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Tuesday, July 27th, 2010 by Admin
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.
Tags: cardboard, diverting waste from landfill, glass, landfill, office, organics, paper, photos, plastic, recycling, rubbish, Waste Management
Posted in Business & Sustainability, Pratical Action, Sustainability in Action | No Comments »
Monday, July 19th, 2010 by Admin
 Martha Stewart Living Test Kitchen Waste Station While catching up on some blog reading over the weekend I spied the above inspiring yet simple waste station in the test kitchen of Martha Stewart Living Omnidmedia in New York via Martha Stewart’s blog. You can just see that there are more bins on the other side as well. I love the Landfill sign “This is quit-zies no take backs” and that they have a bin for the chickens!
What is great about this waste station is that it works within the function of that particular work space – the test kitchen; it includes a bin for organic waste (for the chickens) as well as the other types of waste recycling or recovery. Not only does the signage fit with the MSL brand but it is also super simple and easy to see what goes where.
When it comes to reducing the amount of waste that goes to landfill from businesses and organisations it is interesting to note two things: 1) Anecdotal research* suggests that household waste accounts for about 3.8% of all waste to landfill (the rest is commercial and industrial and construction and demolition) and 2) for some reason those who recycle at home may not necessarily recycle at work. This shows that our next step to reduce waste to landfill needs to come in the commercial and industrial and construction and demolition areas. And the first easy step is to set up easy and efficient waste management in your own business. For some this might mean they have access to council provided bins or bags for others this will mean hiring bins from independent waste management businesses. Know the types of waste you produce and what the best way is to 1) reduce it and 2) to recycle it.
Promote the benefits to reducing waste and installing an efficient waste management system to ensure buy in from all levels of the oraganisation. There will be benefits to the bottom line with cost savings for procurement (buying less paper) and waste managment (reducing to a smaller bin). Make it relevant to your staff, easy to use and understand and possibly a little fun with some good signage. Lots of internal communications on the hows and whys is important.
It is also good to consider all types of workers in your business and organisation and how they produce waste. If you have people that spend most of their time on the road install a couple of small bags in their vehicles to take the rubbish. Office bound workers can walk a short distance to a centralised waste station on each floor or house the waste station in the cafeteria or work kitchen. It is also important that those who empty the waste bins understand the importance of ensuring the right waste goes into the right bin that is collected by your council – don’t forget to talk to the cleaners too. You could even promote this to your customers, suppliers and visitors. Work with suppliers to reduce packaging, work with customers to move to less packaging for your own product or service and promote the waste management system to visitors so they know what to do with the waste they might bring with them (like lunch packaging!).
Recognition and awareness of the waste your business or organisation produces, reducing that waste and then moving to a long term efficient waste system will have benefits for the environment, for the bottom line and for your brand value.
Here are some other waste station ideas:
 MSL recycling centre  Recycling Frame from Matteria Shop via BLtd  Re-Nest Recycling Station  Recycle Bins from Lowes  The SIFT Office Waste System - Organics, Landfill, Recycling I have noticed that a lot of the links I have included are American based. There are some great New Zealand companies around that provide different bins for different uses for waste management and even just suping up some old cardboard boxes will do the trick. For Cantabrians try Agpac who stock Urba bins. You can get an organics bin like the one in the SIFT photo as well as great stackable bins for all your different waste streams.
We would love to see any creative or just plain practical office or business recycling. Send us your photos and we will post them here on the SIFT blog.
Images: MSL Recycling Centre, Matteria Shop Frame, Re-Nest Recycling Station, Lowes.
*From Richard Lloyd at Becon
Tags: agpac, commercial, construction, demolition, industrial, landfill, Martha Stewart Living, office, Re-nest, recycling, waste station
Posted in Pratical Action, Sustainability in Action, Waste Management | 1 Comment »
Friday, July 16th, 2010 by Admin
 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.
Tags: consumption, diverting waste from landfill, Friday favourites, green investment, landfill, linen, Re-nest, recycling, SIFT, the Guardian, Tree Hugger, waste
Posted in Friday favourites | No Comments »
Friday, July 9th, 2010 by Admin
 Levis Denim Insulation Source: Cool Hunting Here is the round up of favourite/interesting links we have found this week:
Have a lovely waste free weekend.
