4 ms·

And why to the USA? Can't it be disposed of in New Zealand?

• jcranmer 4y ago
  Island nations tend to be very against the introduction of organic stuff for fear that it might disrupt their fragile ecosystem. And solid residuals from wastewater treatment are very much the kind of organic stuff that is problematic to import.
  • tialaramex 4y ago
    Right, New Zealand has strict bio-security protocols. They want less stuff that shouldn't be there not more.
• phire 4y ago
  I'm guessing the waste removal program isn't optimised for raw shipping costs. They only do one ship-load per year (deliver all supplies, take all waste back). Overall logistics (including regulatory compliance) might actually make it cheaper to have a single destination, rather than stopping over in NZ to offload some of the simpler to dispose waste. Actual shipping costs are probably in the noise floor after everything else. It's also possible the program has been partially optimised for pork barrel politics.
• lostlogin 4y ago
  We have been dealing with American shit for years. More seriously, it is weird. It would seem a good opportunity for us to solve one problem and benefit in some other way as a reciprocal arrangement. For example, US air supply options are likely vastly superior to ours.