Carter Holt & Fonterra Recycling Deal Signed

Major Recycling Deal Closes the Loop for Carter Holt Harvey and Fonterra

New Zealand’s biggest recycler and the world’s leading exporter of dairy products have recently signed an agreement that will significantly reduce the amount of waste paper going to landfill in New Zealand.

Carter Holt Harvey’s recycling business Fullcircle has become the official recycling partner to Fonterra, and will be responsible for the collection and recycling of all the recyclable paper from over 30 of Fonterra’s sites around New Zealand. Fullcircle will also work with Fonterra to recycle other packaging waste, such as plastic shrink wrap.

Craig Forman, Chief Executive of Fullcircle, and Spring Humphreys, Eco-efficiency Manager for Fonterra, agree that this is a great example of two large companies working together to improve each other’s business for environmental benefit, with an added gain of positively impacting the bottom line. This Fonterra/CHH example highlights the benefits of looking at existing business practices from a different perspective.

Fonterra has recently pledged to reduce the amount of waste it sends to landfill by 75%. Under the new agreement, Fonterra’s office waste, used cardboard boxes and milk powder bags will be either collected by, or delivered to, the nearest Fullcircle facility where the paper will be sorted, baled and recycled. In some instances, the material may be exported for recycling offshore, depending on the demand from Carter Holt Harvey’s paper mills. Fullcircle is working towards placing collection bins on each Fonterra site, and baling machines have been installed at two sites, to compact the paper waste ready for easier transportation. At one site, eight tonnes of previously landfilled used milk powder bags have already been baled and delivered to Carter Holt Harvey’s Kinleith facility for recycling.

Carter Holt Harvey’s mills at Kinleith and Penrose will use the cardboard and milk powder bags in their paper manufacturing process.

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The agreement also helps Carter Holt Harvey further reduce the environmental impact of the packaging it produces. The milk powder bags used by Fonterra are manufactured by CHH Packaging from high grade kraft paper made by CHH’s Kinleith Mill. The deal ‘closes the loop’, bringing the wood fibre back to CHH for reuse in paper manufacture.

Background Fullcircle is responsible for the collection of 240,000 tonnes of recyclable fibre per annum, of which around 200,000 tonnes is directed back into the CHH mills in New Zealand. Currently Fullcircle owns and operates baling and sorting facilities from Auckland through to Invercargill, which enables it to offer nationwide contracts for recycled material.

More recently, Fullcircle has extended its recycling expertise from paper to other recyclables, including glass, tin, plastic and aluminium. This has created a platform for growth into other areas within the New Zealand recycling industry.

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