On Tuesday 6th May, we hosted a lunch and learn for our team on ‘recycling right’, which was delivered by one of our sustainability consultants from Go Well Consulting, Kate. The purpose of this lunch and learn was to equip Deane staff with the knowledge to recycle correctly, both in the office and at home.

We kicked off the session with a quiz, to test our team’s existing knowledge on recycling in Aotearoa. Following the quiz, Kate talked to the team about the national recycling standardisation that took place in New Zealand on 1st February of this year. We learned that, as part of the standardisation, what’s accepted in kerbside recycling is now the same across the motu:

We also learned that a number of items that were previously accepted in Auckland can no longer go into our kerbside recycling bins, including Tetra Paks (liquid paperboard packaging), plastic and metal bottles caps, and aerosol cans. However, Kate highlighted several specialist recycling programmes, where you can drop off specific items for recycling:

• Liquid paperboard packaging/Tetra Pak cartons – Saveboard
• Soft plastics – Soft Plastics Recycling Scheme (Countdown, New World, etc)
• Batteries - Bunnings
• E-waste – Go Recycle
• Lightbulbs – Mitre 10
• Metal bottle caps – Go Recycle
• Aerosol cans – Go Recycle
• Plus many more specific brands or products through Terracycle, such as Colgate oral care items or Robert Harris/NESCAFÉ/L’OR coffee capsules.

Kate wrapped up the lunch and learn by referring to Go Well’s ‘Materials Hierarchy’ (image below). The Materials Hierarchy is Go Well’s version of the traditional waste hierarchy, and provides guidance to help people prioritise solutions for items they want to dispose of. The image highlights that, although recycling is an important part of a circular economy, it should be a last resort before landfill/incineration. We should be aiming to:

• Refuse to create waste in the first place,
• Redesign single-use products,
• Reduce our consumption,
• Reuse, repair, and repurpose items,
• Refurbish and remanufacture where appropriate,
• And then recycle anything else.