Although two thirds of councils have signed up to zero waste, and some rural areas are now achieving landfill diversion rates as high as 76%, the chief executive of the Zero Waste New Zealand Trust has said urban councils are not signing up.
”Some areas in New Zealand are achieving a 65-76% recycling rate at the moment. However these are pockets of excellence and definitely cannot be applied to the whole of NZ.“
– Jo Knight, Zero Waste NZ
New Zealand has been seen as a world leader in applying the concept of zero waste, a concept inspired by Japanese “total quality management”. Zero waste has now been taken up by a number of municipal authorities throughout the Western world including some councils in the UK.
But prior to speaking at an international conference on zero waste in April 2005, the Trust's chief executive Jo Knight told letsrecycle.com that New Zealand is now lagging behind others with its zero waste ambitions.
Ms Knight said: “With a zero waste aim, some areas in New Zealand are achieving a 65-76% recycling rate at the moment. However these are pockets of excellence and definitely cannot be applied to the whole of NZ. They are local initiatives in non-industrialised areas.”
Aims
The concept of Zero Waste encompasses producer responsibility, eco-design, waste reduction, re-use, composting and recycling all within a single framework which aims to leave no municipal waste for landfill.
Throughout the world, the concept has gained favour from municipal authorities including the Australian city of Canberra, which is aiming for zero waste by 2010, as well as the US State of California and the city of Toronto, Canada.
In the UK, the Zero Waste movement was launched in June 2002 by Liberal MP Sue Doughty, urging councils to reach a zero waste target by 2020. The concept was adopted by the Liberals as part policy in 2003 (see letsrecycle.com story)
In New Zealand, 65% of councils have now committed to zero waste, a figure that is likely to grow according to the Zero Waste Trust. But many areas in the country are content to accept less ambitious targets, Ms Knight said.
She said: “Without the zero waste aim, the remaining councils are content to aim for a 1% reduction in waste per year, or a 10% reduction overall. This is simplistic as it fails to take into account the growth in rubbish production at source as well.”
Infrastructure
Ms Knight explained that while the goal of producing zero waste may not be entirely possible, only by aiming for it – and constructing the infrastructure to do so – would high levels of recycling be possible.
She said: “I often describe the aiming for zero as a total quality management term – it's like zero workplace accidents and zero road deaths. People need to set their face towards zero as without that target everything suddenly lands in the 'too hard' basket.”
“To make it work the infrastructure to deal with each product must be developed and previous engrained practices changed,” she added.
| Related links: |
As new processes for reprocessing waste materials and products are introduced, “the zero target comes into focus”, Ms Knight said. Plastics that had been difficult to recycle are now “morphing from a waste material to a useful product”, she explained.
Ms Knight is to be a guest speaker at an international zero-waste conference in Kaikoura, the first town in the world to gain Green Globe certification for its waste policies. The conference will be held in April.
Register for free to comment