SIFT is a supportive campaigner of reusing as much waste or by product from industry.  A reasonably new initiative has emerged. Industrial symbiosis is one example of a cooperative process, where by businesses ‘buddy up’ in an effort to reuse waste and by products that the partner company produces, but has no further means of using.

The theory is that when businesses cooperate in this way, they are exerting less energy and consuming less water and raw materials, than if they had to manufacture the by product themselves.

Although I-S appears to be motivated by limiting the usage of resources, the environmental gains were actually just an eventual by product of agreements that were based on financial efficiency – namely sharing the costs of production across industry.  The particular case study in Denmark demonstrates the advantages of cooperation across 6 compatable companies.

In order for industrial symbiosis to be effectively executed, it is reliant on the compatibility of the companies – and this could only be equated by analysing the economic and environmental benefits of a cooperative scheme.

The following diagram* demonstrates the process of symbiosis, as it is taking place in Kalundborg, Denmark. This is a heavily referenced example in current waste management research.

As can be seen in the diagram below, all of the companies mutually exploit each other’s residual or by-products.

In the next blog, we will be looking to Canterbury based enterprises that are improving their bottom line through similar cooperative methods.

* The companies that are a part of this structure are: DONG Energy Asnæs Power Station, the plasterboard factory Gyproc A/S, the pharmaceutical plant Novo Nordisk A/S, the enzyme producer Novozymes A/S, the oil refinery Statoil A/S, RGS 90 A/S as well as the waste company Kara/Noveren I/S.

Last week I posted about reducing waste to landfill through better work waste management systems and asked our readers to send in their new/innovative/creative waste management systems in their offices. My sister-in law happened across the blog post (cos’ she follows us on Twitter here too) and sent in the above photos and the following comment:

“At my workplace we have recently implemented a strategy which Crown Research Institutes have been doing for a while. In your office you get a large cardboard tray for recycling and a tiny wee box for rubbish. Then you have to empty these yourselves at one of the depots. Unfortunately we don’t currently have a strategy for organics, so the depots only have landfill, glass/plastic, and paper/cardboard. The cleaners no longer empty bins in our offices and only empty these larger communal bins.”

Thanks Nicola. This is a great example of in-office waste managment.

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.

Fashion Trade - www.countryroad.com

Following on from Olivia’s blog on the Lyttleton Harbour Festival of lights and the ‘clothing swap-o-rama-rama’, we have found out that there is another opportunity for eco-friendly fashionistas to pay it forward with their well worn duds.

Introducing the launch of Fashion Trade on 1st July, being run by Country Road in co-operation with the Red Cross. Fashion Trade is a clothing donation program that focuses on rewarding Country Road customers, and their social conscience, by giving a $10 Country Road voucher to be spent in store on any item over $50 in value, when clothes are donated to the Red Cross (must include at least one Country Road item of clothing). Country Road is an international brand with 11 stores throughout New Zealand. The clothes are going directly to the Red Cross which has 6 shops in the Canterbury region, so you can be sure that your donation is reaching people in who are in need. More information on Fashion Trade here.  Or to find out more about the work of Red Cross visit www.redcross.org.nz

Spare a thought to the effects textiles have on local landfill every year: Textiles waste accounted for 4% of all waste to landfill in the 2007/08 year, which to make more tangible  equates to approximately 126,000 tonnes. Think about every time you overfill your suitcase to go on holiday (it is about that much added to landfill per person per year).

Follow Country Road’s lead, and ask your favourite clothing retailers what they are doing to minimise the amount of textile waste that is landing in Canterbury’s landfills. As the consumers, our power is in our wallets; by preferring to spend with the brands that instill a social conscience and are actually reducing their impact on the environment, than less environmentally aware brands who are sure to follow suit.

This got us thinking of all the cool ways to reinvent your current wardrobe, or tips to reduce the amount of textile waste that is being sent to landfill.

1) Have a swapping session – (This really is one for the ladies!) – but it requires no money to change hands, just a big enough lounge to sprawl all of your no longer worn clothes, and sitting room for who ever else is invited to swap your clothes with. Beware, it can get ugly!

2) Quality over quantity. In a buy now society, sometimes it is hard to resist opening up the wallet and splurging on the current must haves. Restricting your buying to fewer, higher quality purchases, will ensure that they last beyond one winter and will take a lot longer before they reach landfill.

