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Posts Tagged ‘christchurch’
Wednesday, February 8th, 2012 by Admin
 Waste separation schemes help to minimize the amount of useable waste going to landfills As wheelie bins allocated to different types of waste are appearing throughout the country, it is becoming increasingly obvious that separating and treating our various types of waste correctly could have a major impact on the amount of waste that is, well, wasted instead of used constructively.
In Canterbury, we now have three bins dedicated to separating waste and enabling more efficient waste collection , and Auckland has just got the ‘yellow’ recycling bin, which means for the most part we can effectively separate our waste. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: CCC, christchurch, diverting waste from landfill, food waste, landfill, recycle, recycling, sustainable living, Waste Management
Posted in Friday favourites, Waste Management | No Comments »
Wednesday, June 29th, 2011 by Admin
Following the February 22nd earthquake, Greening the Rubble is back in full-swing utilising derelict urban properties. Established after the earthquake in September 2010, Greening the Rubble has successfully established a pocket-park on the corner of Victoria and Salisbury Street. Although previous projects were put on hold due to February’s quake, Greening the Rubble has confirmed two future park additions for the city, one located on Riccarton Road, and the other on St. Asaph Street.
The organization is largely volunteer based, with local businesses donating products, design students lending their vision and many giving their time to create the relaxing spaces within Christchurch. If you would like to know more on the progress of sites, or if you are the landowner of a site that could be utilised, browse the website here.
They have a great resource of links as well to keep you informed about the Christchurch Rebuild and you can follow the organisation on Facebook too.
Tags: christchurch, Earthquake, Greening the Rubble, rebuild
Posted in News on Sustainability, Other Sustainable Initiatives, Pratical Action, Sustainability in Action | No Comments »
Monday, May 2nd, 2011 by Admin
Great photo from EcoCentral (formerly CCC2) showing one of the sites where all of the demoltion waste from the earthquake(s) is being sorted by Transpacific Industries Ltd.
 Source: EcoCentral
Tags: christchurch, demolition, Earthquake, EcoCentral, sorting, waste
Posted in Waste Management | No Comments »
Friday, April 29th, 2011 by Admin
 Arthur Williamson With his 80th birthday just around the corner in May and after seven years on the SIFT Board of Trustees, it is time to say good bye to Arthur Williamson as a SIFT trustee. Arthur has a breadth of knowledge which has seen him play an integral role in over-seeing the governance of SIFT and our many and varied projects over the years. As the former head of Chemical and Process Engineering and Dean of Engineering at the University of Canterbury, as well as being the founder of one of New Zealand’s leading manufacturers of solar heating equipment, Thermocell Limited, Arthur not only has a valuable science background, but also holds a vast knowledge on what it takes to successfully run an environmentally sustainable business.
We spoke to Arthur to find out about his favourite SIFT projects, what he hopes for Canterbury’s sustainable business future and what his plans are for his retirement years.
Do you have a memorable SIFT project that you enjoyed working on the most?
The Waste 2 Energy (W2E) project that we have on at the moment because it has developed so much over time and the project itself presents some very interesting opportunities.
Is there a particular environmental issue facing Canterbury that you like to see tackled by a local business?
Not specific to Canterbury, but the country needs to get onto overall renewable fuels and transport systems; otherwise we will be in trouble in the very near future.
Do you have any specific hopes for Christchurch’s central city rebuild?
I hope that a group will get together that will produce an integrated sustainable development programme for the city.
What are your plans for the future, now that you have retired from your position on the Board of Trustees?
Do a few more things that I want to do!
Many thanks to Arthur from the Sustainable Initiatives Fund board of trustees and management for his advice, support, expertise and excellent engineering and energetics knowledge that have been very useful. We hope that you enjoy doing all that you now wish to do.
Tags: Arthur Williamson, christchurch, energetics, future, rebuild, renewables, retirement, SIFT, trustees, University of Canterbury
Posted in SIFT | No Comments »
Monday, April 11th, 2011 by Admin
A new petition has come through to SIFT from one of our new projects (and through my connections with the Lincoln Envirotown Trust) to make our voice heard to the government that we want to rebuild Christchurch sustainably. This is a great idea and I only hope that lots of people sign it (like all those who signed the pledge and more!) and that the town leaders, government, city planners and designers all listen.
This is a fantastic opportunity to rebuild Christchurch for a future whereby the buildings and citizens of the city have a positive environmental impact at all levels of sustainability (and are ready for the impacts of climate change).
After finding that there is currently no leadership on this issue Lou Warren (from over the hill in Diamond Harbour) started the petition on change.org.
You can sign the petition here and we encourage as many Cantabrians and New Zealanders alike to sign it and let our voice be heard (now’s our chance): “We, the people of Canterbury, the people of New Zealand and our friends internationally, want you to deliver a well-planned, environmentally sustainable re-build of Christchurch.”
Thanks to Lou for setting this up and we look forward to seeing how many people sign, who listens and the plans for our lovely city.
