Source: Re-Nest Roof made from recycled plastic bottles

The year is streaming past already – it’s February next week – and we are in full projects mode here at SIFT with a new set of potential new project applications already! But, to have a breather this weekend here are our Friday Favourites (lots this week):

• New research from Victoria University shows that homeowners are still reluctant to make more eco changes to their houses says Celsias.
• A low income house made from recycled materials from Inhabitat.
• A printer that uses disappearing ink so you can reuse paper – too cool! From Re-Nest.
• For all those surfing dudes and dudettes in American a company called Rerip are keeping old surfboards (made from toxic materials like polyurethane and polystyrene) from going to landfill.
• The Age, Australia, recently reported that Australians waste AUD$7.8 billion of food per year. Now that’s an incredible waste and an inefficient use of the Earth’s resources.
• American ice cream company Ben & Jerry’s are going to convert icecream waste into energy.
• University of East Anglia scientists Tim Lenton and Andrew Watson have just released a book about the need to recycled everything, Revolutions that Made the Earth. This will be added to the SIFT library when it comes out.
• Levis has started a campaign to raise awareness around the waste associated with the production of its jeans especially the amount of water that is used. More here from Good USA.
• Need to know how to make something yourself? Try Instructables.
• Another leader from the next generation – Jonathon Lee (via Minimonos).
• Landis Carey, a writer from Re-Nest, is making changes to live a life with less, step by step each week. Check it out here.
• And finally, the Beehive announced another project to be funded by the Waste Minimisation Fund (Ministry for the Environment)  – $200,000 to go towards a mussel shell recycling business in the Nelson/Marlborough area to turn the waste mussell shells into viable feedstock (mostly calcium). More here.

Have a great waste free weekend.

The Story of Electronics

Annie Leonard, who brought the world the wonderfully informative animated video called the Story of Stuff has just released a new one on e-waste called the Story of Electronics. Again she has researched how  e-waste is produced in the first place, the design elements that need to be changed and the problems with how e-waste is disposed of. E-waste is “designed for the dump” she says. Although the videos have an American focus they are still relevant to New Zealanders. We import tonnes of electronic goods each year that all have been designed with relatively short lives (due, mostly, to new product coming in all the time) and dispose of approximately 80,000 tonnes to landfill each year. 80,000 tonnes! Think of what happens to the toxins and heavy metals contained in the those items while they sit in a landfill.

The New Zealand government has recently announced funding from the Ministry for the Environment’s Waste Minimisation Fund into two key e-waste collection programmes. The first one was e-Day held last Saturday around the country. They received $750,000 to hold e-Day at 40 locations around New Zealand and for the first year I heard and saw advertising. And this helped. This year’s e-Day was a success with around 900 tonnes of e-waste (computers and phones) being dropped off (around 110 shipping containers). More here. There were over 17,000 cars and over 76,000 items dropped off. This e-waste will be sent to other countries for proper disposal. New Zealand does not have the facilities to process e-waste on shore. As with other waste streams it is cheaper for it to be sent off shore.

The other project that has received funding from the government is $400,000 to the RCN Group and the Community Recycling Network who are planning to set up a nationwide network of 20 e-waste drop off depots and 3 recycling facilities in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch. This is so e-Day can be everyday!

The solutions that need to come in order to reduce the amount of e-waste that is polluting our environment is to 1) consume less (always #1), 2) businesses to take responsibility for the products that they produce (Product Stewardship Schemes), 3)  redesign products with less toxins and longer lives, 4) develop urban mining offshore so that the e-waste can be disposed of safely (and not negatively impacting the environments of other countries) and 5) finding solutions to old e-waste (can it be reused in new ways). There are solutions but we just need to start focussing on using them and building them.

Other relevant blog posts:

• 2010 Waste Minimisation Fund Recipients
• e-waste that isn’t going to landfill
• The Story of Stuff

You can watch the other Story of Stuff videos here:

The Story of Stuff

The Story of Cosmetics

The Story of Bottled Water

Cap and Trade

Kate Valley Landfill, North Canterbury

One of the big issues or themes during the WasteMinz conference was how councils and other Territorial Authorities are to use their share of the waste disposal levies collected by the Ministry for the Environment. The levies collected have been put into a new fund called the Waste Minimisation Fund. Half of the funds collected go to councils “on a per head of population basis” to help them with their waste mangement and minimisation plans (WMMP) and the other half to individuals, businesses and other organisations that have projects that meet the WMF criteria (some of the fund will also pay administration costs).