3) Be environmentally conscious when choosing what your clothes are made out of – We have wools from numerous animals,  bamboo, mercot, cotton and hemp to name a few, these natural fibers wear beautifully – and if you shop carefully, a lot of labels are now listing their fair trade inclusion – so you know the farmers and manufacturers are getting a just deal too. So you no longer need to buy anything with poly in the ingredients list.

4) Buy vintage and second hand. There are lots of great second hand and vintage stores around Canterbury including places like Save Mart and also online like Trademe.

Last Friday I visited the Becon Dry Waste Recovered Materials Facility in Woolston. The Becon Dry Waste RMF is the only one in New Zealand and is housed in one of the remaining buildings from the old Anderson’s Foundry. It is an impressive building with its old industrial peaked roofing and large industrial hanging lights. The waste processing machine doesn’t seem to fit right with the old style of the building but as Director Richard Lloyd agreed it is good to reuse an old building rather than build new – in-keeping with his business of reuse and recycling.

Richard Lloyd estimates that of the total amount of waste going to Kate Valley Landfill approximately a third could still be recovered and recycled. Richard has developed a site that has the potential to process more dry waste than they are currently taking (Becon is only processing 30% of the current Christchurch market at the moment). The Becon RMF focusses on  construction, demolition and industrial dry waste streams. When asked what the spilt between household waste and commercial waste is Richard stated a surprising 3.8% for just households!  Although, Richard stated that “kerbside recycling punches above it’s weight class…as it is a valuable educational tool.” So, the bulk of waste that the citizens of Canterbury produce is business, construction or demolition related. Items such as concrete, glass, untreated timber, packaging and plastics are all included.

Richard Lloyd is passionate about his business, about recovering wastes and making the environment a better place for his children.

Here are some photos from the visit:

The Start of the Recovery Process

The sorting machine

Sorted piles of plastic and timber

Baled Paper

Becon Director Richard Lloyd with chipped timber

What can't be recovered goes to Kate Valley Landfill

You can see more photos from the visit on our Flickr site here.

*All images Copyright SIFT

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.

Picture window from spmaxi on Flickr

5% or 11,579 tonnes of waste that went to Kate Valley landfill the year to June 2009 was a metal. Types of metals that end up in landfill are broken up into two types 1) Ferrous (steel based metal products) and 2) Non-Ferrous (Aluminium, Copper and Lead based products). For the Christchurch figures we work from the amount of metal that was sent to Kate Valley landfill in the year to June 2009 increased 52% and nationwide metal represents 4.5% (4% Ferrous and 0.5% non Ferrous).

Interestingly, the Scrap Metal Association stated that for 2006 between 495,000 and 550,000 tonnes of scrap metal was diverted from landfill in New Zealand.

Types of waste table and Scrap Metal Industry figure sourced from MfE here.

**Source – Christchurch City Council, based on % breakdowns of waste sent to landfill as sourced from the Christchurch City Council’s 2008 solid waste survey conducted between July and December 2008. The figures are indicative only.

Source: Flick Snappy Clam

4% of all Christchurch’s waste to Kate Valley Landfill is glass – that’s 8684 tonnes in 2008/2009.

About twice that (approx 16,000 tonnes) is recycled. Currently only glass jars and bottles (brown, green and clear glass) can be recycled leaving glass items such as windows, lightbulbs, pyrex containers, medical glass, screens (pc and car) and other specialist glass items going to landfill. As well as finding more uses for the glass we do recycle we need to find solutions for the glass that goes to landfill.

You can find more information from the Glass Packaging Forum and from O-I New Zealand in Auckland, where glass goes to be recycled.

Source: Flickr the red chair #17 from Jasperroz

Reusing something that has become a waste item as a new item is a bit of a zig zag as ultimately it will end up in landfill at some point in its lifecycle.

One example is instead of using paper towels to clean up around the home or office cut up old clothes, tea towels and towels to a handy cleaning size. You can even hem them using a sewing machine (simple zig zag stitch) so they don’t fray. This gives the material once used as a sweater, skirt etc a new life as a cloth and will also cut down on paper waste (and the plastic film used for packaging).

Use materials made from natural fibres like cotton, linen and wool so that when they do get to landfill they will break down a lot faster than synthetic materials.

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.