Aotearoa environmental group Zero Waste Aotearoa has urged the New Zealand Government to block any plans to export waste to Fiji, after revealing details of a proposed large-scale incinerator that campaigners say would dump enormous environmental and health burdens on a culturally sensitive Fijian coastline. The group announced a protest outside the Fijian High Commission in Wellington for Friday and said a separate demonstration is expected in Fiji as opposition mounts.
The facility, proposed by Australian company TNG Ltd, would be sited along the Saweni coastline in Vuda — an area Zero Waste Aotearoa describes as culturally significant and environmentally sensitive. According to spokesperson Sue Coutts, the plant is designed to process up to 900,000 tonnes of waste a year, a volume she says is more than four times Fiji’s entire annual waste output. “This incinerator would burn 900,000 tonnes of waste per year… leaving between 225,000 to 300,000 tonnes of highly toxic ash,” Coutts said.
Coutts warned both the emissions from burning and the residual ash would contain hazardous materials that pose risks to people and ecosystems. “When rubbish is burned these are concentrated in the ash… and some escape into the air,” she said, highlighting concerns about airborne pollutants and long-term contamination from landfill or ash disposal. The group also raised broader climate concerns, arguing that the project would transfer significant carbon emissions from New Zealand to Fiji. “Sending our waste to Fiji would mean offloading our climate emissions to Fijians,” Coutts said, dismissing the plan as “waste colonialism.”
Zero Waste Aotearoa also accused developers of seeking to shift environmental burdens to the Pacific after similar projects were rejected in Australia. The group called on New Zealand ministers and regulators to refuse any permits, contracts or approvals that would allow cross-border export of municipal or industrial waste destined for incineration in Fiji.
Organisers said Friday’s Wellington protest will target the Fijian High Commission to raise public and diplomatic awareness in New Zealand, and that organisers in Fiji are preparing demonstrations aimed at protecting local communities and coastlines. The announcement signals growing transnational campaigning on the project, bringing activists, environmentalists and Pacific-focused groups into closer coordination.
At this stage, TNG Ltd and New Zealand or Fijian government officials have not been quoted in response to the latest public criticism. The campaign adds to wider debates about how wealthier countries manage waste, the ethics of exporting pollution, and the protection of culturally and environmentally sensitive sites in the Pacific. With protests planned in both capitals and mounting public scrutiny, the fate of the TNG incinerator proposal looks set to be contested in coming weeks.
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