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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.