To date councils across New Zealand have received approx $3 million each quarter this year (with another about to paid). That’s a total of approx $12 million that, states Director of Operations for the Ministry for the Environment Martyn Pinkard, is to be used for solutions that are innovative, wide reaching within the community and have a direct impact on reducing the amount of waste that goes to landfill.

To July 2010 the district councils in Canterbury have received a total of $1.2 million with Christchurch City Council taking the largest share due to the largest population being in their jurisdiction ($815,000).

The Sustainable Initiatives Fund Trust can play a key role in helping local Canterbury territorial authorities to come up with and implement solutions that are both attractive and appropriate to the Ministry for the Environment and it’s aims in Waste Minimisation. Collaboration and industry and council integration will be vital in the success of projects that are to reduce waste to landfill and recover and use our resources more efficiently. Local solutions tailored to each community that have a long term effect will also be important.

Calling all Canterbury Territorial Authorities

Any district council in Canterbury that has a project or idea for a project that they could collaborate or co-fund with SIFT on can give us a call to discuss the possible solutions. If the project meets our criteria and the SIFT board give it the go ahead then our links, networks, ideas and possible funding could help to bring the project to fruition. Collaboration within the waste and sustainability fields are key to developing a sustainable future for Canterbury.

More information on payments to individual territorial authorities.

Downloadable maps of where the waste disposal sites are in New Zealand can be found here.

**Image by SIFT from WasteMinz Conference field trip 2009

Spring has definitely sprung. Some of us are suffering from hayfever, the daffodils are definitely up and it is feeling warmer (although changeable with a cold wintry blast coming through today). Friday favourites will be taking a break for a few weeks so enjoy these links and our past Friday Favourties until October.

• Bill McKibben talks to David Letterman here (via Good USA)
• Love this video from Toronto Chuck and Vince wanting your electronic waste (also via Good USA).
• MfE has announced another project that they are funding from the Waste Minimisation Fund – this one is all about turning sewage waste into a usable product. More Here.
• Love this innovative idea for regulating the temperature inside buildings especially offices and saving energy – green curtains from Kyocera.
• We have all known this for a while and eat we still occasionally eat one – Artist Sally Davies has photographed a McDonalds hamburger for 137 days and found it doesn’t age (via Good USA)
• Need more inspiration to take small steps to create a big impact – check out these great Glee videos – the Glee cast doing there thing and promoting important environmental and social messages.  We love the battery recycling one and the library video.
• The Monterey Bay Acquarium in the U.S has developed a climate change video with the voice over from the great John Cleese.
• Localised waste management is one solution to the problem and Dunedin City Council is starting is recycling in public places this weekend at the Otago Farmers Market. There will be three stations each with an organics bin, recycling bin and non-recyclables bin (via Scoop).
• Satellite eye View – great photos of our home here (via the Guardian).

Have a great waste free weekend.

Photo Source via Derek’s Blog here.

Use egg cartons in the garden and then compost them.

Another week has flown by. The SIFT week has been full of a couple of new potential applicants, board papers, research, current projects management and some admin thrown in for good measure.

Lots of different things have popped up through our google reader and other newsletters, here’s the best links for you this week:

