HELP US HELP THE ENVIRONMENT | CENTRE PLACE

Have you noticed something missing in our food court?  Rubbish bins.

That’s right – you can now treat our food court like your favourite restaurants. Relax, knowing your rubbish is being cleared and sorted to ensure we recycle as much as possible and reduce the waste going to landfill.

Aotearoa New Zealand generates more than 17 million tonnes of waste each year. Of that, almost 13 million tonnes go to landfill – that means almost 76% of the material we use is completely wasted.

Of that waste, food and plastic are the fourth and fifth largest sources of waste going to Class1 landfills (those accepting household and other wastes), respectively.

Food accounts for 9% of waste and plastic follows at 8.3%.

In July, 55% of Hamilton’s waste was rubbish (non-recyclables), 22% was mixed recyclables, 3% was food scraps and 10% was glass.

At Kiwi Property, we are committed to taking the steps today to create a brighter future for the generations of tomorrow.

As part of our Sustainability Strategy, we have an ambition to create places that promote wellbeing and have a positive impact on the environment.

Within that, we have a target of net zero operational waste to landfill by 2050. Already, we have reduced our operational waste by 24% since 2012.

On top of this, we are actively working to improve waste management – not only recycling all that we can, but doing so correctly.

When non-recyclable materials are disposed of in recycling bins, the recyclables must be sorted from the non-recyclables – a job costing councils millions of dollars.

Plastic bags, nappies, coffee cups, fabric, wet wipes and dirty containers are among the most common culprits hiding among recycling and every month, amounting to thousands of tonnes of waste being diverted to landfills.

Every little bit we can do to correctly sort recycling helps.

Beyond the food courts, keep an eye out for new two-coloured rubbish bins. Just like at home, red is for general waste and yellow is for recycling.

Our loading dock has also been revamped to look and feel more like recycling stations rather than rubbish dumps.

Large recycling bins are clearly labelled and colour coded to differentiate different materials. Plastic, bottles/cans etc., food, oil, paper, cardboard and coffee grinds each have their own bin, creating a culture of accountability in our centres.

We encourage you to join us in reducing waste and correctly sorting your recycling at home. To help, we’ve outlined what waste goes into each of your kerbside collection bins*:

Glass crate:

Glass bottles and jars.

Yellow recycling bin:

Plastics, tins, cans, paper and cardboard.

Red rubbish wheelie bin:

Items that cannot be reused, recycled or donated.

Food scraps bin:

Fruit, vegetables, cooked food, meat, fish, coffee grounds etc.

*Source: Hamilton City Council

If you’re not sure, Hamilton City Council has an online sorter to help identify which items go in which bin: https://www.fightthelandfill.co.nz/