CREATE CLEAN
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.
But what does this mean for you in a
practical sense?
MOVING BEYOND WASTE
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 beverage
containers from around 45% of
the estimated two billion drink
containers, to 58% - 80%, 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.
14 NOVEMBER 2019