Baled Paper - Copyright - SIFT

What a whirlwind week! We were at the WasteMinz conference earlier in the week and then spent yesterday in catch up mode. So, for today we have few cool things we have found that might be of interest and then next week there will be a bit of a run down on the conference and what we learned.

The most important thing learnt during the two days (it was a mix of Behaviour Change workshops and workshops on waste related issues) is that we need to act sustainably everyday – small actions will add up to make a big impact.

Here are the Friday Favourites:

• The toilet paper issue – how far will you go to reduce your paper waste – all the way to cloths?
• How about eating paper with no calories? As long as it is recycled!
• The biodegradable pen – love it!
• A new guide to buying sustainable paper for your office here launched recently by the NZ Business Council for Sustainable Development and the Government.
• A better recycling campaign was also launched this week by the Community Recycling Network (Sue Coutts presented a very informative presentation at the WasteMinz workshop about the launch and why we need to implement more effective and efficient recycling systems with less contamination and to increase onshore recycling). You read see more of what they do here.
• And finally, Envirocomp who compost nappies are still on a roll composting 15,000 nappies a day and looking to expand - more here.

No Frills Just Refills - WWF NZ Eco-Competition Winners

It’s been rather a busy one this week. Lots of projects on the going that lets SIFT continue on its journey of being a catalyst for change in reducing how much of our waste goes here.

But, from around the world, there have come up some inspiring, interesting, informative, innovative and impactful ideas  including these:

• More ideas for reducing your disposables use from The Good Human.
• Green postcards perfect for that arty yet greeny someone.
• Hello! Glass Straws – perfect idea – no more plastic straws!  – Just don’t forget to get a little brush cleaner too!
• Excellent Life Cycle Analysis of washable versus disposable nappies.
• Making it cool – we all know that the best way to change behaviour is to make it cool – check out this video of some extreme recycling – love it!
• Make Do and Play – great new website on making do with what you have and adding a few reusable connector items for some great play time.
• Haven’t tried this yet but looks like an excellent reuse of cardboard – the cardboard laptop stand.
• Waste Art = Judith Selby Land and Richard Lang collect beach plastic and turn it into sculptures.
• A great video on Recycling bed mattresses – is this being done here in NZ anywhere?
• Millions and millions of disposable coffee cups end up in landfill each year so Starbucks is sponsoring a Betacup design competition to find a solution. We have a source that says that 4.75 million non recyclable non-biodegradable coffee cups are landfilled each year in NZ – yikes! We look forward to seeing the winning solution. Also Starbucks are planning to have only reusable or recyclable coffee cups by 2015 – good move.
• A very simple and easy to understand blog post from Simply Organic on how to make your own compost.
• Are you a knitter or crafter? Ever thought of havesting the yarn from second hand jumpers? Great post on how to here. It will save you money and have less of an impact on the environment.
• Another great Re-Nest find, Nature’s Paper. Paper made in Australia from left over wheat straw – genius idea!
• And finally the WWF New Zealand Eco-Design competition has a winner – No Frills Just Refills. A new milk bottle design for supermarkets that is 100% recyclable and reusable and with a self-service milk station (the 21st century Milk Bar?) to cut down on emissions from transportaion and production of plastic milk bottles. Plus, the design is excellent. This is the kind of innovation New Zealand needs to become more sustainable. Congratulations to the team – we would definitely buy this from our supermarket!

Source: Flickr Zenkatydid

Here are a few good links that we have come across over the past week that you might be interested in:

• Puts it into perspective – decompostition rates of some everyday items
• New Trelise Cooper eco Bags – but don’t we only need a few not new ones each year causing more waste?
• Changing behaviour by making it fun with the piano stairs – can we do this with waste reduction?
• Ideas for reusing old CDs and DVDs (which we can’t recycle here yet).
• Dilemma: reduce packaging or reduce food waste by choosing packaged food here by Arduous.
• Modern and inspiring waste into art by Heath Nash here.
• Keeping bread fresh without plastics here.
• And Christchurch to become a city of electric cars by 2012 here.

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.