ENVIRONMENT - MSC NewsWire

Insight: Water - Who Pays?

The pipes under our cities towns and homes deliver not just drinking water they also take away our waste reports Laura Dooney, Local Government Reporter RadioNZ.

Source/ReadMore A RadioNZ release

Recycling plastic for a practical purpose

Industrial design student Patrick O'Connor who has used computer aided design (CAD) technology to design playground equipment made from recycled plastic.

Coinciding with plastic free July, 48 Massey University industrial design students have worked with a local plastics recycling company to design and repurpose products for new-look public facilities.

Source/ReadMore A Massey University release

IN DEPTH: Engineering Enzymes to Reduce Plastic Wastes

Could a PET eating enzyme engineered by scientists from three countries be the answer plastic waste and pollution?

Patented as a plastic in the 1940s, polyethylene terephthalate, or PET, has become ubiquitous. Virtually shatterproof it offers an extremely high strength-to-weight ratio and does not react to food or water. Throw in its low production costs and you have an almost perfect packaging material – and we’ve not even touched on its uses for fabrics and textiles.

Help near for councils, as water changes loom

Westland District is hundreds of beds short for tourists, Mayor Bruce Smith says.

Councils are screaming for financial help from central Government. The problem is, David Williams reports for Newsroom, they might get it sooner than they think.

Source/ReadMore A Newsroom release by David Williams

Freshwater groups folded as Govt pushes ahead

The issue of freshwater management is bubbling away under the surface for the Labour-led government.

Two groups charged by the last government with finding a solution to the freshwater management problem have been put on pause as the Labour-led coalition forges its own way ahead. Sam Sachdeva from Newsroom spoke to the groups’ chairs about their work, and the challenges in finding a way to resolve freshwater issues.

Source/ReadMore A Newsroom release

NZ's plastics challenge: Four solutions to piling up waste

New Zealand has a problem with plastic. There's too much of it. It's filling up our landfills, our oceans, there are piles of the stuff at recycling plants waiting for a buyer report Newshub.

Source/ReadMore A NewsHub release

Boomerang Bags is a community driven initiative tackling plastic pollution at the grassroots level.

Boomerang Hawkes Bay part of an australsian wide iniative

Dedicated volunteers, community groups, schools & businesses get together, or sew from home, to make re-usable ‘Boomerang Bags’ using recycled materials as a means to replace plastic bags.

Source/ReadMore A Boomerang Hawkes Bya release

Student to supplier – award-winning Little Yellow Bird founder flies home

Ethical uniform company Little Yellow Bird, which hatched in the start-up incubator of the University of Canterbury’s Centre for Entrepreneurship, is flying home, fully fledged.

This Release From MSCVoxPop
Source Canterbury University

More than 8 million hectares of NZ soil now digitally mapped

Soil scientists have reached a new milestone, digitally mapping more than 8 million hectares of New Zealand soils. “Our latest progress shows the national S-map soil mapping programme has now covered 8 million hectares, or 30% of the New Zealand land area,” says Manaaki Whenua – Landcare Research Soil Scientist Sam Carrick.

Source Landcare Research

Fonterra’s link to dirty secret in Indonesia

Landcover deforestation and oil palm plantation development

Fonterra is about to take another hit to its international reputation, this time over rainforest destruction and cow feed.

Source Greenpeace

Zero carbon will have ‘confronting economic costs’

The Government's proposed Zero Carbon Bill lays out three options for transitioning New Zealand to a low-emissions economy. But while the bill itself is a good idea, people haven’t absorbed the “confronting” economic costs they’ll face, lawyer Simon Watt tells Eloise Gibson writing for Newsroom.

Source/ReadMore Newsroom by Eloise Gibson

Call to end lubricant packaging waste

Major lubricant industry brands are calling on importers and distributors in the market to join them in tackling the issue of millions of lubricant packages being discarded every year.