Events » Sift Blog
Archive for the ‘Events’ Category
Wednesday, June 2nd, 2010 by Admin
On Monday afternoon I attended the opening of Mastagard and Southern Demolition’s new Eco-Recycling Plant. Centrally located just down from AMI Stadium on Wilsons Road the new transfer recycling facility is a joint venture between Mastagard and Southern Demolition. It will take paper, cardboard, magazines, plastic film, plastic bottles, timber, steel, Gib board, concrete and green waste “leaving the bear minimum going to landfill”. Mastagard sees this new transfer facility as a solution to increasing recycling and reuse of waste products. The eco-recycling transfer station is open to businesses, waste operators and the community.
It was a rather chilly afternoon for the opening but the highlight was the Hon. Rodney Hide (National MP) arriving in a Canterbury Waste Services truck! He said that he is “proud and pleased to declare the new transfer station open” and “it is good to see businesses making money while doing good”.
Mastagard’s General Manager Sebastian Stapleton sees the need for “responsible and progressive leadership within our industry”. We agree that the waste industry does need start taking the lead (and to work collaboratively) on providing solutions for reducing our impact on the environment – this new eco-recycling transfer facility is a good example of this. Ofcourse as we have said before the best way to reduce waste is to reduce consumption.
Here are a few key quotes from Mastagard General Manager Sebastian Stapleton:
- The goal is to be a professional, dependable, highly efficient environmental solutions provider.
- It is incredibly important that we are able to create a closed loop recycling process with accountability and integrity.
- It’s no longer acceptable for a person, business or waste collection company to put material in the right coloured bins and simply assume that someone has recovered it and processed it in accordance with environmental best practice.
Mastagard have recovered materials processing sites across the city (they also collect all of the recyclables from Westland). Their Wigram site processes construction and demolition materials such as Gib board which is turned into powder for use in fertiliser and concrete which is separated into grades for re-use in roading and construction. Their Bromley site processes cardboard and organics as well as plastics such as the Plasback Product Stewardship Scheme collection of baleage wrap. The plastics recycling facility was opened last year and you can see photos from that launch here. Southern Demolition is the South Island’s largest demolition and demolition waste recoverer.
Congratulations to Mastagard and Southern Demolition for taking Canterbury a step closer towards a sustainable future. Their work in waste recovery along with all the other industry players will help us to reduce our waste and the impact that has on our environment.
You can view photos of my site visit to Mastagard’s Bromley processing station here.
Photos below from the launch are from my phone so not too good. Good photos to come.
 Hon. Rodney Hide arriving  Emcee Jim Hopkins and Mastagard GM Sebastian Stapleton  Hon. Rodney Hide and Emcee Jim Hopkins  Baled Gloss Paper from Mastagard  HDPE Plastic Milk Bottles from Mastagard  HDPE Recycled Plastic Pellets from Mastagard  Plastic Waste film from Mastagard
Tags: cardboard, landfill, Mastagard, paper, plastics, recycling, Rodney Hide, Southern Demolition, waste
Posted in Events, News on Sustainability, Sustainability in Action, Waste Management | No Comments »
Thursday, May 6th, 2010 by Admin
 Lisa Smith - Minds at Work Last week we attended the WasteMinz Workshops held in Auckland. It was a great turn out and we met lots of new people and caught up with acquaintances from the Waste industry. Here are some of the highlights from the workshops:
Lisa Smith from Minds At Work (based in Melbourne) took the Behaviour Change work stream for the two days. I did the first day and learnt a lot about new ways of thinking, idea generation and just how stuck in the box we can be. Lisa is super energetic and a really great presenter making it fun and informative at the same time. We need to spend time generating ideas in order to be innovative and be able to move forward and we don’t spend enough time generating ideas and just thinking. And it needs to be more fun!
Part of the workshops were about making a plan for zero waste – how were we going to do it. This involved working through her process for idea generation, developing the design of the good ideas, Evaulating those ideas and then putting the best one into action. It really highlighted how we all think and act very differently – some of us are dreamers while others are doers! And we just need practice doing those bits we are not so proficient at. As part of behaviour change we looked at why people don’t change and then at the end of the two days she gave us the top 10 myths of behaviour change. This really was only a taster at sequence thinking and how we can help change people’s behaviour but it was good first look.
