"We have a backlog of material that we are wishing to expedite urgently," the company, New Zealand Aluminium Smelter (NZAS), told the authority in September 2021. However, the clean-up costs will only rise, for just as long as the smelter keeps generating more SCL and other waste, into 2025 and beyond. Conservative estimates are it costs $1000 to deal with each tonne of the hazardous waste. But hazardous waste watchdogs in Egypt, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Italy, Australia, Malaysia, and Malta, where the shipments would pass through, each came back with different approval periods, of as little as one year. But the EPA had higher priorities, it replied, to process applications that have a statutory timeframe, which hazardous waste does not.

Source: Otago Daily Times May 29, 2022 09:34 UTC