Minutes of the
Waste and Resources Advisory Group (WRAG) meeting
held in
Tangaroa meeting room, Bay of Plenty Regional Council,
Mount Maunganui,
on Tuesday 10 December 2013 commencing at 10.00am
Chair:
Reece Irving
Scribe:
Stephanie Fraser
Present:
Hendrik Metz (Fulton Hogan Ltd); Annaka Davis (Toi Te Ora Public
Health); Ilze Kruis (Western Bay of Plenty District Council); Glen
Crowther (Envirohub); Neale Overend (Computer Recyclers);
David Puschart (Waste Management); Peter Harford (Petes
Takeaways); Marty Hoffart (Waste Watchers); Michael Quintern
(Mynoke); Tim Senington (Rotorua District Council); Marianna
Tyler (Waikato Regional Council), Rob Watkins (Macaulay Metals)
Apologies:
`
Kimberley Cleland (Tauranga City Council), Cliff Waaka
(Mataatua Iwi)
Absent:
Leon McPhillips (Agrecovery)
1
Welcome
The purpose of the advisory group was outlined as to support the successful
implementation of the Bay of Plenty Waste and Resource Efficiency Strategy (the
Strategy) by bringing together a cross section of industry, local government, and
community from the Bay of Plenty and Waikato and beyond. A hard copy of the
Strategy was provided to those present.
2
Introductions
Each member was asked to give a brief introduction of themselves:
•
Reece Irving (Project Implementation Officer (Waste) Bay of Plenty Regional
Council) – new to waste officer role – involved with waste, contaminated sites
and industry pollution prevention. Responsible, in collaboration, for the
production of the Strategy.
•
Hendrik Metz (Quality Environmental Advisor, Fulton Hogan Ltd) - Advisor for
the Bay of Plenty (BoP) and provides some support to the Waikato region.
Looking forward to being involved in turning strategy into action and bringing to
the group a commercial perspective.
•
Annaka Davis (Health Protection Officer - Toi Te Ora Public Health) –Covers
the BoP region down to Taupō, providing comment to councils on public health
issues; involved with bylaws with regard to solid waste and resource
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5
management policy strategy. Also responsible for emergency management
planning for the public health service. Public health is the key driver for being
involved in implementing a strategy to reduce waste.
•
Ilze Kruis (Environment Officer - Western Bay of Plenty District Council) –
responsible for managing solid waste. e.g. TV takeback at recycling centres.
•
Glen Crowther (Development Co-ordinator - Envirohub) - co-ordinates various
environment groups and projects throughout BoP. Role of Envirohub is to
facilitate two way information flow and encourage more opportunities for people
to do what they want to do e.g. recycle (e-waste).
•
Neale Overend (Computer Recyclers)– responsible for redirecting people into
correct line for e waste; the strategy of the company is to reuse as much as
possible.
•
David Puschart (Waste Management - Transpacific Industries) – oversees
operations including the environmental green bins and the recycling plant in Te
Maunga.
•
Peter Harford (Managing Director - Petes Takeaways) – company deals with
liquid waste and where to dispose of it.
•
Marty Hoffart (Managing Director - Waste Watchers) –providing local waste
minimisation consulting services (contract to councils). Involved in the not for
profit trust EERST which introduced paper recycling in preschools and schools.
Chair of the Community Recycling Network of New Zealand.
•
Michael Quintern (Director - Mynoke) - Founded vermiculture processing of
organic waste on a large scale in the region.
•
Tim Senington (Solid Waste Manager - Rotorua District Council)–focus on
reducing the burden to ratepayers of dealing with waste in the Rotorua District.
•
Marianna Tyler (Waste Minimisation Facilitator - Waikato Regional Council). –,
Involved in creating a similar group in Waikato Regional Council, which is in its
second year of implementation. The group aims to support Territorial Authorities
in waste minimisation objectives.
•
Rob Watkins (Northern Supplier Representative - Macaulay Metals)–keen to be
involved in industry discussion and change.
It was noted during introductions that:
•
Product stewardship - this group could add a voice in the promotion of the cradle to
grave product lifecycle perspective.
•
Public perception is often that waste is a council issue.
•
Industry faces many obstacles to recycling e.g. queries from the public as to why they
can’t recycle something.
•
The current process for disposing of human liquid waste requires greatly increasing
volume of the product before disposal.
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•
5
A lot of education and support needs to be provided to businesses when considering
waste management options.
•
There is huge demand for improving soil quality through the addition organic waste in
NZ; including wood fibre and municipal organic waste. Demand could outstrip available
resources.
3
Terms of Reference
3.1
Overview of Terms of Reference document – Marianna Tyler
The terms of reference for this group were modelled on those adopted by the Waikato Waste
Strategy Advisory Group which meets twice a year formally, although in the first year it met four
times. The group is made up of a range of stakeholders including Trans Pacific Industries,
Smart Environmental, Fonterra, Extreme Waste, MfE, and TA’s. The aim was to pull together
industry knowledge to manage waste in region. A focus of the group is based on the Waikato
Bay of Plenty Wastes Stocktake report which identified gaps and recommended projects.