Some quotes:
- “Any piece of work must start with the joyous explosion of ideas.”
- “Thinking inside the box constrains our ideas.”
- “Assumptions and convenience limits thinking.”
- “Fear is the biggest constraint…to change.”
- “We tend not to check the boundaries but just assume they are there…bust those assumptions.”
- “If you capture an idea and design it at the same time then that’s all it can be.”
- “If you stop one idea from coming you might stop the twenty after it.”
- “The key is to think about how you need to be thinking.”
On the second day of the workshops I needed to broaden my waste knowledge so did those instead of continuing on with Lisa and the Behaviour Change workshops. Here are some of the highlights:
The Community Recycling Network launched their campaign for Real Recycling – the current sytem of recycling will not get the country to where it needs to be. There is too much contamination and we need to work towards effective, efficient and valuable recycling (”How many materials can you mix together before it becomes “rubbish”?”). We also need to create recycling systems that are “fit for purpose”- a massive MRF may not suit a small, rural town. Sue Coutts from the Community Recycling Network stated that we need collaboration and shared goals, quality feedstock, secure markets, self reliance, on shore processing, transparency, better reporting (there are big data gaps) and the all important (but severly lacking) audit trail (where is our waste going) – we totally agree with all of that. We also need to look at the whole life costs associated with a form of recycling. I think the best quote from Sue was “the education of the system has a greater impact then the nature of the system. People do care and want to be apart of a better world.”
John Webber from the Glass Packaging Forum then discussed their move to develop a Glass Product Stewardship Scheme with the ultimate objective of zero glass waste to landfill. The recovery of glass is 69% nationwide currently.
Judi Burgess from TransPacific Industries (TPI) then presented the process from start to finish of developing and implementing the 3 Bin system now being used in Christchurch City. This was very interesting. It took about 2 years and there are 468,000 bins and 50 trucks – a lot of logistics to organise. They found that they had issues with delivery the bins the first time (getting stuck with the annual A&P Show timings), issues around whether to give a small bin option, the size and shape of the labels, truck branding and signage and staffing. Completing a full stakeholder analysis enabled them to understand who the customer was and who needed to help make it happen.
Spring Humphries from Fonterra did a presentation on the recycling they set up at their various sites. They went from producing 18,000 tonnes of rubbish to 5000 tonnes of rubbish and have (since 2003/2004) recovered 28,000 tonnes of cardboard.
CEO of WasteMinz Marion Short gave an inforamative presentation on how to build good long term relationships – align with the other party’s values and strategy, be collaborative, be solutions outcome focussed and remember to keep your stakeholders informed.
Sue Coutt’s put on her other hat as Wanaka Waste Busters and talked to us about what we can do to fundamentally make a difference. Some (very relevant) quotes from her include:
- “Make a shift from organising the problems to fundamentally healing them.”
- “Run businesses as if people and the planet mattered.”
- “Viability is not just about cash flow but the capacity to deliver.”
- “Every decision should take into account sustainability.”
- “We need to train the children of today to be able to live in their world.”
If last week’s WasteMinz Workshops are anything to go by then the big conference in October is going to be great fun, productive and highly informative. Thanks to the team at WasteMinz for putting together the workshops. It is a valuable way to meet new people from the industry and stay informed with what is going on.
Tags: Community Recycling Network, Glass Packaging Forum, landfill, Lisa Smith, Minds at Work, TPI, Wanaka Waste Busters, waste, WasteMinz
Posted in Events, News on Sustainability, Sustainability Resources, Waste Management | No Comments »
Monday, February 8th, 2010 by Admin
 ASB Classical Sparks Last Friday the Christchurch City Council put on one of the favourite events of the Summertimes festival, the ASB Classical Sparks. Classical music, a picnic and some fireworks brought between 80,000 and 100,000 Cantabrians to North Hagley park. But, that also brought a mammoth amount of rubbish as well. People brought their own picnics with varying degrees of preparedness and others were able to purchase food onsite.