Tags: Fake Plastic Fish, Friday favourites, green buses, Green Party, Hungry Planet, landfill, Levis, plastic, recycling, Rubbish Free, SIFT, Time, UNTHA, Westpac
Posted in Friday favourites | No Comments »
Tuesday, July 6th, 2010 by Admin
 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?
Tags: beechwood, consumption, EcoStore, Fake Plastic Fish, landfill, plastic, ScanWood, waste, wooden utensils
Posted in Sustainability Resources, Sustainability in Action, Waste Management | No Comments »
Friday, July 2nd, 2010 by Admin
 Source: Flickr promqu33n photostream Phew! What a week! Project meetings, strategic planning, new enquiries…All go! But as always we still kept a look out for the waste and sustainability links that could be interesting for our blog readers. Here are this week’s Friday Favourites:
- I watched the No Impact Man movie this week, finally and it was excellent. Inspired me to do a lot more no impact living especially when it comes to waste. You can read Colin Beavan (No Impact Man)’s blog here or get inspired and take action here and watch a clip from the movie here.
- 21 Councils in New South Wales, Australia have formed an alliance to halve the amount of waste going to the Albury Waste Management Centre in Southern NSW as they are running out of room. More here.
- Latest tonnage statistics from the MfE on waste to landfill here.
- Have you heard of the Pacific Gyre and all of the plastic waste circulating around it – Beth from Fake Plastic Fish blogs about why we can’t clean it up here.
- Celsius.co.nz posted a really informative video on what happens when BP spills….coffee!
- Want to know what is happening in New Zealand’s energy sector for the past quarter (and the carbon emissions associated with that)? Check out the lastest NZ Energy Quarterly from the MED.
- How to make a house out of an aeroplane here from Re-Nest.
- Another great find from Re-Nest - Reclaimed and upcycled Apple Gadget chargers – love the typewriter.
- National Geographic’s Human Footprint movie – a look at consuming from birth to death and how much we consume. Info here and short clip here.
And if you haven’t already checked it out visit Waveney Warth and Matthew Luxon’s new Rubbish Free website for some great tips and resources.
Have a lovely Waste Free Weekend (WFW)!
Tags: BP spill, Celsius, Energy, Friday favourites, Human Footprint, landfill, MED, mfe, No Impact Man, plane, Re-nest, Rubbish Free, SIFT, waste
Posted in Friday favourites | No Comments »
Wednesday, June 30th, 2010 by Admin
Back in 2008 former Christchurch couple Waveney Warth and Matthew Luxon decided to live rubbish free for a year in order to reduce their impact on the environment. Their trials, tribulations, truths and learnings were all documented on their blog and it was really inspiring to read what they were up to and how they were making it work. And they did make it work.
They have just launched a new website with all the resources the rest of us need in order to go rubbish free. We are definitely going to pick up one of their guides and I have been looking to find an alternative to plastic wrap and they have them. Yay! Really excited for them.
You can check out the new website here.
This website is definitely going in the favourites tab!
Tags: blog, environmental impact, guide, landfill, resources, rubbish, Rubbish Free.co.nz
Posted in News on Sustainability, Pratical Action | No Comments »
Monday, June 28th, 2010 by Admin
 Source: Grundlepuck's Flickr photostream Last Friday night friends and I ventured across the lovely Port Hills to partake of Project Lyttelton’s Lyttelton Harbour Festival of Lights Street Party. The main street of Lyttelton was closed off and there were lots of people, yummy food stalls, some great costumes, enterainment and lights too. Project Lyttelton is leading the way in community sustainability initiatives and the Lyttelton Harbour Festival of Lights was no exception (this is a 10 day mid winter festival with lots of entertainment, workshops, walking tours and clothing swap-o-rama-rama with the street party on the Friday night). At key points along the street there were three waste bins: 1 for landfill, 1 for organics and 1 for recycling and at least one person standing behind them helping people to decide what rubbish goes into what bin. At one point I watched a woman go to put a clear plastic cup into the recycling bin but she was told it had to go to landfill. I overhead her discussing this with her partner. Her last comment was “Well, that has to change.” Brilliant – consumer education and inspiration in action. That happened again with a plastic fork a friend went to put in the recycling bin. So, that leads to three key points of interest:
1. Good on Project Lyttelton for having people at the rubbish bins to educate consumers on what can go where. It was obviously working.
