Only 3.5 days to go to enter the e-waste competition so get your entry in now. We have two iPod Nanos as the prizes and you can enter online here.
We have already had some great entries but would love to get some more ideas.
SIFT Projects » Sift BlogArchive for the ‘SIFT Projects’ CategoryLast days to enter e-waste competitionTuesday, November 17th, 2009 by AdminAnother new plastics recycling plant opens in ChristchurchWednesday, November 11th, 2009 by AdminChristchurch 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. SIFT Project – AgpacMonday, November 9th, 2009 by AdminSIFT is able to help a variety of projects get started through a number of different types of funding. Agpac is great example of SIFT helping out with a grant. Agpac needed some funding to develop a wash plant with an aim to recycle baleage wrap from farms.  Farm feed wrapped in Baleage While supplying baleage wrap (and other polythene products) to the rural sector Agpac wanted to find a way to reuse, recycle or dispose of baleage wrap and plastic silage pit covers sustainably. As producers of the packaging they felt it was their responsibility to ensure that it was disposed of appropriately with minimal harm to the environment. Currently, the wrap is either burnt (polluting the atmosphere), buried or left to blow around the rural property, causing environmental damage. The difficulty in recycling it, however, is its high contamination with manure, water, mud and damage.  Used baleage wrap container (made from recycled baleage wrap) Agpac developed an easy-to-use bin for farmers to put their old and used baleage wrap into, decreasing the chance of contamination (and then increasing the amount of baleage wrap that can be recycled). This is then collected, shredded, washed then recycled. The old baleage wrap is then turned into the baleage wrap collection bins (as in the photo above). Agpac’s goal is to have every farmer in NZ with a baleage wrap collection bin. The grant from SIFT was to help with research and development and the trialing of the recycling process. They are now in their fourth year and take around 280 tonnes of plastic wrap from farms. This is a great example of product stewardship in action – Agpac supply crop packaging products and then take back and recycle used packaging for responsible reuse – thus diverting more waste from landfill. We need more of this across all industries. Agpac also bring in recycled bins from Italy (made from recycled Polypropylene and Polyethylene) to help make recycling and waste sorting easy. Called Urba there are 7L kitchen caddies, 40L stackable towers, breathable compost bins with bio bags and a range of other bins to make recycling (and diverting waste from landfill) easier. SIFT has one of the compost bins in our office and it doesn’t even smell. Agpac also make Tuffboard recycled plastic sheeting and compost bins made from recycled HDPE plastic. This morning Chris Hartshorne, Recycling Manager from Agpac joined SIFT CEO Linda Norris on PlainsFM’s GreenBiz segment to talk about the history of the idea to recycle the baleage wrap, how the initiative affects the supply chain for retailers and brand owners, the bins, farms, how the waste is collected, producer responsibility and product stewardship (whether it should be mandatory or voluntary). Here is the podcast.  Agpac's Chris Hartshorne with their Urba recycling bins at PlainsFM Agpac will also be opening a new compressor tomorrow – another step in making their producer responsibility/product stewardship recycling scheme more streamlined and efficient. Plains FM Green Biz Podcast – Green ITTuesday, November 3rd, 2009 by Admin
You can listen to yesterday’s podcast here, where Linda brought along our IT guy Paul Walmsley (who is also the head of IT at PGG Wrightsons).
New e-waste competition – Plug into the environment with SIFTMonday, November 2nd, 2009 by Admin
 Source: Flickr: Rvibek Millions of computers, cell phones, cameras, televisions, iPods and other electronic devices are bought each year and the number is growing. When they are no longer wanted most end up in landfills with over 80,000 tonnes of electronic waste (“e-waste”) being sent to landfills annually.
E-waste contains toxic materials that can leach out of landfills causing environmental pollution and damage. Other materials such as steel and copper wiring can be recovered and be reused.
Because of the large amounts of hazardous e-waste going to landfill we decided to ask the community for new ideas on how we can reduce the large amount of hazardous e-waste that is ending up in New Zealand landfills (where it will sit for hundreds of years). Do you have any ideas?
The SIFT e-waste competition has two main categories: - The most sustainable and commercially viable idea, or - The most creative and artistic idea (we are looking for some e-waste art made out of personal  Source: Flickr: CP entertainment equipment for our Green Boardroom).
Please fill in the form on the e-waste Competition page of our website and if you are entering the artistic/creative category please send the e-waste art to Unit 17, 212 Antigua Street, Christchurch.
