“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...
The New Zealand recycling sector is in crises. Today the Rebooting Recycling discussion paper calls on Associate Environment Minister Eugenie Sage to take urgent action to find solutions and create a circular economy in Aotearoa. The paper outlines a range of both short and long-term actions the Government should consider. Why do we have a recycling crisis? The market for recycled materials has...
In New Zealand the circular economy concept is starting to take root and build momentum. The circular economy approach views all materials as a potential resource, reducing waste to landfill and cycling inputs back into the productive economy. The practice rejects the “take-make-waste” thinking found in the linear economy in favour of cycling biological (bio-cycle) and technical materials back...
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