PrattWhitney Air New Zealand Engineering Centre Electroplating Workshop

A new project we have added to the projects page of our website is the funding of  Tech Design and Consultancy Ltd, with a $5,000 grant to assist with a feasibility study, prototype trials and patent searches for their heavy metal filtration system, carried out in 2010. The focus of the project was to determine the effectiveness of using a modified wool copolymer product to filter out heavy metals that are commonly discharged into the rinse water stream from the electroplating industry. In Christchurch, the waste currently enters the Bromley sludge ponds, or is deposited into the ocean via offshore pipelines.

This project is an example of a waste stream that not many people will be thinking about. A waste stream from the manufacturing of a certian element of a product and there must be so much more like this that have a massive impact on the environment but we just can’t see it. Mostly because we only buy the product in its final stage. This is where cradle to cradle , full product life cycle impact analysis, product stewardship schemes and business leadership and responsibility is crucial in really reducing the waste produced from the stuff we buy and the impact it has on the environment.

Read more about the Tech Design project.

SIFT 2010 Christmas Tree

The 100% Recyclable and Compostable Christmas Tree

Here at the Sustainable Initiatives Fund office we enjoy getting in the Christmas spirit while implementing our core values of sustainability and minimisation of wastestreams. For these reasons, it was fitting for our office Christmas tree to be one which embodies the three R’s, Reduce, Reuse and Recycle.

The ‘tree’ is made from bamboo shoots and assembled with unbleached twine.  We created our own decorations by using outdated business flyers: creating stars, Christmas chain and even a little angel. The decorations were held together and hung with cotton and we added small torn calico bows and finished the look off with a tree-topping star made from old office file dividers. Through creativity we have made a 100% recyclable and compostable* Christmas tree. The finishing product was so good that it will be the face of SIFT’s 2010 Christmas card!

Let us know how you are reducing your waste this Christmas.

On 11 November, 2010, a fantastic project started called the Free Fashion Challenge. A collaborative project between Laura de Jong, the Amsterdam Fashion Institute and Beyond Green, the Free Fashion Challenge will see 15 self-proclaimed fashion addicts from all around the world, go cold-turkey in their addiction to consume, for 365 days.

Laura de Jong, who is a graduate of the Amsterdam Fashion Institute, recognises the massive change in societal attitudes to fashion over the past decades, and the ever growing disposability of items – lending to the term, “fast fashion”. Though she recognises that there is a growing market for sustainable production within the fashion and textile industries, she believes that the true catalyst for fashion sustainability will be a change in consumer attitudes.

Showcased on the website, is Dutch designer Monique van Heist who suitably designs her ‘collection without an end’. Heist believes ‘Success doesn’t depend on a new collection every year, or even four times a year. . .’ and wants to see an end to the consumer based fast-fashion industry which is predominant within the current industry.

This is a great way to assess our own consumer habits of fashion and pick up ideas on how we can help make the fashion industry more sustainable.

Could you do it?

Bicycles for Recycling at Resource Recycling (ChCh)

These weeks are flying by – soon we will be talking about how to have a waste free Christmas and summer holiday and feeling the heat rather than the cold! But, in the meantime here are some cheery mid-Winter links for your Friday.

• How to make your own magazine files – genius from Re-Nest.
• A treehugger article by Fred Pearce on the growing problem of consumption not population here.
• A possible solution to textiles waste from NYC here.
• Ideas for recycling old linen here.
• Green Investment Bank proposed for the UK reported by the Guardian here.
• New Waste Facilities Survey from the MfE here.

Have a Waste Free Weekend.

ScanWood Modern Wood Utensils

On the quest to reducing our waste we need to find other solutions and this is one new one we have come across recently.

A month or so ago a plastic spatula tool (for flipping pancakes and pulling poached eggs out of the water) broke. The head split from the handle. Thinking that plastic was the only option I trundled off to my local kitchen store and picked up a new one with a metal handle (about $20). The old one consciously went to landfill (glue wouldn’t have fixed it).  The old spatula had lasted years – the new one within a few uses started to fall apart. And scarily the plastic was coming off the end or melting and could possibly be leaving plastic in our food. So not a good idea. I had read too much from Beth at Fake Plastic Fish to  worry about the chemicals from plastic leaching into our food not to try to find a new solution (a change away from plastic had started in other areas but I like to not buy new until the old is too old to use first!).