• Past SIFT project Envirocomp has received $30,000 through the MfE’s Waste Minimisation Fund to carry out a feasibility study on expanding their nappy composting. More  here.
• Photos of dumped e-waste being searched through by Ghanians looking for the valuable metals to sell. Not the best photos – this is quite sad and should not be occuring. More here from The New York Times.
• Waveney from Rubbish Free’s roundup of their weekend at the Nelson Eco Fest here.
• Have you found your WalkScore yet? More here from World Changing. Walk Score is based on Google Maps so it you know there are more services and utilities in your area that would make your Walk Score better update Google Maps with the information.
• Philipe Stark has designed home and urban usable wind turbines. From Greenpages. Now they would be a stylish addition to any home.
• Creative ways to drink tap water from Re-Nest here.
• Molly Eagen is a 25 year living in Minneapolis, USA and is attempting, as part of her thesis, to live 100 days without oil. This is a well researched blog that provides great ideas and new ways to live for all of us. Oil permeates nearly all facets of our 21st century lives so we are looking forward to seeing how she gets on living without it. Could you live 100 days without oil? (Originally via Re-Nest).
• Interactive map that shows the Earth breathing – tracking global CO2 emissions in real time. It takes 14 minutes for New Zealand to clock up 1000 tonnes. It is very well done and you can scroll over each country to see the stats.
• The biodegradable pen from GOOD USA.
• The United Nations Environment Programme has released a new report on sustainability and behaviour change. This is a great tool for all of you in communications, marketing and social change. Developed in conjunction with our favourite Sustainability Communications organisation – Futerra. You can download the report here (originally via Celsias).
• Love this video celebrating the 2010 World Humanitarian Day here.
• This is another great infographic …The National Geographic looks at how much water is embedded in everything we use (note these measurements may be different for NZ). Scroll to the right to see a whole raft of different products from meat, vege, oil, energy, solar. Very interesting.
• This has been one of the blog topics this week so we might as well add it to the list too – Japanese firm Blest is making fuel out of plastic. The video shows how it is all done. We like the way that the machine is portable and could be used for smaller or remote sites.
• Maybe we should just do a graphics blog post! Here is another one from the BBC showing how big different things are against the size of your own country - things like the Pakistan floods, the Pyramids, the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, World War II and the Twin Towers.
• Also from the BBC Mexico has completely banned plastic bags and if you use them you go to jail! More here.

That will definitely keep you going for the weekend and we hope it is a waste free one!

P.S You might have noticed that our waste counter is lighter than it was last week. We have updated it to be in line with the waste statistics from the Christchurch City Council for the year to June 2010 which is 179,207 tonnes to Kate Valley Landfill. That’s a 20% drop on last year meaning our waste counter would have been way out. It was updated by the nice people at HairyLemon.

*Image via here.

Source: Flickr speckled_beckle's photostream

Yesterday, most of the 164 applications for funding for waste project(s) from the Ministry for the Environment’s Waste Minimisation Fund would have received a letter telling them their application has been turned down. Congratulations to the 29 who did make it through to the next stage – we are interested to see what these projects are. If this was you and your project is based in Canterbury have you thought about approaching the Sustainable Initiatives Fund for assistance?

The purpose of the Waste Minimisation Fund is not too dissimilar to the objectives of the Sustainable Initiatives Fund Trust. The WMF was developed to boost New Zealand’s performance in waste minimisation through educational, promotional, technological or infrastructure projects. The objectives of the Sustainable Initiatitives Fund Trust are about reducing or avoiding waste that goes specifically to Canterbury’s landfills through new technology/process or recovering new waste streams or by developing new products or technologies out of recovered materials. Other sub-objectives include creating useful sustainable educational applications from the products or technologies that are developed and/or creating sustainable energy products out of waste and/or creating sustainable job opportunties and contributing positively to Canterbury’s economy. The Sustainable Initiatives Fund Trust is apart of a new generation of social lenders with the primary motivation of reducing negative environmental impacts – decreasing waste to landfill.

We have a number of projects on the go at the moment that are a mix of grants, loans and equity investments and cover a range of waste streams and issues. You can check out more of our past projects here.

We had a board meeting yesterday and again the board reiterated that projects need to show their reduction in environmental impact first and foremost. We are super keen to see the waste reduction numbers for the waste stream your project deals with.

If you have an idea that requires financial assistance we may be able to help. Call myself (Olivia Day, General Manager) to discuss if you are eligible and if we can help. Our number is 03 3655655.

Light at the end of the tunnel Hidcote Manor Garden

Yesterday the Ministry for the Environment announced that it was into the first stage of looking at all the eligible applications to its Waste Minimisation Fund. All 164 of them. That means some  might have missed out as they were not eligible.

If that is you or someone you know you might be eligible for financial assitance from us, the Sustainable Initiatives Fund Trust. Check how to apply here.

With 164 applications requesting $55 million from a total of only $6 million there will be many who do not receive funding for what are possibly worthy projects. If you have a project that is focussed on Canterbury feel free to call or email us to discuss whether or not your project might be eligible for funding from us.

Photo source: AntonyChammond Flickr