Easier than ever to eradicate waste, one recyclable at a time

Sustainable Matamata and local restaurant Merchant of Matamata have given people a chance to up their recycling efforts and get rid of used drink cartons that can’t be recycled in the usual way.

People can nip into the Merchant, on Broadway, to drop off their Tetra Pak-type cartons in a new green bin provided by Sustainable Matamata.

Handy for consumers of the likes of oat and soy milk, these cartons are remade into building panels by Hamilton-based saveBOARD. What would have been landfill waste becomes a useful product, such as interior wallboards or external hoardings.

Sustainable Matamata co-coordinator Martin Louw welcomes the involvement of the Merchant. “By providing a site for this bin and encouraging people to drop off the cleaned cartons they have used at home, the Merchant is making an important contribution to recycling in Matamata-Piako district,” he says.

Merchant of Matamata general manager Simon Bayer and assistant manager Clara Moore, with Sustainable Matamata’s Martin Louw, who delivered the bin for cleaned drink cartons. Once flattened, clean and dry, cartons can be dropped in the bin at Merchant of Matamata. Photo: Scene

Martin delivered the bin to the Merchant recently. On the day, Merchant general manager Simon Bayer told Scene newspaper: “The invitation to drop cartons into our designated green bin adjacent to the bar is open to everyone, not just householders but other cafés and bars as well.”

Sustainable Matamata waste project lead Virginia McMillan says Merchant was already one of the cafés supporting the drink cartons retrieval scheme called “Adopt a Café”.

Volunteers pick up, prep and clean Tetra Pak-type containers from hospitality businesses via this scheme, and Virginia would welcome more volunteers and cafés coming forward. (Email virginiam@sustainablematamata.org.nz)

She points out it’s not difficult to wash a carton ready for drop-off, as shown in the illustration below.

“The longer-term solution will be for everyone, including households and businesses, to divert all items that can be recycled out of their own waste streams and deal with them themselves,” says Virginia. “But we appreciate this can be difficult for some businesses especially with items, like Tetra Paks, that require special treatment before recycling.”

The Sustainable Matamata team has delivered 6231 cartons to saveBOARD, where there is a storage cube easily accessible outside their premises at 30 Sunshine Avenue, Te Rapa, Hamilton. Thanks to Martin, Jane, Virginia, Helen, Heather and Lianne, another couple of thousand flattened cartons are ready to go in the next delivery.

Matamata-Piako District Council’s yellow-lidded recycling bins cannot be used for these cartons.

Sustainable Matamata acknowledges the council’s contribution to the costs of its waste reduction work.