Funding secured to explore circular economy in the Waikato

Waikato Regional Council has secured $134,000 from the Ministry for the Environment’s Waste Minimisation Fund to explore economically viable options for putting organics, including food and garden waste, to best use.

Waikato Regional Council’s Waste Prevention Advisor Valerie Bianchi said: “This an exciting area of research that can help us seize new opportunities as we transition to a more climate and waste-resilient economy. The end goal will be to move from a linear system where we take resources, make products, use them once, and throw them away, to one where we design waste out of our processes, keeping materials and products in use.

“For organics, it’s about seeing what is traditionally considered waste destined for landfill and recognising its value for products like compost. This research will help us to rethink organic waste and then go a step further to recognise not only the environmental, but also the economic and social opportunities – from creating new jobs to providing low-cost, low-carbon products,” Ms Bianchi said.

The research will align to the Waikato regional Waste Prevention Action Plan 2020-2025, which sets out how the council will work with local authorities, iwi, businesses and other key stakeholders to support and coordinate waste reduction initiatives and to accelerate the transition towards more circular economic principals.

It will be split into three areas, focusing on:

• reducing contaminants like plastics and herbicides
• understanding the end market for compost
• exploring standardised processing options that make the best use of local resources and knowledge.

“Regional councils have a legislative mandate to reduce the amount of contaminants that enter our environment. Food scraps and garden waste currently make up around 45 per cent of residential waste being sent to landfill and there’s growing interest in how it can be safely cycled back to the earth as part of an economic system that creates meaningful employment,” Ms Bianchi said.

“By the end of the project, we plan to deliver pragmatic processing options and highlight viable local business opportunities. We’ll continue to work closely with our partners and expect the project will deliver solutions that offer a blueprint to help enhance the environmental, economic and social welbeing of our region by designing out waste.”

The two-year research project builds on research published earlier this year into the opportunities for local government in the Waikato to develop a deeper understanding of circular economy concepts.

It will also receive $50,000 of funding from the Waikato Wellbeing Project, a community-led partnership that aims to achieve a better and more sustainable future for the Waikato region.

Waikato Wellbeing Project Executive Director Harvey Brookes said: “We’re thrilled to be able to support this research as one of our welbeing targets is to increase the number of households, schools, businesses and farms in the Waikato who reduce their waste. We look forward to advancing our collective insights into the regional waste system and making breakthroughs to further circularise that system.”

Waikato Regional Council has had a waste strategy in place since 2012. While previous strategies focused on responsible waste management and waste minimisation, the focus now is to prevent waste all together through better product and systems design.