2. Do we know enough about the different types of plastics that can be recycled? I assumed that plastic forks and clear plastic cups could be recycled so was curious why people were being told they couldn’t be. Back in the office today I checked the Plastics Identification Code list and plastics forks and “imitation ‘crystal glassware’” is a 6-PS – Polystyrene. As far as we are aware Christchurch City Council kerbside recycling bins can take all numbers from 1 to 7 (except Polystyrene packaging and trays) so why was this not included for the recycling bin at the Festival of Lights?
and finally, the big one
3. Why weren’t all of the vendors selling food using compostable or at least recyclable packaging and cutlery. I saw polystyrene trays, unrecyclable coffee cups, plastic bags, and virgin paper napkins being used.
Apart from thinking all this through during the night it was great to get out and enjoy the winter evening especially the fireworks!
So, if you are planning a zero waste event here are our top tips:
- Get all of your vendors on side. Or only choose vendors that have sustainability policies in place. Make sure that whatever they sell is sold with compostable, biodegradable or in the least recyclable packaging and utensils.
- Better yet ask visitors to your event to bring there own reusable cloth napkins and cups to reduce waste.
- Know how the waste from your event will be processed by your local authority. Work with them to make sure that you have the best system set up to marry with theirs.
- Use the event as a chance to educate like Project Lyttelton did.
- Ensure you have all of the options covered for the waste streams – landfill, recycling and organics. And promote what happens to each of these waste streams after the event.
- Make sure the people doing the eduating know the ins and outs of all of the different waste streams and how they can be handled and then what happens to them afterwards.
- Research what others have done around the world and see if any of their solutions will work for their event.
- Promote sustainable transport like taking the bus (Project Lyttelton do this every year).
- Utilise great greening resources like the MfE’s Major Event Greening Guide or the Christchurch City Council’s Organising a Minimum Waste Event guide.
Thanks to the team at Project Lyttelton for a great night and for helping to move consumers and the Lyttelton (and surrounding) community closer to sustainable living.
Tags: Christchurch City Council, fireworks, Greening your event guide, identification code, landfill, Lyttelton Harbour Festival of Lights, mfe, organics, packaging, plastics, Project Lyttelton, recycling, utensils, waste
Posted in Events, Sustainability in Action | No Comments »
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 »
Friday, June 18th, 2010 by Admin
 Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill Source: Flickr DigitalGlobe-Imager Another week of waste minimisation as flown by. On the way we came across some interesting info on waste and sustainability issues that you also might be interested in. Here’s our weekly round up:
- Recycled Printer cartridges made into….a bike path?! It happened in Australia. Read more here.
- Recyclable lamps (egg cartons, CFLs, cloth electrical cord) from American designer Victor Vetterlein over on Re-Nest.
- In light of the devastating Gulf of Mexico oil spill many are talking about how to reduce your personal oil use. Good article here especially with the list of where petroleum is used – lots of everyday items.
- You can then marry that info with Beth from Fake Plastic Fish’s Plastic Free Living Guide. She’s doing it everyday.
- Speaking of oil based products – recycling plastic bags into blocks. – but are they safe and then where do they go?
- The children of today are the solutions providers of the future – but The Recyclists are already doing it. Awesome. More from their blogspot here.
- Reduction in waste, reduction in packaging, increased energy efficiency, social responsibility, environmental sustainability and setting goals and achieving them – who is this? Marks and Spencer.
- New UK government encouraging recycling and asking manufacturers to reduce packaging – more here.
Have a great low waste weekend.
Tags: Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill, landfill, paper, petroleum, plastic bags, recycling, The Recyclists, UK, waste
Posted in Friday favourites | No Comments »
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