We’re being creative in our thinking as we try to reduce the waste we are sending to landfill, and our staff are getting right behind our endeavours. An example is the new use we’ve been trialling for the large cardboard tubes in the packaging for our shrink wrap. The tubes used to go to landfill as they can’t be recycled. Instead, we are now chipping them and send the cardboard chips to a local farmer who has been trialling them in his composting process.

Other initiatives include donating pallets to other companies to repurpose and disposing of our e-waste through the Christchurch-based charity, Kilmarnock Enterprises, where people with intellectual disabilities dismantle the electronic devices and salvage metal and electronic components for recycling.

To identify our many initiatives underway, we have developed a waste reduction roadmap which focuses on reducing solid and liquid waste produced on our sites, while also considering the future delivery of a circular economy approach to reuse and recycle products.

Our next step is a clearly defined site by site strategy as to how we deliver on the target of reducing our waste to landfill by 35% by 2030 and to connect the great work currently underway. Tactics are likely to include regular audits to understand the type of waste we are producing, improving staff awareness, and empowering them to segregate and reuse materials where possible, reviewing our pallet and wrap usage, and investigating using environmental-friendly alternatives such as sustainable butter wraps.