Xtreme Waste

Last updated

Xtreme Zero Waste is a non-profit organization dedicated to recycling and based in the town of Raglan, New Zealand. [1] In 2014 it was rebranded from Xtreme Waste. [2] According to its mission statement, its goal is to create a waste management system for the Raglan/Whaingaroa community in which none of the trash would be stored in landfills. [3]

Contents

Xtreme Waste operates a recycling center in Raglan. This center is open to the public on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday from 8:30 AM to 4:30 PM, and on Saturday from 12:30–4:30 PM. [1] Group tours are available on Tuesdays and Thursdays and are free for groups in the Waikato District area, with fees for other groups available upon inquiry. [4] Xtreme Waste provides miniskips, truck delivery services, waste and recycling services and consultancies, and educational programs. [5]

Actor and Raglan resident Antonio Te Maioha has publicly spoken about Xtreme Waste's accomplishments and his own involvement in Raglan's recycling program. [6]

History

The organization was founded in 2000, after Raglan's landfill closed and the town decided to find an alternative to transporting all its waste to a tip in the Waikato. Since 2000, it has recycled an increasing volume and percentage of waste every year. As of 2010, Xtreme Waste prevents over 70% of the community's waste from reaching the landfill and employs 24 workers part-time. [7]

Xtreme Waste staff talk to David Bellamy in 2009 outside the Kaahu's Nest recycling shop. Xtreme Waste.jpg
Xtreme Waste staff talk to David Bellamy in 2009 outside the Kaahu's Nest recycling shop.

The organization has won numerous awards, including a 2002 Waikato Business and Environment Award, a 2005 Waikatari City Council "Change Catalyst" Award, a 2005 New Zealand Ministry for the Environment's "Green Ribbon" Award and a 2006 Sustainable Business Network "Social Responsibility" Award. [7] In 2010, Xtreme Waste was one of three New Zealand recycling projects to be funded by the New Zealand Government's Waste Minimization Fund, receiving a $21,740 grant. [8] Most of the grant money will be used for a study determining the feasibility of converting organic waste, particularly food waste, to compost. The study is projected to be complete by June 2011, after which Xtreme Waste will decide whether it will go ahead with a trial. [9] The grant was announced in November 2010 by Nick Smith, New Zealand's Minister for the Environment [8] and the trial started in 2012 with 100 houses in Raglan West. [10] In 2015 the food waste collection was included in a new 5-year contract, with a provision to move the funding to a targeted rate. [11]

As part of its education programme, Xtreme has run a recycled raft race since 2004. [12]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Waste management</span> Activities and actions required to manage waste from its source to its final disposal

Waste management or waste disposal includes the processes and actions required to manage waste from its inception to its final disposal. This includes the collection, transport, treatment, and disposal of waste, together with monitoring and regulation of the waste management process and waste-related laws, technologies, and economic mechanisms.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Raglan, New Zealand</span> Minor urban area in Waikato, New Zealand

Raglan is a small beachside town located 48 km west of Hamilton, New Zealand on State Highway 23. It is known for its surfing, and volcanic black sand beaches.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Waikato District</span> Territorial authority district in Waikato, New Zealand

Waikato District is a territorial authority of New Zealand, in the northern part of Waikato region, North Island. Waikato District is administered by the Waikato District Council, with headquarters in Ngāruawāhia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Zero waste</span> Philosophy that encourages the redesign of resource life cycles so that all products are reused

Zero waste is a set of principles focused on waste prevention that encourages redesigning resource life cycles so that all products are repurposed and/or reused. The goal of the movement is to avoid sending trash to landfills, incinerators, oceans, or any other part of the environment. Currently 9% of global plastic is recycled. In a zero waste system, all materials are reused until the optimum level of consumption is reached.

Texas Campaign for the Environment (TCE) is a grassroots advocacy 501(c)(4) non-profit organization that works on health and environmental issues in the state of Texas in the United States. TCE began when its founders parted ways with Texans United in 1991. The organization has offices in Dallas, Austin, Houston, and Corpus Christi.

A landfill tax or levy is a form of tax that is applied in some countries to increase the cost of landfill. The tax is typically levied in units of currency per unit of weight or volume. The tax is in addition to the overall cost of landfill and forms a proportion of the gate fee.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Landfill diversion</span>

Waste diversion or landfill diversion is the process of diverting waste from landfills. The success of landfill diversion can be measured by comparison of the size of the landfill from one year to the next. If the landfill grows minimally or remains the same, then policies covering landfill diversion are successful. For example, currently in the United States there are 3000 landfills. A measure of the success of landfill diversion would be if that number remains the same or is reduced. In 2015 it was recorded that the national average of landfill diversion in the United States was 33.8%, while San Francisco had implemented the most effective policies and had recorded a landfill diversion rate of 77%.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Waste & Resources Action Programme</span>

WRAP is a British registered charity. It works with businesses, individuals and communities to achieve a circular economy, by helping them reduce waste, develop sustainable products and use resources in an efficient way.

