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ZERO WASTE NEW ZEALAND TRUST
MEDIA RELEASE
MEDIA RELEASE
10, May 2,000
ZERO WASTE MOVEMENT HITS TOP GEAR
More Councils to Join National Pilot Project
More than a third of all territorial local authorities have now joined an ambitious plan to make New Zealand the world leader in waste reduction.
Co-ordinators of the Zero Waste movement have confirmed that 25 of New Zealand's 74 Local authorities have joined a national pilot project (originally designed for only ten) and more authorities are poised to make a commitment to reducing waste to zero by
2015. The Councils gathered for the first time last year, at the inaugural Zero Waste Conference in Kaikoura, providing clear evidence of a groundswell of support in urban and provincial New Zealand to conquer New Zealand's chronic waste problem.
Each Council receives a grant of $25,000 from the Zero Waste New Zealand Trust to research the best methods for reducing landfilling in their area and to develop their Zero Waste strategies. The Trust which is investigating new sources of research funding to allow the pilot programme to be expanded.
Zero Waste Executive Director Warren Snow said the conference, attended by community groups, council staff and elected representatives, highlighted a new level of underestanding about the need to better manage the flow of resources through our communities and the value of material currently sent to landfill.
"There's been a significant shift in awareness and it's clear there's a new will to act. People no longer need convincing of the need to divert resources from landfill. They want to know the 'how-to' so that they can make immediate progress in their community.
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"The change has been driven by the inevitability of environmental contamination, growing disposal costs and the increasing value of the waste stream in terms of jobs and economic development.
"Councils can see that reducing waste towards zero is no longer a theoretical exercise. Most of the processes already exist and we have more than enough case studies of community-based recycling and waste reduction projects achieving dramatic results. Councils can proceed with confidence, knowing that a community-based approach will gain a strong constituency of support and creativity.
"Zero Waste is a break-through strategy which will achieve rapid and massive improvements in our resource efficiency."
New Zealand is a "waste-hiding" society that relies on the services of professional waste hiders. The key to reducing the waste stream is to involve the community and use economic development as a driver as well as environmental benefits.
Guest speaker Bill Sheehan, of the GrassRoots Recycling Network, based in Athens Georgia, said local government must nurture community support for waste reduction and create the conditions for recycling and reuse to out-compete landfilling.
"Local government has to create the incentives to sort and separate resources at the mouth of the landfill, and aim to starve it. It also has a role in exerting an influence further upstream at the design end - to reduce the wasteful use of resources prior to consumption."
"We need to invert the mindset that views recycling and reuse as an expensive add-on to a disposal service, and aim for a system where landfilling becomes the add-on to the elimination of waste and the resource recovery process."
For further information contact:
Julie Dickinson
Manager
Zero Waste New Zealand Trust
Ph: 011 64 9 486 0736
or email: mailbox@zerowaste.co.nz