Being a waste minded person I was a little worried about what would be on offer for festival goers in the way of waste disposal but, the City Council had the waste logistics covered. All around North Hagley park there were the recognisable Christchurch City waste bins – yellow for recycling, red for rubbish to landfill and green for food waste. It was great to see these waste depots dotted around for easier access. As well as being told by the emcee about how to dispose of rubbish (and even told to take it home with you) there were also city council events people standing next to each depot to help event goers put the right rubbish in the right bin. An excellent opportunity to increase a population’s knowledge (and therefore change their behaviour) of how to dispose of their waste in the right way.
It is hoped that every event provides easy access for people to dispose of their waste appropriately or even better events become zero waste.
Regardless of the waste element a great night was had by all.
Tags: ASB Classical Sparks, behaviour change, canterbury, Christchurch City Council, food waste, landfill, picnic, recycling, rubbish, waste
Posted in Events, Waste Management | No Comments »
Thursday, November 26th, 2009 by Admin
 International Buy Nothing Day If reducing your consumption is still a habit that you’re trying to break try not buying anything for just one day to see what happens. The easiest way to reduce the level of our waste going to landfill is to stop purchasing, stop consuming. Full Stop. It’s that easy. (It is also a really good way to tackle climate change). But humans are driven by desires and needs (or wants) and purchasing/consuming can sometimes be fulfilling – at least we think it is fulfilling. But, there are many other ways to live a good life that doesn’t involve consuming and the side effects create a healthier planet and healthier people.
So, this week’s Practical Action is to take part in Adbusters’ International Buy Nothing Day. This campaign has been going for a few years now and calls on millions of the world’s population to buy nothing for 24 hours. They are also asking for everyone to unplug as well. Turn off all appliances, lights, cell phones, the internet, computers and anything else that depletes the world’s resources.
Adbusters: “We want you to not only stop buying for 24 hours, but to shut off your lights, televisions and other nonessential appliances. We want you to park your car, turn off your phones and log off of your computer for the day.
We’re calling for a Ramadan-like fast. From sunrise to sunset we’ll abstain en masse, not only from holiday shopping, but from all the temptations of our five-planet lifestyles.”
You never know what the day might bring – closer connection to family and friends, old clothes and “stuff” that you forget you had that you could reuse, finishing that project you have been meaning to get to, a day in the garden, reading your favourite book again, increased awareness of how your actions impact the environment and everything that lives in it, peace and quiet from the world for just one day. You will also have reduced your impact on the environment. After one day of not spending it becomes easier and you might start to find that life is nicer this way!
Our motto is to be a conscious consumer when you do consume (question if you really need it, can you use something else, can you buy second hand, fair trade, recycled etc). By not consuming for one day you can move towards this way of life. Start by recognising how you consume and then start to change this. There are lots of different actions happening across the world which you can check out here. Let us know what you get up to for the day.
Tags: Adbusters, climate change, consumption, diverting waste from landfill, environment, humans, International Buy Nothing Day, landfill, purchasing, resources, waste
Posted in Events, News on Sustainability, Waste Management | No Comments »
Wednesday, November 25th, 2009 by Admin
 Solray Energy Algae to Bio-crude oil plant Last Friday we had the pleasure of attending the official opening of the Solray Energy Algae to Bio-Crude Oil plant at the Bromley Waste Water Treatment plant. It was a lovely warm spring day with not much of a smell, thankfully.
SIFT funded the early stage proof of concept mini trials at the Bromley Sewage Treatment plant (run by CCC) over the past three years plus the business case for algae and financial due diligence.
It was a great turn out with lots of cameras, all stakeholders, local iwi Ngai Tahu and local Councillors as well as the Hon. Gerry Brownlee (who is the Minister for Economic Development and the Minster for Energy and Resources), who officially opened the plant.
 Solray Energy's Chris Bathurst with SIFT Board Member Prof. Emeritus Arthur Williamson Chris Bathurst, the brains behind the project, said that it has taken 9 years to get to where they are today. They have successfully made crude oil from algae grown at the ponds (and started a lawn mower for Hon. Gerry Brownlee to use to prove it, see below for photo).
