Posted: 18th October 2010
The Agrecovery Container and Chemical rural recycling programmes have been accredited as Product Stewardship programmes under the Waste Management Act 2008.
Announced at the Waste Management Institute of New Zealand conference on October 13, the Ministry for the Environment accreditation followed a rigorous audit of Agrecovery’s programme including its design, operation, sites and product end uses. Product Stewardship programmes are ‘cradle to grave’ schemes that help reduce the environmental impact of manufactured products, and this accreditation is formal recognition from the Ministry for the Environment that Agrecovery fulfils this criteria.
The letter of accreditation stated “The Agrecovery programme is an example of how forward thinking businesses can manage the environmental effects of their products through proactive product stewardship.”
Since starting in 2007 with 12 brand owners and 22 container collection sites, Agrecovery has expanded to 53 brand owners and 70 sites, and has also introduced recycling programmes for unwanted or expired chemicals, silage wrap and crop protection net. Agrecovery Foundation chairman Lew Metcalfe welcomed the accreditation and said it endorsed the investment made by both the Foundation and its supporting brand owners over the last three years. “With wide industry and market support, Agrecovery is giving farmers and growers a very credible and sustainable solution for disposing of persistent on-farm waste products.”
The 53 brand owners aligned to the Agrecovery programme represent more than 90% of plant science, the majority of animal remedy, parts of dairy hygiene, and other agricultural sectors. Duncan Scotland, Sales and Marketing Manager of 3R Group, Agrecovery Programme Managers, said that these brand owners have made voluntary and ongoing financial commitments to enable farmers and growers to have access to Agrecovery. “Through the container recovery programme, which is fully compliant and independently audited, the waste material is recovered and then recycled into internationally approved products. “This is real product stewardship in action.”
In its audit, the Ministry for the Environment inspected container collection sites and interviewed site operators. It found that all sites were tidy and in excellent condition, staff were professional and had excellent knowledge of inspection procedures and brand owners’ products, site operators had ready access to training information and manuals, and that the sites were very user-friendly with ample information for first-time users.
The audit report also acknowledged the fact the New Zealand Fresh Produce Approved Supplier Programme (NZ GAP) offers growers a recognised certification process through their use of the Agrecovery Container and Chemical programmes. “To gain and maintain access to international markets, growers must be able to demonstrate commitment to food safety, environment and quality criteria - for export growers, the Agrecovery programme may be critical to that access,” the report said.
In this, its third year of operation, the Agrecovery Container programme recycled 91,064kg of container plastic - 21% of containers put into the New Zealand marketplace by participating brand owners. Mr Scotland said this was a great result, but the aim is to build on it further and achieve 60% recovery by 2012.
Agrecovery also intends to add the recovery of large drums to its programmes and will continue to work on other waste streams such as feedbags, plastic ground films and other plastics that cause disposal headaches for farmers and growers alike, he said.
Posted: 12th August 2011
National leaders in product stewardship development 3R Group has added another accolade to its impressive CV with a paint recycling programme under its management gaining Product Stewardship accreditation. 3R manages the PaintWise paint and packaging take-back scheme on behalf of Resene. Resene PaintWise is one of six programmes to secure Ministry of Environment (MfE) accreditation to date. 3R Group Executive Director Graeme Norton said the company was thrilled the Resene PaintWise programme joins another programme the company has developed, Agrecovery Rural Recycling, in receiving accreditation.
Resene Paints Limited was named the 2010 Sustainable Business of the Year at the Sustainable Business Networks (SBN) Central/Southern regional awards last night for its innovative workplace initiatives. Along with being names the Sustainable Business of the Year, Resene Paints Limited was also crowned winner of the ‘Trailblazer Large and Corporate’ category.
The judges praised Resene for their consistently outstanding effort when it comes to sustainability. Resene has demonstrated significant commitment to the research and development of sustainable practices and products, the judges said.
The judges were particularly impressed by Resene’s EcoDecorator programme, which despite having a somewhat challenging audience amongst professional painters, was making great headway in encouraging the adoption of sustainable practices. Resene’s efforts have encouraged their competitors to follow their lead and step up their own dedication to sustainability.
Recycling may be part of being ‘green’, but there is no denying it’s practically beneficial to the environment and results in huge savings in the long run.
For all those concerned about recycling glass, it’s heartening to know that four out of five of the glass containers on the supermarket shelves are part of a voluntary levy to help make sure each container gets recycled when it is put in the recycling bin. Only 12% of New Zealanders know about this voluntary levy but an overwhelming 92% say they think all businesses should be taking this sort of responsibility or ‘product stewardship’.
And this leadership has now been recognised with the Minister for the Environment’s seal of approval as a voluntary product stewardship scheme under the Waste Minimisation Act 2008.
Environment Minister Nick Smith today launched the New Zealand Waste Strategy at the WasteMINZ Conference in Auckland, giving a strong emphasis on reducing the harmful effects of waste and improving the efficiency of resource use.
"Our Bluegreen approach is about using financial incentives and working collaboratively with industry to improve New Zealand's management of waste" Dr Smith said.
The Minister also made two further announcements on waste funding at the Waste Management Institute of New Zealand's annual conference in Auckland today. West Auckland company Tyregone Processors Limited received $300,000 to expand its plant to process more than 2000 tonnes of used tyres a year and the Bay of Plenty Regional Council received $100,000 to expand a vermicomposting trial to deal with organic waste. Vermicomposting uses worms to turn organic waste into high nutrient compost diverting waste from landfill.
The Minister also signalled today the Government's support for industries that voluntarily collaborate to solve a particular waste problem.
Under the Waste Minimisation Act's product stewardship scheme, the Minister today accredited Refrigerant Recovery New Zealand Ltd's programme for the safe collection and destruction of ozone-depleting refrigerants. He also accredited the Agrecovery Foundation's rural recycling programme for a new scheme for recycling used farm plastic agrichemical containers and safely disposing of hazardous agrichemicals.
"I encourage other industries that have product stewardship schemes to get them accredited as it not only brings environmental and economic benefits, but it demonstrates corporate social responsibility," Dr Smith said.
"These new initiatives dealing with used tyres, used agricultural chemical containers, ozone depleting chemicals and biowaste reflect the Government's strong focus on dealing with the harm caused by waste."
The Waste Strategy is available at: http://www.mfe.govt.nz/publications/waste/waste-strategy/index.html
Industry groups that continue to use CFCs, HCFCs and HFCs have accepted their responsibility to discard the refrigerants in an environmentally acceptable way.
In 1993, a trust was formed by the New Zealand Institute of Refrigeration, Heating and Air Conditioning Engineers with one objective in mind: to promote and facilitate the collection, storage and disposal of all ozone depleting substances during the phasing out period. As synthetic greenhouse gases have emerged the trust’s activities have been extended to include collection and disposal of these contributors to global warming.
Posted: 11th August 2011
With New Zealand marketing itself to the world as ‘100 % pure’, it’s a good thing that our treatment of tyres doesn’t feature in glossy tourist brochures, with most ending up in rubbish tips around the country. That could soon come to an end, with industry agreement around an end of life tyre (ELT) scheme. The Motor Trade Association’s Advocacy and Training General Manager, Dougal Morrison, says that there is support from the major tyre companies, the industry associations, MIA, IMVIA, AA, Scrap Metal Recycling Association and Local Government New Zealand, to get a product stewardship scheme up and running. Funding is currently being sought under the Waste Minimisation Fund for the design phase, and the hope is to get it up and running within 12 months.
