A small rural Northland council is looking into establishing a “waste to energy” plant that would incinerate household rubbish produced between Auckland and the Far North.

But the plan isn’t without detractors, who say people need to produce less rubbish rather than looking to “techno fixes”.

The Kaipara District Council announced it was working with mayoral offices across each of the four neighbouring northern councils, including that of Auckland mayor Wayne Brown.

It comes as an Environment Court case on the highly contentious proposed Auckland regional landfill near Dome Valley comes to a close.

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Kaipara mayor Craig Jepson said his council had fiercely opposed the proposed landfill because it believed there was a risk it could one day pollute the Hoteo River and the Kaipara Harbour.

“There’s no point in objecting if we’re not going to come up with a viable alternative,” Jepson said.

Jepson said his council’s “feasibility study” would be taking inspiration from a proposed waste plant in Waimate in the South Island.

South Island Resource Recovery has applied for resource consent to build a $350 million plant that would incinerate waste to produce 35 megawatts, while electrically charged plasma would convert fly ash into a glass-like substance that would be crushed and used for aggregate.

By comparison, NZ’s largest capacity wind turbine produces 4.3MW.

Jepson said the idea would be to site a plant near the North Auckland rail line, which runs between Helensville and Whangārei, so that rubbish could be transported by train.

“You only have to go on Google to see that there are remote locations in Rodney and Kaipara where everything can be contained,” he said.

It’s been something of a life ambition for Jepson. In the 1990s, he worked for Olivine, a global firm that builds waste to energy plants.

“We spent $4m on a proposal, but it never even went to a hearing. We were probably before our time then.”

Jepson is being backed up by deputy mayor Jonathan Larsen. The pair invited the three other mayors to be part of the investigation and “get the conversation started”.

“The fact of the matter is that we can’t do it without Auckland, but we are trying to present a solution. It’s going to take courageous leadership,” Larsen said.

“Rather than burning Indonesian coal, we can burn plastic straws to generate electricity.”

However, Auckland mayor Wayne Brown’s viewpoint on the proposal is so far unknown. His office has not responded to repeated requests for comment from Stuff over several days.

Waste to energy plants are not without criticism. Greenpeace released a statement in response to the Kaipara announcement, saying the only solution to waste was to produce less of it, and “techno fixes” weren’t needed.

Green Party’s Eugenie Sage has also been a vocal critic of waste to energy.

When she was conservation minister and land information minister, she approved the overseas investment decision to allow Waste Management to purchase the Dome Valley landfill site, citing creation of jobs being a benefit.

Meanwhile, Michelle Carmichael of Fight the Tip said she was “hopeful” the Environment Court would make the “right decision” on her group’s appeal to stop the Dome Valley landfill.

Carmichael said she any waste to energy plant ought not to be allowed to accept recyclable material, a restriction she also wanted on landfills.