Recycling faux pas at cricket ‘wasn’t our proudest moment’
The waste company that dumped bins of recyclables into landfill could lose its environmental certification, but insists it is “clear” that the terms of its contract with the venue were fulfilled.
Christchurch company WasteCo, which has attracted attention for its rapid growth and NZX listing, proudly promotes its status as “New Zealand’s only Diamond-Certified Toitū Envirocare waste solutions company”.
But in a statement, Toitū Envirocare said it was “concerned” after a cricket fan at Hagley Oval in March saw recycling bins being tipped into skips with general waste.
WasteCo “self-reports” on its obligations under environmental law, but was audited annually by Toitū, a spokesperson said.
Although Toitū preferred to work with companies when there was an issue, rather than ditching their memberships, it expected WasteCo to “assess and take responsibility for its services”.
“Companies that do not rectify flawed processes lose their certification,” the spokesperson said.
Cricket fan Sue Craig-Stewart’s delight at the recycling bins during the Black Caps vs Australia second Test at Hagley Oval in March was short-lived after she discovered the contents being dumped into skips.
Council-owned Venues Ōtautahi and WasteCo later acknowledged 52 skips of recycling and waste were taken to landfill.
Aside from cardboard, there was no recycling “due to contamination”, no waste management plan was prepared before the event, nor was a waste analysis report produced afterwards, Venues Ōtautahi chief executive Caroline Harvie-Teare said at the time.
Harvie-Teare acknowledged the dumped recycling at last week’s city council finance and performance committee meeting, saying it “wasn’t good enough”.
But she urged councillors to be “cognisant” of the cost of the organisation’s sustainability “aspirations”.
She highlighted the price of the recyclables sorting programmes Venues Ōtautahi put in place for Super Rugby games, which could cost between $3000 and $4000 per event.
“We do 450 events a year – not every event will cost that much, but we’ve also had a quote of about $9000 for sorting.”
The company was working through its waste diversion strategy and how it could recoup some of those costs, such as “leveraging volunteers”, she said.
“What happened at Hagley wasn’t where we want to be, and certainly wasn’t our proudest moment, that’s for sure.”
Councillor Melanie Coker moved to add a recommendation to request that Venues
Ōtautahi “invest in the right waste management infrastructure at Hagley Oval”. Council staff proposed an alternative, asking the company to review Hagley Oval’s waste infrastructure to ensure it was fit for purpose, which was adopted.
In a statement, Harvie-Teare said Venues Ōtautahi’s contract with WasteCo covered the collection and disposal/recycling of waste at events, and while it ensured that “the right bin infrastructure is there”, it had no influence in the sorting of recycling or where it ended up.
However, a joint statement provided after The Press’ first story said WasteCo was contracted to “provide and later clear an assortment of bins for collection of waste and recyclables”, and the company was “clear that this process was carried out accordingly”.
After her discovery, Craig-Stewart contacted Venues Ōtautahi, the city council and WasteCo to express her concerns. She tried again in early April and received just one reply, from Coker. Venues Ōtautahi general manager guest experience Todd Schmidt has since requested that the citizen sleuth meet with him and Harvie-Teare.
Craig-Stewart said she would take up the offer, but asked for more information on what it hoped to achieve, and was gathering information to present examples of major events waste management elsewhere.