Guidelines for Beneficial Use of Organic Materials on Productive Land

Guidelines for beneficially reusing organic materials on land are under development. The guidelines will supersede 2003 Guidelines for the Safe Application of Biosolids to Land and include additional organic material such as animal manures, and other agricultural waste materials, which also contain pathogens and contaminants. Water New Zealand, WasteMINZ, the Centre for Integrated Biowaste Research (CIBR) and the New Zealand Land Treatment Collective (NZLTC) together with the ministries of Environment, Health and Primary Industries are collaborating on their delivery.

A 1st draft was publicised for public comment and Nick Walmsley ran five regional meetings during February 2017 to discuss and explain the content, where over 100 people attended. Meeting notes are available here. Twenty-three submissions from 36 individuals and organisations were subsequently received. The project Steering Group held a meeting to consider these submissions on 27 April 2017 and formulated a programme to update the draft . The Steering Group meeting notes and full copies of the submissions can be viewed here.

The updated 2nd draft documents were subsequently publicised for comment and submissions received. 8 submissions were received and the project Steering Group met on 19th April 2018 to consider their content and formulate a programme of necessary further work. The Steering Group meeting notes and full copies of the submissions can be viewed here.