CO2 » Sift Blog
Posts Tagged ‘CO2’
Friday, June 25th, 2010 by Admin
 Source: Twig & Thistle Sárah Goldschadt Garden Flags Reusing egg cartons SIFT has had a big week this week. I attended the Philanthropy NZ Regional Funders Forum on Tuesday and learnt about how to create a learning organisation from Fiona Ellis, who is the ex-Director of the Northern Rock Foundation in the UK, and what it means to be a social lender from Laura Benedict, a social lending practioner from the US. Laura is in New Zealand at the moment to write a paper on social lending in New Zealand as part of the Ian Axford (New Zealand) Public Policy Fellowship and is the head of the commercial lending department of Self Help, the US’s largest non-profit community development financial institution. Lots of great and useful information from both speakers that I am still digesting.
And yesterday we had our yearly SIFT Strategic Planning Afternoon. We reviewed why we are here, what we want SIFT to be and do, the values, vision, mission and critical outcomes for the next year. One of those is to continue to grow SIFT as a learning organisation specifically to find waste minimisation/avoidance solutions.
We are ready for a New Year full of new projects and new ways of operating.
But for today here are the favourite links from around the world and locally:
Have a great waste free weekend.
Tags: CCC, CO2, garden, GE Lighting, Keep NZ Beautiful, KR Connect, landfill, Paul Stametse, PhilanthropyNZ, Re-nest, Self Help, SIFT, Southland, spring, strategy, waste
Posted in Friday favourites | No Comments »
Wednesday, April 14th, 2010 by Admin
 photo: SIFT One of our current long term projects is the financial assistance (in the form of a loan) we gave to Comspec in Hornby. We have written about them before on this blog but I thought it was time for site visit. Actually going to where the action takes place, talking to those who make it happen and being amongst the process gives a much thorough understanding of how we have helped.
So, this morning I met Robert and Stephanie Fowler at their plastic recycling plant in Hornby. After going through some background info on what they do I was given a site tour. At one end you have baled plastic milk bottles waiting their turn to be shredded, then washed and then the resulting flakes are formed into resin pellets that are then turned into irrigation piping. A very simplified explanation but in a nut shell that is it and in person it is pretty clear to see the process work from one end of the plant to the other.
 photo: SIFT  Shredded plastic Photo: SIFT In the past empty plastic milk bottles had been packed up and sent to China where they were recycled there. Now, with Compsec’s plant, plastic milk bottles can be recycled “on shore” and provide a feedstock of plastic resin for use in New Zealand (reducing the amount of virigin resin imported into NZ). On shore recycling (especially with New Zealand’s location in the world) will reduce the impact of transportation of materials going overseas thus reducing CO2 emissions from shipping. Plus, the Comspec process can save an average of 1 tonne of CO2 per tonne of plastic that is recycled, further reducing our impactful carbon footprint.
With a network of collectors around the South Island Comspec aims to recycle 1000 tonnes of plastic milk bottles each year. With a 110,000 milk bottles making up a tonne that’s a lot of milk bottles.
SIFT’s focus is to continue to help those who require financial assistance to develop a project that will reduce the amount of waste that ends up in our landfills which will in turn help to develop a strong network of commerically viable businesses and individual projects throughout Canterbury that can sustainable continue making an impact. Not only will this make Canterbury a healthy environment to live in but will also help the Canterbury and New Zealand economies.
Thanks to Robert Fowler for taking time out of his busy morning to show me ’round.
You can read more about Comspec here.
You can also see all the photos from the Comspec launch here on Flickr.
Tags: carbon emissions, CO2, Comspec, Hornby, landfill, onshore recycling, plastic, recycling, SIFT, sustainable initiatives, waste, Waste Management
Posted in SIFT Projects, Sustainability in Action, Waste Management | No Comments »
Tuesday, November 24th, 2009 by Admin
Radio New Zealand National is somewhat underrated for its level of interesting, informative and on-trend information. This past Saturday This Way Up looked into the amount of food waste that there is each year, where it comes from and what we can do. They state that there are no reliable figures from the Ministry for the Environment for food waste in New Zealand but site a 2003 Australian study that said that 13% of all waste is from food – that’s around $500 per person per year. They go on to say that this ofcourse has a significant impact on the levels of Methane in our landfills which is around 35 times more impactful and damaging than CO2 in the atmosphere.
In 2008, in Christchurch, 23% of our waste is “kitchen” waste which we can assume will be mostly food, that has gone to landfill. That’s 50,000 kg of organics that could have been composted (there are no figures on how much comes from household and how much from producers, manufacturers and retailers).
 Waste by Tristram Stuart This Way Up interviewed Tristram Stuart who wrote the book Waste: Uncovering the Global Food Scandal who talks about how the UK government “raked through 2000 homes” in order to see what was in their rubbish and the impact of food waste from retailers and manufacturers. He also discusses how the UK government carried out an educational campaign on how to reduce their food waste (such as food storage, cooking and using left overs) and it worked saving many hundreds of millions of pounds.
This Way Up then they interviewed both Foodstuffs and Progressive (although Foodstuff didn’t give an interview and stated it “didn’t have any figures on the problem” of food waste from the supermarkets). Progressive state that nationally they are sending 20,000 tonnes of food waste to landfill and that “they are actively monitoring and measuring this”.
Interestingly, Progressive are looking to reduce their carbon footprint by 40% by 2014 on 2006 levels and to reduce their food waste by 1%. Progressive are also rolling out a feedstock programme so that their organic food waste goes to livestock and have given manager’s the opportunity to reduce prices that have gone past their sell by date (nothing is sold that has gone past its used by date and they discuss the health and safety around products that have gone past their used by date but could still be okay to eat and they are looking into a programme that can give this healthy but gone past its used by date to the needy). They are also using better food ordering and waste reporting systems.
This is an interesting insight into food waste in New Zealand and we feel there is a quite a gap in knowledge on our food waste.
 Food Waste that can still by eaten Source: Flickr JBloom
Tags: climate change, CO2, consumption, diverting waste from landfill, environmental sustainability, food waste, Foodstuffs, kitchen, methane, organics, Progressive, RadioNZ National, This Way Up, Tristram Stuart, waste
Posted in Sustainability in Action, 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 »
|
|
   find out more
|
