Recycling initiative sees gumboots given a new life

Lynette Suvalko of OceaNZBlue with the pallet filling up with gumboots for recycling into safety mats. Photo / Supplied

A Bream Bay paua farm scientist has decided to give waste the boot and has managed a plan to recycle gumboots for some flash, new safety mats.

Scientist Lynette Suvalko came up with the idea after spotting heaps of gumboots in the rubbish skip of Bream Bay's OceaNZ Blue paua farm during a voluntary spot waste audit. She immediately began to question if there was a way to recycle the steel toe-capped personal protection equipment (PPE), which are compulsory for all 35 employees on site and all visitors.

A pallet of gumboots are now ready to go to Auckland company, Matta Products, to have the steel toe cap removed and to be chipped into 3 to 4mm pieces, mixed with other PCV and additives and then heated and moulded into safety mats.

Suvalko is a member of parent company Aotearoa Fisheries Ltd's Sustainability Working Group, which meets every few months to create initiatives to further sustainability in the business.

"These gumboots are something we're always going to use, and we probably go through thousands of pairs a year across all the Aotearoa Fisheries Ltd divisions. All we have to do is make sure they don't go in the general waste, and check they're not too dirty and remove the inner soles before they go to Matta," says Lynette.

Spurred on by improvements as a result of waste audits by Global Action Plan Oceania at Aotearoa Fisheries Limited's Bell Avenue and Wellington processing plants, Suvalko and a colleague undertook a waste audit at OceaNZ Blue and discovered that of close to 90kg of material in its general waste bin for one week, more than 40 per cent were types of plastic.

As well as gumboots, plastic film, recyclable plastic bags and processing waste - which are largely recyclable - had all been thrown out.

Thanks to a new awareness campaign for staff, the amount of general waste at the plant had dropped dramatically and paper and plastic recyclables bins had been filling up, she said.

"We've only been doing this for a couple of months, so we don't have any stats as such, but there has definitely been a drop in the number of pick-ups for general waste, as we're now consistently recycling three types of plastic," she said.

"It's been really inspiring to be part of the group. Our OceaNZ Blue team have been so supportive of changes we've made in terms of dealing with waste, because they see that it's not just that we're sustainable in how we farm but how we operate too," she said.

OceaNZ Blue has also working towards its Aquaculture Stewardship Council certification to meet the toughest global standards for responsible aquaculture. It aims to go through the auditing process later next year.

Aotearoa Fisheries Chief Executive Carl Carrington said he was delighted with the OceaNZ Blue waste minimisation initiative.