The competition is open to all Cantabrians.
Competition closes Friday 20 November, 2009.
Prizes The winners will receive an iPod Nano each and will be notified Wednesday 2 December, 2009 and listed on the SIFT website Friday 4 December, 2009.
More information and full terms and conditions can also be found on our website. Interview with Jo Wynne – winner of our Styrofoam Recycling competitionMonday, November 2nd, 2009 by Admin Paul Ryan with fellow competition winner Jo Wynne Interview with Jo Wynne – the winner of the most artistic/creative category of our Styrofoam Tray recycling competition back in September. What do you do to live more sustainably (with a low impact) in your life? Recycle – love the Christchurch bin system and challenge myself to keep the red lid bin empty. Grow vegetables. Shop at the Op shop for clothes which I often redesign – for example I’m opening some silk scarves to make a crazy patchwork jacket. How do you live more sustainably in your work? I’m retired but in my last job I used public transport and walked to work and reduced paper use.
What do you think is the biggest environmental issue we need to deal with in Christchurch/New Zealand? Water allocation and quality, and transport. What makes you smile? Sun, flowers, babies and The Conchords What is your biggest pet peeve? Any negative judgement based on difference What is your favourite colour and why? Blue: we have amazing skies – I love to look at different cloud shapes against the blue background. Also I love the blue-green colour of some rivers and lakes – for example Hokitika Gorge. Do you have a favourite place in the world? Describe why? Tauranga Bay and any part of the West Coast coastline that has the wild sea crashing on the rocks and huge sea spray. This comes from living on the Coast as a child. What’s your connection to Sift? I have an ongoing interest in sustainability but only came in contact with Sift through winning the Creative section of the recent competition what to do with non- recyclable styrofoam meat plates. Do you remember your favourite teacher and why they were your favourite? My favourite teacher was enthusiastic, funny and liked me. What do you want to leave behind? Good memories What do you think the future will bring? More awareness of the interconnectedness of all life. Who is someone you really admire and why? Nelson Mandela for his apparent lack of bitterness, anger, revenge for the unjust treatment against himself and the blacks of South Africa. What is happening outside your window right now? Flowers and new leaves opening by the minute, weekend walkers and dogs. What is your favourite breakfast? Homemade muesli with raw fruit – kiwi, orange , apple, orange and Greek yoghurt What is the best piece of advice you can give us? It feels as though you are on the right track by using interesting fun ways to get across a serious message and lead people to rethink their lives. So do keep on doing the same thing and at the same time find more ways to reach even more people. Algae to biofuels on RadioNZ NationalTuesday, October 27th, 2009 by Admin Green algae On the radio this morning there was a great little story on the Algae to biofuels project over in Bromley, Christchurch. 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. You can read more about the project here or listen to the Radio New Zealand National news story here. Video of interview with competition winner Paul RyanThursday, October 8th, 2009 by AdminSift Plastics Research Executive SummaryThursday, September 24th, 2009 by AdminRecently Sift conducted an in-depth piece of research to find out what the life of plastic packaging is, where it ends up and better ways of recycling it and targeting behavioural change within a consumer education programme, so we don’t use so much plastic in the first place. You can read the aims and findings of the research by downloading the pdf from our news section here. Recycled cardboard for bedding.Wednesday, September 23rd, 2009 by Admin Sift CEO Linda Norris with Airlyte's Donald King & Angelique Hyde, of Green Acres Stud during the trial. One of Sift’s success projects from 2008 was recycled cardboard made into animal bedding from Airlyte. The company recently had a write up about its product on Scoop. You can read the article here. Airlyte spent 18 months investigating the use of recycled cardboard (made into chips) to be used as bedding for animals. They came to Sift for funding to be able to purchase a shredding machine from the UK, which could shred waste cardboard, slicing and dicing it and removing dust. You can now purchae the resulting product from Airlyte for animal bedding. It has proven to be a highly successful product that is performs better than sawdust. Airlyte animal bedding is five times more absorbent than sawdust, it weighs less and easier to muck out, is free of fungi, spores, seeds and parasites, reduces the risk of respiratory irritation and disease, is more spongy underfoot and when urinated on, soaks up fluid from bottom layer, allowing top layer to dry more quickly. What more could you want from a bedding product for your horse, guinea pig, rabbits or chickens. Once it has been used it can be put on the garden as mulch. We love new products that not only recycle (or upcycle) a waste but continue to have multiple uses. |
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