This project is a great example of public-private partnership in action with Solray Energy, NIWA (National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research) and the Christchurch City Council working together to make the project a success. Algae to biofuels at this scale is apparently the first in the world. The project uses NIWA’s 5ha demonstration high rate algae pond that gets CO2 pumped into it, which gets trapped and encourages algae to grow. The algae is constantly mixed so it grows in colonies and is then pumped across the road to Solray where it is heated to above 300 degrees celsius in a super critical water reactor (SCWR), which mimics the natural process of turning it into crude oil (very similified explanation!). To remove the algae from the bio-crude oil they use a solvent which is then recycled and the algae residue is used as fertiliser. The bio-crude oil is then separated into petrol (20%), diesel (45%) and bitumen (20%) plus a few others. The whole lifecycle is all on one site making it easier to manage and monitor.
The super critical water reactor (SCWR) is very innovative and inventive. It was designed and built in New Zealand by Solray Energy, which means NZ can reap the benefits of the technology. As well as providing a possible new way to make fuel (instead of using fossil fuels – Hon. Gerry Brownlee stated NZ uses 183,000 barrels of oil equivalent a year) this technology could also allow for small scale carbon capture and localised use of the technology. It is also a cheap and simple way to harvest the algae. NIWA Chief Executive John Morgan happily presented two vials (one of green water algae and the other bio-crude oil) to Hon. Gerry Brownlee to give to New Zealand’s Prime Minister John Key.
 Algae and Bio-crude oil vials for PM John Key  Hon. Gerry Browlee with the lawnmower & NIWA's John Morgan After getting the lawn mower to start for the cameras and Hon. Gerry Brownlee to mow some scrub on the banks of the pond the opening was formally closed by a karakia from an iwi representative from Ngai Tahu.
You can find more information about our involvement in the project here.
 Bio-crude oil and fuel  Hon. Gerry Brownlee being presented the vials by NIWA's John Morgan  Solray Energy Algae to Bio-crude oil plant
Tags: algae, bio-crude oil, bitumen, CCC, climate change, community, diesel, diverting waste from landfill, environmental sustainability, fuel, petrol, reuse, sewage, Solray Energy, Waste Management, waste water
Posted in Events, SIFT Projects, Sustainability in Action, Waste Management | 3 Comments »
Monday, November 23rd, 2009 by Admin
Crop packaging manufacturer Agpac is leading the way on a product stewardship scheme that recycles the very crop packaging they manufacturer. You can read more about them here on an old blog post. Baleage wrap is used to wrap bales of hay and other grasses and instead of farmers burning or burying the plastic or leaving it to blow around the farm they can now put it in a handy Agpac collection bin (which also decreases the risk of contamination) and it is then recycled.
Agpac recently opened a new baler with the help of Minister for the Environment Hon. Dr. Nick Smith who is quoted as saying “These initiatives are part of the future for New Zealand’s most important industry. Companies are expected to take responsibility for the full life of their products not just manufacture and sales. This includes removing waste at the end of the product’s life-cycle. Agpac is taking a lead in developing this broader view.”
He also went on to say “New Zealand’s agriculture exports are coming under increasing scrutiny regarding their sustainabiltiy and environmental impact. Currently 10 to 20 percent of agriculture plastics are being recycled and we need to increase this to 100%”.
This new baler has the ability to be transported across the South Island where it can bale up used plastic baleage wrap and sileage pit covers at the farm making it easier for farmers to be apart of the scheme. Agpac’s Chris Hartshorne states that “Product Stewardship is a partnership that includes us as the distributor, our customers, the recycling industry and the reprocessors who create new products from the recycled materials.” This is exactly where all businesses and industries need to be moving to in order to create a sustainable future for New Zealand and its products.
And as Mastagard’s Sebastian Stapleton said in the press release for the new baler farmers need to start looking at where their old products are being sent to for recycling – “There is significant risk that waste plastic shipped to Asia will be processed in environmentally reckless and inhumane conditions”.
