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Why Zero Waste?

In 1998 Kaikoura adopted a policy of zero waste to landfill by 2015, only the second community in New Zealand to do this.

But why bother?  Well, in 1998 our landfill was filling up fast, estimates suggesting it would be full by 2004.

The cost of building a new landfill or joining the other Canterbury councils in developing a landfill at Kate Valley were something our community couldn’t afford.  So council decided to extend the life of its landfill and adopted Zero Waste to help us.

Since 1998 our community has reduced our waste significantly, we are now achieving over 72% diversion of waste away from the landfill, and are a national leader in Zero Waste – something to be truly proud of.  But that still leaves close to 28% of material being thrown into the landfill ... and the volume of waste is growing because of increasing tourism.

“Unless you change directions it is very likely you will end up where you are going”  (Chinese proverb)

Where is Kaikoura going?  Well, despite our progress and success at recycling, we think we only have a maximum of five years left in the landfill. So if we don’t want to pay the cost of transporting waste to another landfill, we have to double our efforts and make a difference as we did in 1998.

Innovative Waste Kaikoura’s services can assist everyone in the district to achieve achieve Zero Waste by simply reducing, reusing and recycling resources.

Follow the links below to find out more:

• Innovative Waste Kaikoura, 
• Waste minimization – 
  - reduce, 
  - reuse 
  - recycle

For more information on the philosophy of Zero Waste, follow this link to the Zero Waste New Zealand Trust website.

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