Hutt City Council and Upper Hutt City Council Media Release:

MEDIA RELEASE 29 July 2019


Lower Hutt and Upper Hutt councils have partnered on a campaign to help support residents reduce their waste.

The ‘Let’s Sort Out Waste’ campaign was introduced by Hutt City Council in early May to raise awareness about what can and can’t be recycled.

Today sees the launch of a new joint council website sortwaste.nz which aims to help residents across the Hutt Valley think differently about waste.

Local people who are on their waste reduction journey share their stories and there are simple tips to help others make a start. A quiz puts your knowledge of how to reduce waste to the test and suggests ways to improve.

According to the Ministry for the Environment, New Zealand is one of the highest generators of household waste in the OECD. By reducing waste there will be less impact on our environment and fewer greenhouse gases which contribute to climate change.

Hutt City Council Manager Sustainability and Resilience Jörn Scherzer says it’s relatively easy to make small changes that will have a positive impact on the environment. “By making more informed purchasing decisions you can limit waste and avoid single-use plastics.

“Litter is also a big issue for our community and is one of the drivers of a current waste review being undertaken by Hutt City Council looking at making recycling and rubbish collection services more effective,” says Jörn Scherzer.

“Rubbish pollutes our waterways and beaches with an estimated 10 tonnes spilling into Wellington harbour every year. If we all made small changes and limited our use of things like single-use plastics there would be less rubbish ending up in our water ways.”

“New Zealanders want to do more to protect the environment now and into the future and many people want to know how to do this.

“Our new website provides useful information on ways to reduce waste and tips on reusing or repurposing products to prevent them going in the rubbish,” says Upper Hutt City Council’s Waste Minimisation Officer Millie Porter.

“Food waste alone costs the average household $644 a year adding to our greenhouse gas emissions. We hope that our new website will help people save themselves time and money,” says Millie Porter.

sortwaste.nz will help residents to think differently about waste—from purchase, to storage and transport, to reuse and re-purpose so that we can work towards living lives that are waste free.
ENDS

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