from the site, located in the Cromwell Gorge near Gibbston.

The effectiveness would have to be assessed, but it was expected to make dumping refuse cheaper in future as less ETS units would have to be bought.