No matter what your views on conservation, no one can have a problem with taking items from the waste stream destined for landfill and reusing them, especially when it saves you money. We do this when we recycle, something at which Wanganuians have become adept (even without a council-run kerbside
service).
Recycling is great, but reusing stuff is better, because it takes less energy. Apparently, between 2 and 5 per cent of the waste stream is potentially reusable. We have good op-shops to whom people regularly donate unwanted goods, but there's a lot more yet that could be reused.
Upcycling - turning waste into higher value products, and precycling - avoiding unnecessary waste by buying products with minimal packaging, are just two of the new words and definitions recently added to the latest edition of Chambers English Dictionary, evidence of an increasing awareness of environmental issues. Another term, resource recovery, is set to become commonplace in Whanganui if the council's current investigation into the viability of a Resource Recovery Centre (RRC) proves positive and goes ahead. This new facility would be like Peat Street Recycling Centre, only bigger and better, with facilities to drop off an increasing range of recoverables, including e-waste.
Sustainable Whanganui Trust, after campaigning for several years for a local RRC, naturally applauds this initiative, seeing it as a major step towards becoming responsible for our own waste-stream. Reference to Far North's Community Business and Environment (CBEC) in council's recent Community Link (August 25) points the way for a similar operation here. There are other successful self-funded community-run models across the country.
Sustainable Whanganui has a vision for an educational environment centre within the new complex, as education is key to changing ingrained consumer habits that create much of our waste. Sales of reusable items could go to fund this and other social enterprises. Demonstration gardens and composting workshops could also feature, to empower people to save money, grow backyard food, and reuse their own organic waste at home, rather than adding to greenhouse gas emissions from landfill.
By creating an RRC we would be announcing to the world that Whanganui is ready for green tech industries. For many prospective immigrants from northern Europe, for example, where RRCs have been commonplace for years, discovering a town has a fully-functioning RRC would be a good reason to consider settling here, bringing sustainable skills, ideas and enthusiasm with them. Green technology industries have the potential to revolutionise our economy in ways we can't presently comprehend. To illustrate, an Auckland-based company with funding from the Government's Waste Minimisation Fund has announced that it will install New Zealand's first accredited technology to separate cathode ray tubes from TVs that will become obsolete with the change from analogue to digital in 2013. There are examples like this weekly, with no reason why there should not be similar industries here.