Consultant Anita Lewis presented a webinar hosted by WasteMINZ on the 9th October 2024. Titled ‘Invisible Waste: Unveiling Microplastic Pollution’, Anita discusses the pervasive issue of microplastics. Focusing on its sources, environmental impacts, and the role of the waste management sector in mitigation and management.
Anita highlights the significant contribution of microplastics from textiles, the far-reaching consequences for ecosystems and human health, and the ability of microplastics to spread across the globe, including remote locations like Antarctica.
Anita discusses solutions including improving wastewater treatment technologies, policy changes, and shifting to the circular economy for textiles and plastics in particular. Other ways to reduce microplastic pollution include increasing industry accountability and public awareness.
The Ministry for the Environment commissioned Eunomia to produce a report about recycling rates that would assist them to determine how to calculate national recycling rates for Aotearoa New Zealand. Six metrics were put forward for the Ministry’s refinement and future use, including sets that are comparable to existing Australian, OECD, and EU metrics.
Typically national waste metrics include recycling rates presented as percentages of waste recovered compared to total waste generated, and per capita metrics for total waste generated presented as kilograms of municipal waste per person per annum. Although these calculations appear to be straightforward there are many variables including waste streams, activity sources, and destination types that could be included or excluded from the definition of municipal waste and therefore the calculation of the recycling rate. It is also important to consider what information is available and what may need to be estimated.
The report begins with a review of metrics from jurisdictions within Australia, European Union, United Kingdom, United States, as well as for the OECD and PacWaste Plus programme to analyse existing approaches and determine useful methods or lessons that could be adopted or adapted for New Zealand. The international review found that the data obtained appears to be incomplete or inconsistent, relying on significant data manipulation and estimates. Although all jurisdictions reported on “municipal solid waste”, the definition and scope varies between them. The report also reflected that this metric overlooks non-municipal waste streams that generate a significant amount of waste (e.g. construction and demolition and industrial waste) that could have a greater potential for diversion and/or reduction.
Next, the report reviewed the availability and quality of datasets from government, research, industry, and product stewardship sources that could be called upon to generate national recycling rate metrics. The analysis found that data should be improved overtime for accurate recycling rate metric calculations, and that there is a lack of on-going data for material recovery.
The report brings together learnings from the international metrics review and the national dataset review to explore metrics that could be used in New Zealand. This involved generating a dataset of the best available data to use alongside a recycling rate model to calculate metrics. The six rates that were generated for the report differed by what material streams and/or facilities were included, in order to produce metrics that were comparable to existing Australian, OECD, and EU metrics.
In September 2024 Eunomia produced a report for Waikato Regional and Tauranga City Councils that seeks to understand what place waste to energy has in Aotearoa.
The report presents outcomes on key waste to energy technologies and their potential application in New Zealand, and Waikato and Tauranga specifically. The study compares greenhouse gas emissions of four scenarios where three use WtE technologies and one uses landfill as the status quo.
Eunomia undertook a comprehensive review of New Zealand’s waste and resource recovery infrastructure in 2020-21. The summary report for the project is now publicly available and can be downloaded here.
The project covered three phases:
1. Stocktake of existing facilities and services. The study gathered information and data on the number and types of facilities and services as well as the types and quantities of material they handled. While much of the information provided was commercially sensitive, the summary report provides an aggregated view of 10 key resource streams as well as Class 1 landfills and energy recovery. Note that the data is a snapshot in time.
2. Identifying and prioritising infrastructure gaps. This phase of the project was conducted with input from an Infrastructure Working Group (IWG) which comprised 18 subject matter experts representing a cross section of the industry as well as central government. Gaps and options were further tested through the input of a series of technical reference groups for each material stream.
3. Applying a strategic lens. This phase synthesises many of the ideas that emerged through the work into a strategic framework. It proposes the concept of a ‘circular resource network’. In this network the resource recovery system is consciously designed to facilitate the circular flow of materials through the economy, by ‘completing the circle’.
Duncan Wilson presented at the WasteMINZ conference in October 2019 about how tackling waste can have a bigger carbon impact than you might think.
Officially waste accounts for 5% of NZ’s greenhouse gas emissions. But, by recycling and reducing consumption of products and materials, we can have an impact way beyond that 5%.
Click the button below to download a copy of the presentation.
The Government has announced a consultation on changes to the waste disposal levy. The proposals would see the rate of the levy increase to $50-$60 a tonne by 2023 for waste to class 1 landfills. The levy would also be extended to cover classes 2-4 landfills at lower rates of $10-$20 a tonne. Eunomia NZ Director Duncan Wilson was interviewed on Radio NZ’s nine to noon programme about the Governments proposed changes to the waste disposal levy.
