by Duncan Wilson | 23 Jul 2017 | Councils, News, Recent, Recycling, Reports, Waste
Eunomia worked with Auckland Council to produce this zero waste events guide. The guide is designed for the non-waste specialist, in particular event managers. It will help you reduce the amount of waste your events produce and work towards zero waste. It also signposts to useful detail in appendices and special case studies (available from Auckland Council), so you can drill down where you need more information.
Click the button to download a copy of the main guide.
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The key information is also available online through the zero waste events website. Click the link below:
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by Duncan Wilson | 2 Jul 2017 | News, Organic, Policy, Recent, Recycling, Reports, Strategy, Sustainability, Waste
Eunomia Research & Consulting undertook research to improve understanding of the impacts of possible changes to the structure and rate of the Waste Disposal Levy.
The study, which was commissioned by a consortium of businesses and councils, showed that there are likely to be real benefits for NZ through putting in place a well-structured levy regime. The research found there would be significant benefits in terms of waste minimisation, employment, and the economy. Key features should include:
- Extending the levy to all types of fills
- A large increase in the rate of the levy
- A differential between ‘active’ waste and ‘inert’ waste
- An escalation to the target rates over time
- Increased monitoring and enforcement, and
- Targeted spending of levy income.
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by Duncan Wilson | 22 Jun 2017 | article, News, Procurement, Recycling, Waste
Rubbish collections are considered by many to be core council business. But the market has been changing. Rethinking old ways can deliver better economic, environmental and community outcomes.
Read Duncan Wilson’s article in Local Government magazine about council versus private rubbish collections.
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by mmwd | 12 Apr 2017 | Recent, Recycling, Reports
In this report, prepared jointly with Resource Media, we analyse recycling data from around the world to understand which countries really lead the municipal waste recycling league table.
Some eye-catching headline recycling rates are reported in the media, but the basis on which rates are calculated can vary considerably. In some cases, a great deal of commercial or construction waste is counted, while approaches to accounting for rejects and for intermediate processes like MBT vary considerably. Even within the UK, the four nations now report their recycling on different bases, with Defra producing an annual set of figures that allow the results to be compared on an equal footing.
Both the OECD and the European Commission produce annual municipal waste and recycling statistics, which eliminate some (but far from all) of the inconsistencies. However, there are a few high recyclers that are members of neither organisation – Singapore and Taiwan, for example, report recycling rates above 55%. Bringing these data together allow us to present a world league table of reported recycling rates, which shows Germany as the world leader on 66%.
This is only the start of the story, though, as these figures don’t really compare like with like. Taking account of the different ways of counting, Germany remains in top spot, but is less than two percentage points ahead of Taiwan, which rises to second place, while Wales is in third.
The report also shows the rapid progress that Wales is making, and that the coutry is rapidly closing in on Germany’s established place at the top of the chart.
This report is available free of charge. Press the silver button and supply a few details about yourself in order to access the download.
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by Duncan Wilson | 22 Jun 2016 | News, Recent, Reports, Waste
One of the biggest barriers to managing our waste better in NZ is a lack of good data. We worked with WasteMINZ, the Ministry for the Environment and Waste Not Consulting to develop the first step to better data.
The development of the national waste data framework has taken the following form:
- A staged approach for developing a national waste data framework, focusing initially on the most important elements while also setting out a clear ‘upgrade’ path to include other elements.
- The first stage of the framework (which is now complete) includes data on waste disposed of at levied disposal sites, information on waste services and infrastructure as well as other areas where practicable
- Subsequent stages of the framework (to be addressed in the future) will include more detailed data on diverted materials and waste disposed of at non-levied disposal sites.
The National Waste Data Framework does the following:
- Establishes a set of definitions to act as a common language for collecting and reporting waste data
- Determines what data is gathered
- Determines who gathers this data
- Specifies how the target data is gathered
- Directs who data is reported to
- Sets out how the data that is collected is collated and presented
The first stage of the framework is freely available for anyone to download.
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by Duncan Wilson | 22 Oct 2014 | News, Presentation, Recycling, Reports, Waste
View this presentation on ‘The Horror of 240 Litre Wheeled Bins’ from the WasteMINZ Conference 2014. In this presentation Duncan Wilson presents a range of data that demonstrates how large wheeled bins for rubbish drive wasteful behaviour. Simply put, big bins encourage people to throw out more stuff. Most of the extra stuff people put in the bins is garden waste. But there is also more recyclable material, and other things like tree stumps and TVs that should be recovered or properly disposed of. The data is compelling. It is more relevant than ever as private wheeled bins services become more popular. Such services can undermine efforts to recover and recycle.
Click the button below to download a copy of the presentation.
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