A Mount Maunganui fumigation company wants to start using a more environmentally friendly system to deal with methyl bromide at the Port of Tauranga.

The toxic chemical is used at the port for pre-shipment use and to fumigate some items arriving in New Zealand.

Methyl bromide is currently vented into the atmosphere at the port under controlled release.

It is a procedure that has caused outrage by many in the Tauranga community.

Genera Limited, a Mount Maunganui fumigation company, wants to use a filter system to absorb methyl bromide.

The filter, used in a sealed 45 gallon drum, has activated carbon placed at the bottom. The carbon absorbs the toxic chemical and captures it permanently.

Genera Limited general manager, Jon Trevenna, says he is currently working to have this process established at the Port of Tauranga.

'Capturing is something we all should be looking at and moving towards,” says Jon.

Once the methyl bromide is captured and locked inside the drum, it is buried at a specialised site in Auckland.

He says burying the drums is safe for the environment, but he would need to negotiate with local authorities before that could take place in Tauranga.

'The methyl bromide is locked in, so it's not going to start leaching out.”

'What actually happens is that the soil microbes actually start destroying the methyl bromide on the carbon.”

Genera Limited currently uses the filter in Nelson and is in discussions with local authorities there to have the filters buried at the city's landfill.

Jon says the company currently has to ship the drums to the specialised site in Auckland.