Closing the loop in Christchurch

Recycling is broken and plastic production has increased twenty-fold since 1964, yet just 5% of plastics are recycled effectively.

In 2016, China imported two-thirds of the world’s plastic waste. Then in 2017, they stopped buying the world’s discarded plastics. We need new solutions to sort our plastic packaging waste, Total Waste Solutions and Innocent Packaging believes that it starts with collaboration.

The most viable solution for single-use disposable packaging is a full cycle, organic recycling solution. Plant-based packaging can integrate into the organic waste system and be utilised as compost for the next generation of plants. 

Composting packaging, along with food waste, is an idea that has a real opportunity to divert organic materials away from landfill and truthfully represent a clean green New Zealand. 

Total Waste Solutions and decent packaging are implementing such a method in the mainstream market for Christchurch. While many cafes and restaurants around Christchurch provide compostable packaging and create food waste, however an important piece of the puzzle was missing. How do we capture that compostable packaging and food waste when it’s taken away? 

The Full Package is a solution which aims to address this problem. Because fundamentally everyone wants to do the right thing and customers are expecting all businesses to do their part in implementing sustainable solutions and reducing organic waste going to landfill. 

This month Total Waste Solutions and Innocent Packaging have launched The Full Package, the first city-wide compost collection of its kind in Canterbury. Teaming up with over 35 cafes and restaurants across Christchurch to produce the first public compost collection for both food waste and compostable packaging.

The objective is to help decent packaging customers and the public divert more of their takeaway compostable packaging and food waste away from landfill. Not only showcasing that zero waste solutions do exist, but they’re easy to implement with the right collaboration.

Full Package collection bins are being  placed out the front of cafe and restaurant sites, enabling anyone who has compostable packaging or food waste a place where they can dispose of it and trust it is being composted.

For cafes and restaurants, it’s simple, they clear the public facing compostable packaging bin when it fills up and empty it into the Total Waste Solutions bin out the back for collection. This bin is picked up on a regular basis from Total Waste Solutions and delivered to Canterbury Landscapes who is currently diverting over 100 tonnes of organic waste from landfill a day. 

After going through a Aerated Static Pile System the finished compost will be for sale at Canterbury Landscapes retail stores and delivered to local farms, closing the loop on this waste stream.

For this to work, we need complete collaboration between all parties involved. Any participating café will need to accept compostable packaging that may have come from another café, coffee roaster or supplier. We want these bins to be on every street corner and we want to make it as easy as possible for everyone to correctly dispose of their packaging waste and food scraps.

Learn more about the Full Package solution for your café or restaurant here: