Zero Waste

Forest and Bird, Issue 293, 1 August 1999, Page 36

Zero Waste

GORDON ELL.

profiting from rubbish while Saving resources

ZERO WASTE challenges business to protect the environment by going easier

on the earth, reports

Itimately, business must ‘green’ itself or risk destroying its customer base, according to a new philosophy of commercial caring for the environment embraced by the charitable trust, Zero Waste New Zealand. Zero Waste is ‘greening’ local authorities to recycle community rubbish while it encourages business into better ways of using resources. Along the way it helps people into new jobs in new enterprises based on the ‘waste stream’ Based in Takapuna, Zero Waste operates throughout New Zealand as an offshoot of the Tindall Foundation, a trust fund established by The Warehouse founder, Stephen Tindall, to benefit families, employment and the environment. About a quarter of the foundation’s budget of $3.5-$4 million annually is spent on environmentally based projects. In the past four years, Zero Waste has developed several areas of activity, each carefully devised to help clean up the environment and provide employment. It works largely in setting up new recycling industries based on the ‘waste stream’, but its consultancies also include helping businesses to reduce waste per se. One of its messages is aimed at local government — encouraging councils to be come "zero waste councils’ and showing them how. Suggested technologies for better rubbish disposal lead to reduced pressure for expanding rubbish dumps, and makes commercial use of the waste. At Kaitaia, the Far North Recycling Project is a classic example of what can be developed

out of the waste stream, according to the manager of the Tindall Foundation, Warren Snow. He was involved with others in setting up business opportunities using the town’s waste as the initial resource. A joint venture with the council now employs three staff and after 18 months 30-50 percent of the local ‘waste stream’ is being recycled. Since the new business took over running the rubbish dump several other business have been ‘spun off’ it. Support from Zero Waste has provided workers with both technical knowledge and business skills. Similar projects are underway elsewhere in New Zealand. Local authorities at Opotiki, Christchurch and Hamilton have signed on in the past year with the aim of becoming "zero waste cities’. In the case of Opotiki, Zero Waste noted the problem of an overfull rubbish dump. The tip was obsolete and no alternative sites presented themselves. A Zero Waste consultant has given the district council a model of what to do to start recycling and reprocessing. Talking with councils and Government departments about the principles of Zero Waste is part of the organization’s advocacy programme. ‘We're allocating significant funds to communities, groups and councils for projects focussing on creating jobs and starting projects re-using waste, says Warren Snow. ‘We're funding projects which concentrate on creating a zero waste environment — spending on recycling programmes, waste reduction, community education and cleaner production. We fund pilot projects, educational programmes and provide start-up and development funds for new initiatives.

‘In Timaru they’re working on an executive strategy to change their emphasis away from waste as something to be got rid of, to seeing it as a resource which will create jobs and economic opportunities. ‘The Tindall Foundation wants New Zealand to gain a benefit too in terms of its trading profile: we should be producing goods and services from a truly green country; says Warren Snow. "We're researching the key strategies and interventions a community has to put in place to achieve waste reduction and create consequent employment, where the goal is zero waste. Funding is the key element in making such changes. ‘Over four years, the work of Zero Waste has shown two common threads: an incredible energy among the unemployed which has not generally been realised, and significant employment oportunities in using wasted materials, according to Warren Snow. He instances a sample employment project based around crushed up wooden pallets, often damaged in the process of shifting goods in bulk. Thousands of these pallets, formerly wasted, are now crushed and coloured to resemble artificial bark then sold as ground cover for gardens and roadsides. ‘We're focussing at the community level, where groups have an interest in work but are not making much headway, Warren Snow says. "We help them develop a plan, making use of their talents and potential’ In this way Zero Waste has helped start up many small businesses, including a recycling drop-off and sorting centre; also a business in "vermiculture’, breeding and feeding worms in reclaimed organic rubbish,

At Mangere, in Auckland, another scheme employs six people in a ‘resource recovery park. Based at Te Wharewatea Marae, this recycling company sorts waste materials from industry, handling large tonnages of offcuts and packaging, then sells them back to industry as still useful materials . Waste Not Limited is a not-for-profit consultancy, initiated by Zero Waste but now self-funding, which advises business on cleaner production and ‘waste minimization. Employing from three to four waste-reduction experts, it has also proved a useful intermediate step for young environmental scientists forging a career path. Warren Snow demonstrates the effectiveness of Zero Waste with a diagram he calls the recycling loop. He breaks the straightline link between Disposal and Landfill with a diversion called Recycling Opportunities. ‘A landfill doesn’t pay for itself — in fact it is subsidized 100 percent by ratepayers,

he observes. ‘Therefore we have to stop seeing recycling as an added cost and see it as an alternative disposal option. Zero Waste spreads the message that the good corporate citizen must take care not to destroy the environment on which its customers depend. The philosophy, which in many ways counters that of the Business Round Table, comes from a conscience which believes that working only for maximum profit is likely to destroy the necessary environment for business to operate successfully. Such ideas are being spread by authors like Paul Hawken (see box) whom the Tindall Foundation brought to New Zealand last year to talk to business leaders. According to Warren Snow, the ideas are catching on. ‘We want to reverse the usual way of looking at rubbish disposal and look on rubbish as a resource.