Yesterday evening I went to a seminar on smart packaging. It was put together by a team from Wanaka Wastebusters. A guest speaker from Westpac Bank spoke first, then the Wanaka Wastebusters team. If there is one in your area in the future it would be worth registering (for free) and heading along.
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| Image source: www.westpac.co.nz |
WESTPAC BANK
I was very surprised to hear that Westpac Back were on a big drive to improve their practices and have made some really big inroads in the past 4 years and they continue their journey. They have been recognised for this through sustainable business awards, including being recognised by Dow Jones as the most sustainable bank worldwide. I was impressed and am definitely going to consider changing to them for that reason when we review our mortgage later in the year.
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| Image source: http://www.smartpackaging.org.nz/ |
PACKAGING
Whether you are involved in packaging design or choice for a product or are purely a product consumer, if you know a little about packaging design you are in a better place to pressure the people that provide packaging.
A number of products don't need packaging, but if they do we need to follow the principles of reduce the amount of packaging, design it for reuse and ensure at the end of its life it can be recycled.
Closed loop recycling is the best - this is where the packaging is recycled into the same type of packaging. Glass is an example of this. Provided the glass is separated and uncontaminated this process can occur. How the glass is collected for recycling affects this of course. For those of you who remember the days of glass milk bottles, you will recall that before they were melted down and remade into new bottles they were collected and refilled many times. A far more cyclic process then the current system.
Today our plastic milk bottles (produced from oil) are largely collected at kerbside for recycling, they are packaged up, shipped to China and downcycled into another product (which may or may not be recyclable).
In Europe PET bottles (that is your Coca Cola bottles for example) are collected and refilled up to 17 times prior to being recycled - a definite improvement on single use as it is in New Zealand, however this is still an oil based product (and oil as a resource is limited), and there still a product to dispose of at the end of the day.
Paper of course is readily recyclable, but because it loss strength over time, it eventually needs to be disposed of. However, because it is essentially a natural product it can be readily ans safely composted (provided no toxic print ink is used - many are vegetable based these days).
They explained some definitions during the seminar. I thought these would be useful to be recorded here:
- Bioplastics: Can be made from plants and/OR biodegrade at the end of life. So you can't be sure that a product that states its a bioplastic is actually plant based. It could be oil based and degradable which has significant issues in itself.
- Biodegradable - Capable of being decomposed by bacteria or other living organisms and therefore avoiding pollution - but the time frame could be anything from weeks to months to many 100's of years or more.
- Compostable - doesn't always mean its compostable at your home or in the system your town uses. There are many different types of industrial composting. Take for example Envirocomp who specialise in composting disposable nappies. They can do it with their system, but it couldn't be done at the main Christchurch city composting plant nor at home. So you need to ask the question - where can the product be composted, how is it composted, how long does it take and how likely is the packaging will actually make it to the appropriate compost system in the first place. Two examples here are potatopak which is compostable in your home compost bin and cafe prima coffee compostable coffee bags which can't be composted at home, but can be in some industrial composting plants. Have a think about those products and whether they are likely to make it into the compost. Remember that we don't want compostable things at landfill, as breakdown causing leaching and release of methane gas (which is captured at larger landfill sites but not the small ones and doesn't of course discount the leaching problem).
- Degradable plastic bags - we've already done this to death, but just to confirm, they have many problems. All that has been done to this oil based plastic is that it has had additions added to it to make it weaker and therefore break into small fragments when exposed to heat and light. These fragments then get into the soil/water and potentially contaminate it. We don;t really know what happens next out in the environment and they certainly don't break down like they say they will in landfill. Say NO to these bags and tell the businesses why, because they probably have no idea and thought they were a good option. You may be interested in watching this Fair Go report on these bags.
The questions you need to ask about packaging are:
- Where does it come from?
- What is the story around it? In terms of how is it produced, where and so on
- What happens to it at the end of life? For example you might choose packaging that can be composted but it is only composted in a small number of areas in the country therefore it will mostly end at landfill or if it is a product purchased and eaten on the run and therefore will end up in a kerbside bin. Talk to the people that work in composting and recycling to find out more.
You can read more on Smart Packaging here.
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| Image source: www.idealcup.co.nz |
IDEAL CUP
Quoted from the website "New Zealand's first reusable, 'barista grade' takeaway cup designed & manufactured right here in Aotearoa!" http://www.idealcup.co.nz/
There are lots of these now available but at the time of writing this is the only one designed and manufactured here in New Zealand, and while there is nothing essentially wrong with the others, the local design and made is of huge benefit to reducing its footprint.
While reusable coffee cups can be recycled (or composted) depending on the cup and where you are based, because most of these are purchased and disposed of on the run they generally end up at landfill.
CHALLENGE
I challenge you to make your workplace, home and leisure time disposable coffee cup free! If you are a coffee drinker, purchase an "Ideal Cup" and support New Zealand - design, manufacturing, and play a part in reducing waste streams that currently end up at landfill.
Have a great weekend
Francesca
nice written article are always informative, so here it is. I suggest these points are more than enough for any one wanting to take max benefits with new zealand bank
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