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Posts Tagged ‘recycling’
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 26th, 2010 by Admin
 Simon Williams Our latest Green Collar Job Q&A is with Simon Williams. Now, we haven’t actually met (or interacted) with Simon (yet) but we have with Sue Coutts (from Wanaka Wastebusters) who passed on the Green Collar Job Q&A to a few of the people who work for Wastebusters and Simon is one of them. He is the Enviroschools Facilitator, Zero Waste Educator and graphic designer at Wanaka Wastebusters.
Education for sustainability is Simon’s thing. For the last 3 – 4 years he has facilitated EfS within the Lakes District of Aotearoa, New Zealand, with the local early childhood, primary, high schools, youth groups & community. He delivers the Enviroschools and Zero Waste Education programmes with passion, energy and commitment. Simon loves working at Wanaka Wastebusters, the dynamic and energetic way of working really suits. When he’s not immersed in EfS he uses his graphic design and photography skills to promote sustainable living to his community.
Simon is part of a growing number of people who are using their skills to further sustainable living ideals – thanks Simon for your answers!
1. What do you do to live more sustainably (with a low impact) in your life?
I try to minimise my waste, am conscious of home energy consumption, I buy quality products that I expect to last a long time.
2. How do you live more sustainably at work?
Print as little as possible, recycle and compost my waste, make the most of travelling, using the least amount of energy possible, promote sustainable practices to many people I work with.
3. What do you think is the biggest environmental issue we need to deal with in Christchurch/New Zealand?
That more, big and economic growth are best.
4. What makes you smile?
snowboarding, amongst many other things, and the colour yellow.
5. What is your biggest pet peeve?
People talking using only clichés and power terms, it tells me they don’t fully understand what they are talking about and it’s so ambiguous….grrrrrrrrrrrrr
6. What is your favourite colour and why?
White because it is a combination of every colour…….then yellow because it makes me smile
7. Do you have a favourite place in the world? Describe why?
2nd pipe at Treble cone……it’s so much fun
8. What’s your connection to SIFT?
I don’t have one
9. Do you remember your favourite teacher and why they were your favourite?
I’ve had many favourite teachers, the ones who inspire me to change the way I think and question my staid opinions
10. What do you want to leave behind?
Inspiration
11. What do you think the future will bring?
Fun and lots of smiles on top of many heart wrenching tears
12. Who is someone you really admire and why?
Richard Feynman – One of the world greatest thinkers with the ability to communicate amazingly complex things with everyone in a fun and engaging fashion.
13. What is happening outside your window right now?
I don’t have a window right now.
14. What is your favourite breakfast?
Full English
15. What is the best piece of advice you can give us?
Don’t talk to me in clichés
Tags: education, enviroschools, Green Collar Job, recycling, sustainability, sustainable living, Wanaka Wastebusters
Posted in Green Collar Jobs Q&A, Sustainability in Action | No Comments »
Friday, July 23rd, 2010 by Admin
Furniture is being moved around today in the office including the massive board table we bought last year being moved upstairs. Thanks to one of our trustees Dixon McIvor and his band of strong lifters! Hope they go okay moving the massive bits of glass! And the really early daffodils bought earlier in the week are still letting off a very spring fragrance and provide great loveliness throughout our working day as well!
A few great links have come our way over the past week:
Have a wonderful waste free weekend.
Tags: Bloomsbury life, Boris Johnson, carbon neutral, coat hangerse, gorilla gardening, Joanna Lumley, network, newspaper, Re-nest, recycling, reuse, Rubbish Free, waste free
Posted in Friday favourites | 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 »
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 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 »
Monday, June 14th, 2010 by Admin
First thing last Tuesday morning I arrived at the CCC2 Materials Recovery Facility in Parkhouse Road. The sky was super dark and it was really cold (arrived in a hail storm) but the tour of the massive recyclables sorting machine was still very informative (the MRF machine is housed in a 4000 square metre building). The photos are not the best due to the bad light but it gives you an idea. It was put in place about 15 months ago and can process all of Christchurch, Selwyn and Waimak’s recyclables. Each stage of the machine does a different process and there is still some hand sorting in some areas (like pulling out clothes, floppy plastic and in one case a toy plastic gun!). Clothes are the biggest contaminant of recyclable bins – we as yet have no facility to recycle textiles and fabrics.
A basic run down is that all of the trucks come in to the park and dump the recyclables that have come from the yellow bins into a big pile at one end. This is then scooped up and placed on a movable floor. At different points there are different types of screens and separators so that different types of waste drop down onto another conveyer to go into their respecitive piles and there are even magnets to pull out the metals. Small items like bits of glass also drop down into their own conveyer belt and there is a large glass pile at the end of the process. This glass is used for such things as grit blasting and filtration systems. Nearly at the end of the process there is an optical sorter that can determine the different types of plastic (HDPE, PET etc) through the use of infared scanning and group them so they are separated (making it easier to on-sell) and then right at the end is the baler to bale up all of the different types of wastes (for local and international recyclers).
CCC have done a great video of the whole process which shows you much better than the photos below. You can watch a video of the process here.
Here are the photos from the site visit:
 Pile of Rubbish for Recovery  Pile of rubbish behind an 7ft metal wall  Rubbish moving up the conveyer belt (there were about 4 of these inclines)  Rubbish moving through the recovery sorting process  The separate glass conveyer  Looking back from the baler end of the process  A final conveyer belt  The pile of glass outside
Tags: CCC2, clothing, glass, landfill, materials recovery facility, paper, plastic, recycling
Posted in Waste Management | No Comments »
Friday, June 11th, 2010 by Admin
 We visited the CCC2 Materials Recovery Facility on Tuesday - here's a sneek peek. More to come. Here is this week’s round up of what of the waste, sustainability goodies we have come across:
Hope you have a low impact weekend!
Tags: Bloombery, CCC2, Environmental Protection Authority, Friday favourites, Good Magazine, mfe, Re-nest, recycling, SIFT, waste
Posted in Friday favourites | No Comments »
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