First forays into the world of emerging contaminants Less than two years ago, before our attention was taken up by a global pandemic and recession, we were on a quest to rid New Zealand of single-use plastic. Micro-plastics were our common invisible enemy, now superseded by a virus. Every self-respecting café sold keep cups, restaurants on Wellington’s waterfront pledged to eliminate plastic...
Part 1: The current state of the fashion industry. The word ‘fashion’ can evoke an elite clique of creatives to which ordinary clothes wearing people like you and me can feel excluded. But unless you are reading this in the nudey, and all power to you if you are, your clothes wearing self is part of the global clothing system. Fashion, far from being frivolous, is one of the largest and most...
“Environmental efforts that look to make things less bad will ultimately fail, because less bad is not good enough.” This was just one of world renowned Professor Michael Braungart’s thought-provoking judgements of current sustainability initiatives during his recent visit to New Zealand. Prof Braungart is a Chemist, award-winning book author, co-founder of the Cradle to Cradle® design concept...
The transition to a circular economy offers significant economic and environmental benefits for New Zealand. Recent research looking at the potential of moving to a circular economy in Auckland, New Zealand’s largest city, highlights substantial benefits if circular economy principles and practices were fully embraced. The research, undertaken by the economic consultancy Sapere, on behalf of the...
Future cities could process biosolids and wastewater in very different ways. What happens to the water that gurgles down your shower drain? For many people it disappears out of sight and out of mind, but not for civil engineers, town planners or those working in wastewater treatment. They are busy maintaining the intricate infrastructure that takes care of your wastewater so you don’t have to...
Fifty million tonnes of computers, mobile phones and other electronics will be disposed of around the world this year, most of which will end up in landfill. Not only is this destructive to the environment, but it wastes valuable metals such as gold, copper and rare earths. The metallic value of the 95,000 tonnes of e-waste generated by New Zealanders each year is worth over NZ $100 million. A...
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