There is no national law in the United States that mandates recycling. State and local governments often introduce their own recycling requirements. In 2014, the recycling/composting rate for municipal solid waste in the U.S. was 34.6%. A number of U.S. states, including California, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, New York, Oregon, and Vermont have passed laws that establish deposits or refund values on beverage containers while other jurisdictions rely on recycling goals or landfill bans of recyclable materials.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Food rescue</span>

Food rescue, also called food recovery, food salvage or surplus food redistribution, is the practice of gleaning edible food that would otherwise go to waste from places such as farms, produce markets, grocery stores, restaurants, or dining facilities and distributing it to local emergency food programs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Recycling in the United Kingdom</span>

In 2015, 43.5% of the United Kingdom's municipal waste was recycled, composted or broken down by anaerobic digestion. The majority of recycling undertaken in the United Kingdom is done by statutory authorities, although commercial and industrial waste is chiefly processed by private companies. Local Authorities are responsible for the collection of municipal waste and operate contracts which are usually kerbside collection schemes. The Household Waste Recycling Act 2003 required local authorities in England to provide every household with a separate collection of at least two types of recyclable materials by 2010. Recycling policy is devolved to the administrations of Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales who set their own targets, but all statistics are reported to Eurostat.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Te Uku Wind Farm</span>

Te Uku Wind Farm is a wind farm located at Te Uku near Raglan. It has a capacity of 64 MW using 28 wind turbines. Construction was completed in March 2011, at a cost of $200 million. The farm covers an area of approximately 200 hectares (2.0 km2). The wind farm is jointly owned by WEL Networks and Meridian Energy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Waste in New Zealand</span>

The management of waste in New Zealand has become more regulated to reduce associated environmental issues. According to OECD data, New Zealand is the third most wasteful country in the OECD.

SUEZ Recycling and Recovery UK Ltd, formerly SITA UK Limited, is a British waste management company, established in 1988. It was previously called Sitaclean Technology. It began as a provider of local authority services, with its first municipal services contract in Erewash, Derbyshire in 1989. Suez has expanded its business through a combination of new contracts, joint venture partnerships and acquisitions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Electronic waste in New Zealand</span>

Electronic waste in New Zealand is an environmental issue being addressed by community and government initiatives.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Antonio Te Maioha</span> New Zealand actor

Antonio Te Maioha is a television and film actor from New Zealand. He came to international prominence playing a gladiator Barca, the Beast of Carthage, in the television drama Spartacus: Blood and Sand and its prequel Spartacus: Gods of the Arena.

The San Francisco Mandatory Recycling and Composting Ordinance is a local municipal ordinance requiring all persons located in San Francisco to separate their recyclables, compostables and landfilled trash and to participate in recycling and composting programs. Passed by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 2009, it became the first local municipal ordinance in the United States to universally require source separation of all organic material, including food residuals.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">WEL Networks</span> New Zealand electricity distribution company

WEL Networks Limited is an electricity distribution company, serving the northern and central Waikato region of New Zealand. WEL is the sixth largest electricity distribution company in New Zealand, with 100,142 connections and 7,021 km (4,363 mi) of lines and underground cables. The company is 100% owned by the WEL Energy Trust.

Turkey generates about 30 million tons of solid municipal waste per year; the annual amount of waste generated per capita amounts to about 400 kilograms. According to Waste Atlas, Turkey's waste collection coverage rate is 77%, whereas its unsound waste disposal rate is 69%. While the country has a strong legal framework in terms of laying down common provisions for waste management, the implementation process has been considered slow since the beginning of 1990s.

The Greenest City 2020 Action Plan (GCAP) is an urban sustainability initiative for Vancouver. Its primary mission is to ensure that Vancouver becomes the greenest city in the world by the year 2020. The GCAP originated based on the 2009 work of the Greenest City Action Team, a committee co-chaired by Vancouver mayor Gregor Robertson. The GCAP was approved by Vancouver city council in July 2011.

References

  1. 1 2 Xtreme Waste homepage
  2. Raglan Chronicle 27 Feb 2014
  3. Mission statement of Xtreme Waste
  4. Xtreme Waste Archived 3 June 2010 at the Wayback Machine page on Sustainable Greenlist Directory
  5. Services offered by Xtreme Waste
  6. Video of Antonio Te Maioha speaking about Xtreme Waste and Raglan's recycling program
  7. 1 2 Xtreme Waste page on Prometheus Finance Ltd. website Archived 14 September 2010 at the Wayback Machine
  8. 1 2 Recycling initiatives get Government boost. Archived 24 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine M2 PressWIRE, 3 November 2010.
  9. Recycling organisation to use grant money for research. Radio New Zealand broadcast, 4 November 2010.
  10. Xtreme website - food waste
  11. "Approve Selected Supplier – Raglan Zero Waste Contract 15/111". Waikato District Council. p. 5. Archived from the original on 8 December 2015.
  12. Xtreme Zero Waste logo and information about 2015 raft race