Then recenlty on a trip to the lovely Meditteranean Food Warehouse I discovered a wooden pasta turner. It was made of beechwood but made in China. Lightbulb moment (LED styles) and I thought maybe there is another option. And last weekend I discovered ScanWood and replaced the plastic spatula with a lovely wooden one also made of beechwood but this time from Denmark (and ony $6 (super cheap compared to the plastic)). So although when you think of wood you think of trees and then trees being cut down and not being used to store carbon if the product is made of sustainably harvested wood (more research required here especially for the China made models) wood is still the better option over plastic. Oil as we know goes into to making plastic. Oil is a fossil fuel that humans have burnt leading to global warming and plastic takes hundreds of  years, to break down in landfill. Plastic is not the better option (especially if the product falls apart faster than it should).

Wood on the other hand will not melt into my food, can be loving looked after with some olive oil every so often, will break down over a much shorter time when it does get to landfill and if you buy the right product comes from sustainably harvested wood. It also looks and feels a lot nicer in your kitchen.

Olive Wood Utensils from ScanWood

So the practical action for this week is to purchase wooden kitchen utensils over plastic. If you need to consume purchase good quality that will last a long time, doesn’t leach into your food or negatively impact the environment and makes life nicer!

A new found love of wood has led to thinking about buying wood turned bowls as well instead of using plastic mixing bowls and to find local wood turners who are making wooden kitchen utensils from local wood instead of buying imported product. And now, of course  there is the  problem with all of the plastic utensils at home. Others can use them so they will be given away instead of throwing them out. Unfortunately, plastic kitchen utensils can not be recycled.

Another good wood product for home cleaning (instead of plastic) is the wood scrubbing brushes from EcoStore. You can get replaceable heads and it cleans much better than any plastic scrubbing brush and lasts just as long. Mixed with a little Dr Bronner liquid castille soap and it makes kitchen cleaning super easy. The wood used is beechwood and the the bristles are made from a vegetable fibre. EcoStore import the product from Germany.

EcoStore Wooden Clothes Pegs

EcoStore also have lovely old-fashioned wooden clothes pegs too (although you could probably find these second hand).

Do you have any other ideas for reducing plastic use/waste?

Christchurch City Council Recycling Truck (Source: CCC)

Lots of great and intersting waste and sustainability tid bits have been discovered this week:

• The glowing lamp made out of coffee cups from Re-Nest.
• Something we want to try – making our own paper.
• In the US it is prom (or formal) time and some high school girls are looking for green prom dresses – great idea.
• Bicycling as it should be – wouldn’t this be great for Christchurch – rush hour traffic on bikes from the Netherlands – could watch it for hours!
• Another Re-Nest find – covering chairs with old jersies.
• Thinking of switching from disposable razors for shaving to a snazzy metal one that will last years? If seeing who else does will help  Satorialist Scott Schuman does.
• Another look at what we consume – Kate Bingaman Burt drew what she bought everyday for 3 years.
• And more locally there has been some recent media attention on the Christchurch City Council requesting all residents ensure their bin lids are completely down otherwise they will not be emptied. You can listen to Radio New Zealand National’s Jim Mora to talk Mayor Bob Parker here (choose the Panel segment #2 and it is about three-quarters through) or read it in the Christchurch Press here.

Have a lovely Autumnal weekend.

Autumnal Colours of Lewis Pass, Canterbury

A “co-mingled” blend of the interesting links from around the world that we have come across in the past week:

• A very good use of plastic bags – helping those without a roof in Haiti with plastic bag tarps.
• Artist Helga Steppan audits all her belongings and then groups them by colour in “See Through” on Junkculture. A really interesting way to look at your stuff. You can see more of her colourful work here.
• A very practical and useful article from Re-Nest on how to buy only what you love – conscious consumption tips and tricks.
• A quick history lesson on plastic here with some sobering stats.

Photo from here.

