Paper, plastic, technology, food – you name it, businesses are some of the biggest producers of waste.
While many businesses want to make a switch and rethink their process and procedures, getting started can seem overwhelming and time consuming.
Enter your local councils: Did you know both Tauranga City Council and Western Bay of Plenty District Councils offer a free waste minimisation programme for local businesses?
Introduced as part of the Waste Management and Minimisation Plan (WMMP), the programme seeks to support local businesses to reduce their waste to landfill.
There’s no cost for businesses to become a member of the programme as it is funded by the Ministry for the Environment’s waste levy fund that council receives yearly for waste minimisation projects.
Ilze Kruis, Resource Recovery and Waste Team Leader at Western Bay of Plenty District Council, says there are a number of contributing factors as to why businesses struggle with their waste, including lack of access to recycling markets, lack of product stewardship for many waste types and that it’s cost prohibitive (as it is cheaper to send things to landfill).
Paris Mules-Kopae, Waste Programme Officer at Tauranga City Council, adds the most impactful thing a business can do is sort their waste (rubbish, recycling and food scraps) – as is being implemented at a household level.
“Once waste is put in the rubbish bin, it’s sent straight to landfill, there’s no sorting along the way. All the materials that end up in landfill will stay under the ground unable to be used again, which is a waste of resources and land. Landfill also emits greenhouse gasses, which aren’t good for our environment.”
This was one of the key drivers behind the Resource Wise Business® programme, to see how much waste could be diverted in businesses.
“Our aim is to assist local businesses in sending less to landfill and have a better understanding of what they are putting into their rubbish bin,” says Paris.
“Once they have completed the programme it’s hoped they will have enough knowledge to manage their waste minimisation in the future. We also hope that by learning good waste minimisation practice at work people will take these habits home and make changes there as well.”
How the programmes work:
Western Bay of Plenty District Council:
The Business Waste Minimisation programme is for businesses located in Western Bay of Plenty and includes much of the same services as TCC, including a free on-site waste audit, education for staff, and advice from an independent consultant.
The programme has an experienced waste minimisation specialist at the helm who can give customised advice to businesses looking to decrease their waste and help them make a plan.
Some businesses making the switch include Comvita, Fresh Choice Omokoroa and Waihi Beach Top 10.
To sign up, contact the team here.
Tauranga City Council:
The Resource Wise Business® programme consists of four stages for businesses to work through (based on their ability to increase diversion from landfill): Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum.
To achieve Bronze, a business simply needs to join the programme and receive their first waste audit and report. From there, they must action the recommendations in their waste audit reports which are based specifically on the business type. By doing this it will help them to achieve higher diversion rates until they reach the highest level of the programme which is Platinum (85% diversion).
The programme includes a number of support tools, including free waste audits, useful resources and workshops, and one-on-one support to help them through any issues they may face.
Paris says, “Any business in Tauranga City can register for the programme, however if a business feels like they are already doing very well in this space, then we would encourage them to leave spaces open for those businesses who are struggling and really need the support the programme can offer.”
To register for the programme, submit an online form through the TCC website. From there, the business will then be contacted by Paris for a meeting to better understand what they want to achieve from joining.
Note, they ask businesses to commit for a minimum of four years to the programme to get the best results.
For example, Pacific Coast Lodge was recently awarded gold status for diverting 70% of its waste from landfill in a year (that’s 13,569 kg of waste diverted from landfill).
On a larger scale, Zespri was recently awarded platinum status, for diverting 85% of its waste from landfill in 2020. Zespri has diverted 29 tonnes of waste from landfill during their first two years participating in the programme.
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