CARBON ZERO MANUFACTURING
By Sam Buckle, Deputy Secretary, Resource Efficiency
- Ministry for the Environment
Plastic packaging is
frequently in the spotlight,
but in reality this is only
one of the things your
business will be thinking
about. Customers are
demanding change. Young people
are calling for even greater change,
and it won’t be long until they
become adult customers.
The world is moving quickly. The
linear thinking applied to production
in today’s economy of ‘take, make
and waste’ is being re-oriented
towards a mindset that aims
to keep resources circulating.
For generations, we have taken
resources, made things with them,
and then thrown them out. This
culture encourages unsustainable
resource extraction, single-use
designs and wasteful end-of-life
disposal. We’re depleting nature to
benefit humans in a very short-term
way. When the closed Fox landfill
breached in a storm earlier this year,
decades of waste spilt out onto
the pristine banks of Fox River and
nearby beach. Operation Tidy Fox
volunteers were horrified to come
face to face with long-forgotten lolly
wrappers and chip packets.
Reshaping New Zealand into a
circular economy means designing
products in a way that extends the
use of the materials of that product
– making it easier to recycle or
repair.
MOVING BEYOND WASTE
But what does this mean for you in a
practical sense?
Moving to a circular approach can
result in benefits like cost-savings
and new opportunities.
Some things to consider, if you
aren’t already:
• Move from single-use to re-usable.
Re-usable options produce
less waste. Instead of switching
from a single-use plastic item
to a non-plastic single-use item,
ask whether it can be replaced
with a re-usable option instead.
Disruptive companies are finding
the entrepreneurial opportunity in
the circular approach. International
company Loop is a circular
economy e-commerce platform
that has teamed up with major
food brands to offer products
in premium reusable packaging
online. Local initiatives include the
Fix and Fogg refillery or Eco Store
refill stations.
• When re-usable isn’t possible,
go for re-purposed or recyclable.
What happens to the packaging of
your products? Are they easy to
re-use or recycle? What are they
made from? How could they be
improved?
• Organic waste matters. Food
and other organic waste is not
only a waste of resources - when
it is dumped in a landfill it also
becomes a source of harmful
greenhouse gases. Composting
can prevent those emissions.
Proactive catering businesses are
reducing food waste to landfill by
ensuring leftover food and organic
waste is composted.
• Examine your supply chain.
Consider the above principles in
relation to the suppliers you chose
to work with.
The Ministry for the Environment
is designing and consulting on
initiatives to support the transition
to a more circular approach.
Associate Minister for the
Environment Eugenie Sage
has announced design work is
underway for a modern Container
Return Scheme (CRS). Funded by
the Ministry’s Waste Minimisation
Fund, the project will be led by
Auckland and Marlborough District
Councils, which will work with
representatives from the beverage,
packaging and recycling industries,
councils, retailers, and others to
design the scheme over the next
year. It is estimated a CRS could
lift recovery and recycling rates for
Sam Buckle
beverage containers from around
45 percent of the estimated two
billion drink containers, to 58
percent - 80 percent, or more.
The Ministry also recently closed
submissions on a regulatory
product stewardship proposal,
which would make producers
responsible for specified
problematic products at the end of
life. The Government is considering
six priority products: tyres,
electrical and electronic products,
agrichemicals and their containers,
refrigerants and other synthetic
greenhouse gases, farm plastics,
and packaging.
With a circular mindset and
supportive policies and incentives,
we can move beyond waste to a
sustainable low-emissions future.
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