Source: Flickr Ed's Photostream 11 Butterfly

The Sustainable Initiatives Fund Trust is a catalyst for change. We know (roughly) how much waste is generated, how much goes to landfill, what the negative environmental impacts are of that waste (leachate, toxins, global warming from methane emissions etc) and the amount of work and cultural behaviour change that is required to reduce how much waste is generated and sometimes that can be rather overwhelming and depressing. But, everyday we are reminded of those individuals, businesses and community groups who are doing good work and we are uplifted everyday by those we are helping to make the numbers better and improve the health of our environment – one step at a time, one day at a time.

Sometimes it can take a few years from the start of the relationship to the final outcome of the project. And that final outcome may just be the first step in many steps to creating a sustainable and commercially viable process that can help to significantly reduce the amount of waste that goes to Canterbury’s landfills.

It is about having a long term goal for our future – a sustainable Canterbury future where any waste generated is reused, recovered or recycled on shore first and where landfill and sending it offshore is the last resort (for all waste streams). But it will take time, patience, innovative ideas, advancement in technology, sound investment, collaboration (public and private partnerships), commitment, affecting cultural behaviour change, walking the talk, leading and being the catalyst for change. That is what SIFT is about – being a positive force for good as a social lender.

We have profiled a few businesses that are leading in waste management on our blog in the past and you can see some of the good and impactful work that we have done  here. We have a number of super exciting projects on the go at the moment that will make a difference to Canterbury’s waste and will let you all know in due course about what they are and what good they will do.

If you are looking for funding for a project that will reduce the amount of waste going to Canterbury’s landfill or have a new idea that we could help with you can apply here.

You can check out our Flickr photos here too.

And don’t forget to follow us on Twitter and Facebook.

Here are today’s Friday Favourites – have a great weekend.

• Soccer World Cup and Nike’s recycled plastic jerseys – an estimated 13 million plastic bottles prevent from going to landfill – even New Zealand is wearing them.
• M&S Plan A leading the way on sustainable business – looking to extend the amount of clothing being recycled from 2 million tonnes to 20 million tonnes.
• Fake Plastic Fish discovers some biodegradable/compostable products are not so much.
• Loving the green design content from the  blog Re-nest especially this post.
• Creative paper recycling.
• Another clothing store is recycling its clothes here.

And don’t forget if you have old whiteware tomorrow is the national Fisher and Paykel whiteware recycling day.The first 50 people through the gates will receive a $150 voucher towards some new (more energy efficient no doubt) whiteware. Below are the details for Christchurch:

Fisher & Paykel Whiteware Recycling Day Christchurch details

It’s a beautiful sunny end-of-summer day here in Christchurch (New Zealand). Back to blog posts now after concentrating on the new website. If you haven’t already go for a spin and check out what SIFT is all about. Lots of great projects that are making a difference to reducing the amount of waste that goes to landfill. We also have a few projects in the pipeline we are really excited about.

The deadline for the government’s Waste Minimisation Fund is 5pm on Monday. If you miss out and have a project focussed on Canterbury  try applying to SIFT.

In the meantime here are the favourite links we have found from around the world:

• Love this great Hermon Miller blog called Lifework on life in offices and working spaces. Did you know the super comfy Herman Miller Aeron Chair is 94% recyclable and made from 64% manufactured from recycled content.
• Over at Fake Plastic Fish Beth contemplates matches or lighters in her quest for zero plastic living.
• The Dancing Guy over on Adam Werbach’s Strategy for Sustainability – are you the first, second, 10th, 100th or last person part of a movement? What will be the catalyst for more sustainable living changes?
• To reduce waste we need to live with less and many finding that less is more.
• Cool new uses for vintage suitcases – how many of those are now sitting in landfill?
• Super stylish ceiling lights made from coat hangers.
• This is what we need more of in NZ – an eco-friendly general store.
• Our favourite sustainability leader, Melissa Clark-Reynolds talking to Good Morning recently.
• Reduce waste in your kid’s lunches from Simple Organic.
• Emily Harris of Sustainability in the City, based in Auckland, has a dream that we can all help with.

That should keep you all going for a while. Have a great weekend.

Suitcase Chairs via The Violet Hours via Apartment Therapy