As well as a new baler Agpac have recently entered into a new agreement with plastics recycler Mastagard who will recycled the used baleage wrap here in Christchurch. Mastagard recently opened a $5 million wash and plastics recycling plant in Sockburn, which you can read about here. They will also be able to take the agrichemicals plastic containers.
All Agpac and Mastergard need now is for more farmers to be apart of the scheme.
 The Hon. Dr. Nick Smith with new Agpac baler
Tags: agpac, agrichemicals, baleage wrap, diverting waste from landfill, Mastagard, plastic, plastic wrap, producer responsibility, product stewardship, recycle, recycling, recycling projects, SIFT, sileage, waste
Posted in Events, SIFT Projects, Waste Management | No Comments »
Wednesday, November 11th, 2009 by Admin
Christchurch is definitely becoming the hub of recycling for New Zealand especially for Plastics. Last month, the new $5 million Mastagard plant opened which will enable Canterbury to recycle more types of plastics and yesterday there were two new plant openings. The Agpac plant opened a new baler which will help to increase the amount of baleage plastic they can recycle and then an hour later Comspec in Hornby opened a new plastic milk bottle recycling plant.
The Comspec plant is a state-of-the-art plastic milk bottle wash and recycling facility. They are able to process 100,000 plastic milk bottles per day. Comspec is another SIFT funded project as well – we gave an initial grant to assess the feasibility and commercial viability of the plant and then some more $ in the form of a loan to buy the plant needed.
There are three key positive aspects to the Comspec plant:
1. It means that the South Island’s plastic milk bottles will no longer be shipped offshore. They would normally go to Asia to be recycled but Comspec can now do it.
2. The process is also chemical free and the water used for washing is recycled in a closed loop system.
3. Turning the old plastic milk bottles into recycled plastic resin provides a ready feed stock of plastic resin for manufacturing within New Zealand. This means decreasing our dependancy on buying in plastic resin from overseas. This is a valuable resource.
It is estimated that they will process 2.5 million plastic milk bottles a year. They will be shredded, washed, granulated, rinsed and dried to make recycled plastic resin that can be turned into other plastic items such as drainage pipes, plastic sheeting, wheelie bins and industrial packaging.
Comspec have stated that this project will save an average of 1 tonne of CO2 for every tonne of plastic that is recycled. That’s great.
Even Fonterra is supportive of the new plant. Their Eco-Efficiency Manager, Spring Humphreys, was quoted in the press release as saying “This wash plant is an excellent example of innovation in New Zealand’s plastics recycling industry which ticks all of the boxes for improving environment, social and economic performance.”
At SIFT we are really pleased to be apart of such positive impactful projects and can’t wait to see more of them come on line. This is a successful SIF T project that diverts our waste from going to landfill and from going off shore for someone else to deal with.
 Old plastic milk bottles on the move  More old milk bottles on the move  The Comspec Plant  Another part of the Comspec plant  Chipped old plastic milk bottles  From milk to consume, to empty milk bottles, to recycled plastic resin granules to new plastic piping.
Tags: agpac, baleage, bottles, CO2, Comspec, consumption, funding, grant, loan, Mastagard, milk bottles, plastics, recycling, SIFT, waste
Posted in Events, SIFT Projects, Waste Management | 1 Comment »
Friday, October 30th, 2009 by Admin
Last Saturday was the International Day of Climate Change Action organised by 350.org. It was a resounding success with 181 countries uniting to promote the safe level of CO2 in our atmosphere – 350ppm. The “most widespread day of environmental action in the earth’s history”. There are over 19,000 photos of actions on Flickr and a great new video that just makes you smile. More and more humans are coming together to improve the health of the planet, to live differently to steer away from dangerous climate change and call for “strong and bold” leadership by our governments (and business leaders) to meet the 350ppm level and develop a fair and binding new global climate agreement.
Here’s a link to the video:
350.org 24/10/09
Here are some great photos from 350.org from around the world:
 Cairo, Egypt  Surfers in Christchurch  Dhaka, Bangladesh  Great Barrier Reef  Hay-on-wye, UK  Inner Mongolia  Maldives  India  Sydney  Wellington, NZ
Tags: 350, action, climate change, CO2
Posted in Events | No Comments »
Thursday, October 22nd, 2009 by Admin
 wasteminz Here are Linda’s top 14 highlights (in no particular order) from last week’s WasteMinz conference held here in Christchurch. There were four days of workshops, site visits and networking – a must for anyone involved in the waste industry.