Ever wondered where the rubber on your tyres goes when it wears off? Eunomia Senior Consultant Dr Chiarina Darrah took part in a panel discussion on the problem of microplastics from tyre wear at this year’s Fully Charged Live.
The festival of clean energy technologies and electric vehicles took place over 7th–9th June at Silverstone, UK. Fully Charged is a YouTube channel exploring electric vehicles and renewable energy, hosted by writer, broadcaster and actor Robert Llewellyn and Jonny Smith.
Chiarina appeared on Sunday 9th in a session titled ‘What you need to know about particulate & tyre pollution’. She drew on our work on emissions of microplastics into the environment to discuss the scale of the problem, potential policy solutions and what consumers can do to help. The panel was chaired by physicist, oceanographer and broadcaster Helen Czerski, and also featured Richard Lofthouse of Emissions Analytics, independent specialists for the measurement of real-world emissions, and G Erlendsson of Enso Tyres, a manufacturer of sustainable tyres for electric vehicles.
Recent events such as floods washing out the old Fox Glacier landfill and a large fire at Hampton Downs landfill have prompted the question: Do we have a landfill problem? Eunomia Senior Consultant, Lisa Eve spoke with Larry Williams on Newstalk ZB about the issue. Lisa is also quoted in a recent newspaper article on the issue of old landfills, and was on the radio again in September.
Darebin City Council (DCC) in Melbourne,
Australia were the first in the world to declare a climate emergency in
December 2016.
We have been appointed to help the council to determine what practical actions they can take to meaningfully reduce the amount of carbon that they currently emit through their waste management practices. We are working with our UK office, as well as Australian engineering consultancy Irwinconsult.
As a result of the declaration, the council
has produced a Climate Emergency Plan, which outlines the objectives and
actions that DCC will take to reduce their contribution to climate change. Our
work with DCC addresses Key Direction No. 5: Consumption and Waste
Minimisation. The aim of this directive is to reduce the amount of waste to
landfill, including food waste and recycling.
Our team are working with DCC to examine the practical steps that they can take to reduce their carbon emissions from waste. This involves carrying out an assessment of the area’s current emissions, as well as evaluating the potential effectiveness of a range of options, including the potential for Energy from Waste and the use of biochar.
Since Darebin’s declaration, local
authorities across the world have taken similar action, with dozens of councils
having currently declared climate emergencies in the UK alone.
In advising the DCC, our team is drawing from its considerable track record in this area, which includes the development in 2010 of the ground-breaking Greenhouse Gas Emissions Performance Standard (EPS) for the Greater London Authority (GLA). Work for the GLA currently includes the provision of support to London boroughs to ensure that they comply with the EPS, as well as the development of progress updates on London’s performance against the standard.
You can download a presentation referring to our work here:
In the course of our work we talk to lots of council members, stakeholders, and members of the public. The topic of Waste to Energy comes up regularly. Waste to Energy is common in many places overseas such as UK, parts of Europe, Japan, and it is becoming more common in China and the USA. But New Zealand doesn’t have any Waste to Energy facilities that process municipal waste. In this article for Revolve magazine Dr Dominic Hogg and Duncan Wilson examine the pros and cons of burning waste to generate energy.
The discussion document Rebooting Recycling – What can Aotearoa do? has been released by WasteMINZ. Eunomia worked with WasteMINZ and the recycling industry to develop the document.
Overview:
The collapse in international recycling markets has left the recycling sector in New Zealand in a vulnerable position. Without positive action to address the issue, recyclable material could be sent to landfill, councils and communities will suffer financially, and operators could go out of business. Action from the Government is needed. There are some things that need to happen immediately, including:
– enabling access to funding,
– facilitating national communications, and
– obtaining better data on recyclable materials.
There are also some things that will take longer, but that will help build a more robust system and deliver a more circular economy. These actions include:
– revising the national waste strategy,
– changes to the waste disposal levy,
– product stewardship and design,
– ongoing communications, and
– positive public procurement of recycled products.
While there is a lot to do, everything that has been set out in this discussion paper can be achieved using existing funding sources and legislation. The sector is engaged and willing to work positively with the Government to ensure our sector is thriving.
Finally, this crisis also represents an opportunity, the opportunity to build a new system that can deliver better outcomes for our communities, our environment, and our economy. Together we can reboot recycling and create a circular economy for Aotearoa.
To download a copy of the discussion document click the button below:
Eunomia Chairman Dr Dominic Hogg was interviewed on BBC World about China’s move to restrict imports of recycling. The restrictions are a wake up call for the recycling industry. While they will cause some short term pain, they also could provide an incentive to move to a system that is more sustainable. This will mean designing products and packaging so they can be reclaimed more easily, and putting in place better systems for collecting and sorting material so it is clean and has value.