Tags: christchurch, climate change, Earthquake, future, sustainable city, waste
Posted in Business & Sustainability, Pratical Action, Sustainability in Action | No Comments »
Monday, April 4th, 2011 by Admin
Press article from last Friday tells us that the rubble from the Christchurch earthquake (and there is a lot – 4.25 million tonnes of rubble and 325,000 tonnes of silt) will go to a special Resource Recovery Park in Bottle Lake Forest Park, Burwood in Christchurch where it will be dumped and then sorted – some for reuse. This will help reduce the amount of reusable rubble going to Kate Valley Landfill. No doubt in the months to come there will be millions of more tonnes from buildings that might be structurally sound but the ground isn’t so they will have to come down as well to shore up the foundations. Update – this is being managed by Transpacific Industries Ltd.
Only some of the Bottle Lake Forest Park will be used as a Resource Recovery Centre – the rest will continue to be a great site for bikers and walkers.
More here.
List of accreditated places to take demolition material
The list of buildings that face demolition
Tags: christchurch, Earthquake, landfill, park, Press, resource recovery, reuse, rubble
Posted in Waste Management | No Comments »
Friday, March 25th, 2011 by Admin
 Flash Dunny Video from NZ Herald The mornings are getting cooler and the leaves are turning and every day a little bit more sad news on the state of our city comes through. It is really starting to hit home that it is going to take years to recover from the earthquake.
But, on a positive note there are still a lot of people doing good things in the world and here are our favourite and interesting links from the past week:
Have a great waste free weekend.
Tags: christchurch, composting toilets, Earthquake, Energy, Flash dunny, Friday favourites, Good, junk culture, mfe, NZ Herald, Pepsi, Prix Pictet
Posted in Friday favourites | No Comments »
Tuesday, March 15th, 2011 by Admin
It’s hard to think about blogging when the city is still in limbo and people are still taking daily steps to get their businesses (if they still exist) and lives back on track. Eclipsed by the Japanese disaster the changes that have occured in our city are still awfully sad and depressing – it has been three weeks and there is still a very long way to go.
SIFT is still moving forward though with current projects and new ones coming through the pipeline – hopefully some we can talk about soon for some positivity.
We are still on the look out for anything interesting that we can add to this blog and this morning I came across this awesome piece of new packaging from American green cleaning company Seventh Generation (read more of the article here on Re-Nest (links through to their source USA Today)).
The container is made from recycled cardboard and newspaper (the lid is still plastic) but this is a fantastic leap forward away from using plastic and something that could be done here in NZ. A type of packaging that we need more of across all plastic packaging lines – if it can be done with laundry liquid it can be done with all other cleaners, pet food and even cosmetics. And depending on what is inside the packaging maybe it could be compostable/biodegradable as well.
This is great!
 Seventh Generation Laundry Liquid via ReNest via USA Today Read more on the great specs of this new packaging.
Tags: blogging, cardboard, christchurch, Earthquake, packaging, Recycled, renest, Seventh Generation
Posted in Business & Sustainability, Waste Management | No Comments »
Wednesday, March 9th, 2011 by Admin
Spotted this news story on TV3 the other night from Jessica Rowe (who interviewed me for the Agpac Plasback story in the new year (but I didn’t make it on screen!)). The amount of perishable goods in stores in the buildings that still have not been or can not be accessed are probably long past their expiry date and without power to keep them cool they will be long past their smelling okay date too. There is a lot of mixed waste going to landfill that just can’t be separated – demolition waste mixed with organics and general rubbish mixed with householder organics. It is just another step on the road to recovery for Christchurch.
The story does have a rat focus (which in itself is interesting) but it does highlight the probably amount of rubbish that is sitting in the middle of the CBD and has been since the earthquake.
Fears rats could take over CBD text
Video Link
Information & Links from Canterburyearthquake.org.nz
Tags: christchurch, collection, Earthquake, rats, refuse, rubbish, TV3
Posted in Waste Management | No Comments »
Monday, March 7th, 2011 by Admin
The cordon in Christchurch CBD was reduced yesterday afternoon allowing many residents and businesses to return to their homes/offices to secure buildings and get what they needed from them. Being in Green Zone 1 I was able to go into town yesterday afternoon to assess the damage and pick up work and office things in order to make it easier to work from home.
The carpark is full of silt, dust and mounds of liquefaction that didn’t crack through the surface of the concrete. Every office has a broken window where the building assessment teams got in to check the stability and safety – thankfully ours has a green sticker – and the whole place just has a massive emptiness to it.
SIFT is still operational even though we are not working out of that office at the moment.
Here are some photos of the inside of our office:
You can’t quite see it from the photo above but the office desks have moved about half a metre out from the wall.
The glass board table took 5 burley blokes to move in pieces. This one middle section piece of glass will need to be lifted by at least 4 people in order to put it back in place. It has moved out a couple of inches and I think the whole table moved towards the right wall.
And although this was a shock to look at it is nothing compared to the destruction of other buildings, people’s homes and the lives of the residents of Christchurch. It will take a long time to rebuild.
Tags: christchurch, damage, Earthquake, office, SIFT, Sustainable Initiatives Fund Trust
Posted in SIFT | No Comments »
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