3.2
Gating Criteria
To prioritise the projects in a transparent and objective way, a set of gating criteria was
developed using an excel spreadsheet to produce a score. The criteria ensure a project aligns
with the objectives of the strategy and identifies resources required. Every project goes through
the tool, and then is put to the advisory group. For example the National Data Framework
Project (the objective of which was to support a framework to gather and store waste
information) was put through the gating criteria tool and came out as a high rating project where
it was identified there was a need for national partners; Wasteminz are now driving the project
at a national level.
It was noted that:
• it is also important to have a robust project close out process to reduce the risk of going
over same ground as another project may have already covered.
• It could be helpful to use pictorial representation on the gating criteria spread sheet.
• This group should identify waste streams that are viable to be channelled away from
disposal. Any ideas should be put through the gating process to see how they fit with
focus areas of the BOPRC Waste and Resource Efficiency Strategy.
3.3
BOP Waste and Resource Efficiency Strategy
A copy of this document was given to each member attending the meeting.
Action: Reece Irving to distil the strategy to a one or two page brief to distribute to the group.
It was noted that:
• all people involved in delivering the strategy need some measures of performance / an
evaluation of effectiveness of group.
• Page 23 of the strategy identifies that a report is required to the Regional Council’s
Operations Monitoring and Review Committee with a financial statement on what was
used and could be expanded to include further performance measures.
3.3.1
Waste to resources issues
The following key points were raised:
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3.4
5
•
Expense of correct disposal – with penalties for incorrect disposal lower than the
cost of correct disposal people need to be encouraged to cut back on waste.
•
Tender documents – if companies are required to disclose penalties or
infringements in tender documents it recognises the power of the procurement
process to limit access to revenue streams for offenders.
•
Drivers to lack of engagement by the public/companies – accessibility, affordability,
education on the impacts of non-compliance.
•
The enforcement arm of council should align with this strategy with encouragement
from this group.
o
Manpower to track waste
o
councils issue permits and consents but with a huge range of permits
there is a lack of resource to check compliance with every single one.
•
Boundaries/Definitions – how do we define waste? Do we look at Primary
Industries?
•
Waste exchange – a website could facilitate a waste exchange process however
unless waste has a value to offset the cost of transporting it, there is often little
benefit and engagement in the waste exchange process.
•
Landfill bans – a lot of countries have landfill bans on materials e.g. cardboard,
organics. An example given was the Hartland landfill in Victoria, British Columbia
which has 38 banned materials. The landfill is supported by a huge recovery park
alongside the landfill where compliance officers monitor loads and instruct drivers
to reload the truck and divert to the recycling area.
•
Greenwaste
o
there is opportunity to influence central government now as they are
currently reviewing levies on disposal
o
Most landfill sites want greenwaste for methane recovery programmes
o
Tenders should cover no organics to landfill.
o
Cost of implementation of organic collection compared to the uptake of
service impact council decisions on whether to provide the service.
•
Waste minimisation is possible – the key is finding market for the end product
•
Green’s landfill – a newly consented private landfill is going to be operated by
Ross Green on his property in Oropi. The landfill will be managed and licenced
so contaminated land and some hazardous wastes can be disposed of.
Terms of Reference
Discussion on the terms of reference covered
•
Frequency of meetings – the reason behind the proposed annual meeting
schedule is set is to fit with funding application time frames.
•
Funding – it was noted that:
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5
o
Waikato Regional Council has funding allocated every three years and
needs to put in for funding again at review time.
o
A WRAG member could attend a council meeting and advocate for
greater funding.
o
TA’s have their own budgets for this kind of thing and there could be coordination for additional funding sources.
•
Reporting – there is proposed to be sharing of reports between WRC and
BOPRC to identify knowledge efficiencies.
•
Representation – while invitations have been issued to all TA’s and a number of
Iwi, several did not indicate an interest in attending.
Action: Reece Irving is to write and ask Tom McDowell, Kawerau District Council; Jim Finlay,
Ōpōtiki District Council; and Nigel Clarke, Whakatāne District Council to be part of this group
3.5
•
It was reported that a member from MfE may attend some meetings and
minutes from the groups meetings will be provided to MfE.
•
The group agreed to focus on implementing the BOPRC Waste and Resource
Efficiency Strategy and fit with 6 goals of the strategy.
Alignment with WMA and RMA
It was reported that three regional councils (BOPRC, Waikato and Ecan) are currently reviewing
regional council alignment with the Waste Minimisation Act and Resource Management Act as
the focus is not on waste minimisation under RMA. The project will go out for full consultation
shortly.
4
Election of Chair
Nominated: Hendrik Mertz Seconded: Reece Irving
The term of office was agreed to run until end of 2014.
5
Carried
Projects to see progressed through gating criteria:
Waste to resources projects highlighted for consideration were:
• Plastic 3-7, including polystyrene (It was noted that there may be opportunities for
low grade fuel development although there may be issues with contaminants).
•
Local council active engagement e.g. sess pits, only 100 of 111000 have filters.
•
Envirohub are operating a water dispensing unit called the Hydrohub that is
owned by the Sustainable Endeavours Trust and supported by BOP Regional
Council and other funders. This has prevented many tens of thousands of plastic
bottles from being consumed and dumped over the past couple of years. Funding
is required to build another Hydrohub to service an increase demand.
•
Website with information on where to take waste – a one stop information portal. (It
was noted that there may be potential for the BoPRC waste directory to be
updated with a vastly improved interface).
Meeting ended:
11.44am
Next meeting:
March 2014 - date tbc