- Lisa Smith – The Thinker – ground breaking thinking
- Tyres – discussed the models and the realities of recycling tyres in New Zealand
- Louisa Palmer – the future of recycling and the bottle bank on her trade stand
- Sulo Talbot & SIFT’s basketball challenge at the Smart environmental recycling stand – prizes galore…business card holders, wine and even a cafe table and chair set up for grabs – well done to both who received a high score on Day 2 with 96 points in 45 seconds! Great conversations and lots of fun. Apparently it even generated a business idea, but shhh mum’s the word!
- FriendlyPak/Agpac – biodegradable products
- Presentation by Mark Inglis – innovation in R&D which is much needed in NZ, “in the last 100 years we have learnt more than in the past 20,000 years – what are we going to learn in the next 10 years?”, communication , connections and being proactive about what you need to do for the future. Mark also talked about how people need to become more socially responsible and businesses need to lead the way as change makers. “We need to be optimists as opposed to optimalists.”
- Christian Noble – debunking the waste to energy myth – experiences from Denmark so we can broaden our knowledge
- Presentation by Martyn Pinckard, Director of Operations from MfE
- E-Waste – Kumar Radharkrishnan, SIMS recycling services, APAC – what’s being recycled and is there a model for Canterbury? Can Canterbury lead the way for e-waste as well?
- Visit to Kate Valley Landfill – surprised the slick operation and cleanliness.
- Product Stewardship – A commercial study – turning nappies into compost
- The formal dinner at the Christchurch Airforce museum – just an awesome location…
- Sulo Talbot’s Worms on Wheels product – great idea
- Trade Commission of Denmark – forever helpful in connecting NZ and Denmark
Photos of the highlights will be up next week.
Tags: community, diverting waste from landfill, e-waste, environmental sustainability, Green Collar Jobs, linda norris, plastics, recycle, SIFT, Waste Management
Posted in Events | 1 Comment »
Thursday, October 22nd, 2009 by Admin
 350.org Saturday is the International Day of Climate Action – raising awareness of taking action to tackle climate change to reduce our CO2 emissions back down to a “safe” limit of 350 parts per million. This is being organised and coordinatted across 170 countries by an organisation called 350.org. Set up by environmentalist and eduacator Bill McKibben Saturday will bring many different group activities to highlight climate change and the number 350 – in New Zealand there are currently 110 activities planned. It is actually more than raising awareness about climate change it is (as the website states) a chance for the public to take a stand and make it known that we have to do everything we can to reduce our emissions to 350ppm to slow global warming and reduce the likelihood of the temperature increasing more than 2 degrees celsius over the next 50-100 years. 350ppm is the safe upper limit for the amount of CO2 in our atmosphere.
 Co2 now The current ppm CO2 in our atmosphere (as measured by Earth Systems Research Laboratory (ESRL) / National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) at Moana Loa Observatory in Hawaii (where CO2 has been measured since the mid 1950’s)) is 384.78 ppm and climbing.
Check out 350 Aotearoa for what is happening in your region and how you can get involved. In Christchurch the activities includes Frocks on Bikes in Victoria Square, planting on the Southshore, artwork on New Brighton Pier, Port Hill Greens will be at Victoria Square asking people to reduce their emissions by 10% by 2010, Canterbury surfers will paddle out on the sea to show their support and many others.
Also CO2now.org is a great website for climate change information and how ESRL and NOAA study CO2 – there are also some interesting and informative videos and you can download a CO2 counter for your website or blog like the one above.
Read here for why 350ppm is such an important number.
And here is the wonderfully animated 350.org video.
And here are a range of great photos of what people have done to raise awareness of 350.
Get involved and take a stand today.
Tags: 10:10, 350 Aotearoa, 350.org, Bill McKibben, climate change, environmental sustainability, ESRL, Frocks on Bikes, NOAA
Posted in Events | No Comments »
|
|
   find out more
|
