Sustainable Business Network media release: A business campaign to increase ‘product take back’ schemes has won the support of the Government’s Waste Minimisation Fund.  Product stewardship is when producers, brand owners, importers, retailers and/or consumers accept responsibility for reducing a product’s environmental impact. It involves greater oversight and control throughout the whole life cycle, from […]

Government’s announcement that it will begin consulting on a plan to make multiple industries accountable for their products and packaging at end of life is groundbreaking, but long overdue, for New Zealand. This is according to product stewardship specialists 3R Group. Chief Executive Adele Rose says the announcement is one of the most significant in […]

Banned firefighting foam stored at three New Zealand airports no longer poses a threat after being safely collected. Banned firefighting foam has received a great deal of media coverage recently after the discovery of contaminated soil and water at two New Zealand Defense Force bases, and a subsequent investigation finding stores of the foam at […]

Over a tonne of dangerous chemicals have been collected from Palmerston North residents at a free disposal day. The council-funded MyHazWaste event, run by chemical collection experts 3R Group through their ChemCollect service, saw close to 200 bookings and resulted in 1023kg of materials collected. ChemCollect Manager, Jason Richards, says this is up around 200kg […]

Media Release The release of the Zero Carbon Bill is welcome news, particularly in Hawke’s Bay where the effects of coastal erosion and weather events due to climate change are already being felt, says Hawke’s Bay sustainability expert and Chief Executive of 3R Group, Adele Rose. The Climate Change Response Amendment (Zero Carbon) Bill is […]

by Adele Rose, 3R Group Chief Executive What is the future of work? Is it a world filled with automation – machines ceaselessly performing tasks humans once did, never tiring, never falling ill, generating maximum profit? I believe he tangata, he tangata, he tangata (it is the people, it is the people, it is the […]

Reducing your organisation’s emissions can often be a lot like picking fruit from a tree – the low branches can offer quick and easy reward, but those higher up are a little more challenging. However, just like the invention of cherry pickers, aiming for those more difficult branches leads to innovation and greater efficiency. 3R […]

Six months worth of work by 3R Group’s ChemCollect service has not only meant some 8.8 tonnes of chemicals have been properly collected and disposed of, but a Central Hawke’s Bay stream restoration project has benefited too. 3R has committed to donate $200 for every tonne of material collected by ChemCollect to a Million Metres Streams […]

by Natalie Martin, 3R Materials Innovation Manager Plastic gets a bad rep; the big bad villain that is slowly choking the world. Its effects on the environment are undeniable, but plastic didn’t put itself in the oceans for turtles to eat, or in the forests to smother wildlife. That dubious honour goes to us humans. […]

The number of lubricant containers sold into the New Zealand market has been revised down following further investigation by the Waste Lubricant Container Working Group (WLCWG) as part of the development of a Lubricant Container Stewardship Scheme. Meetings held with companies selling lubricants into the market prior to the project commencing indicated there could be […]

by Natalie Martin, 3R Material Innovation Manager Plastic is a hot topic around the world these days, and so it should be. The terrible effects it has on the environment are undeniable, and there is evidence those effects are circling back to us. Plastic has also become something of the posterchild for society’s conspicuous over-consumption. […]

Something we are passionate about at 3R is helping other businesses on their sustainability journey. Just like with any other part of your business it’s important to take a step back and evaluate where you are, where you have come from, where you want to go, and critically, why you are doing what you do. […]

Arohatia Te Mātau ā Māui, do you “Love your bay”? When you are at the Hawke’s Bay Hospital or the Napier Health Centre you will have a chance to show it, with new recycling stations and food scrap bins giving staff and visitors the chance to look out for the health of the patients and […]

The annual WasteMINZ Conference provided an excellent platform to highlight the issues facing the Trust for the Destruction of Synthetic Refrigerants (RECOVERY). End-of-life refrigerant disposal demand is growing and it is forecast to continue growing over the coming years. Unfortunately demand is at a greater rate than the contribution of levies from RECOVERY’s members. Lionel Rowe […]

The annual WasteMINZ Conference is a great place to learn and share new ideas about waste minimisation, recycling, product stewardship and the circular economy in New Zealand. 3R Chief Executive Adele Rose was invited to talk about one of our latest industry stewardship scheme projects, Waste Lubricant Packaging, which looks to address the issue of recycling […]

The world of sustainability is a busy place at the moment, and we’re pretty excited about that. We’re seeing a rapid shift – both in the public and political spheres – around recycling, waste minimisation, product stewardship and reducing our impact on the environment. As a result, the pace at 3R has been unrelenting at […]

MEDIA RELEASE: What a difference a year makes, the National Party’s environment spokesperson, Scott Simpson, told the EDS Climate Change and Business Conference yesterday. It was a theme picked up by lots of other people at the conference. This time last year, the conference was held against the background of negotiations to form a new […]

Featured speaker at SBN / 3R Business Connector event in September. Making the switch to electric vehicles isn’t just a ‘nice to do’ for one of New Zealand’s biggest companies, it makes good business sense too. Waste Management’s Sustainability Manager Adam Weller shared what the company is doing in the electric vehicle space by moving […]

Featured speaker at SBN / 3R Business Connector event in September. An electric-powered vehicle is certainly nothing new, the earliest date back to the mid-1800s. But it’s only in recent years they have begun to gain a foothold in the light vehicle market in New Zealand. Today some 15 major car manufacturers, from Porsche to […]

Giving the courtyard at the back or our building a facelift is something which has been on the to-do list for a while. It’s still an ongoing project but we are really pleased to have completed the first, and biggest, part of it by having a beautiful mural painted on the huge concrete wall overlooking the […]