Recycling over 10,000 discarded plastic bottles into five ‘human’ families known as ‘The Greens’, New Zealand’s largest listed property company, Kiwi Property, has fronted a waste reduction campaign.
Encouraging Kiwis to consider their decisions surrounding waste both in-centre and at home as the face of the campaign, The Greens have appeared at Sylvia Park, LynnMall, The Plaza and Northlands – taking the Kiwi Property’s recycling message to a new level.
“Upwards of 2.5 million tonnes of waste is sent to New Zealand landfills each year, yet an estimated 75 percent could be reused, recycled or composted. We’re keen to see all New Zealanders take a stance to reduce the amount of plastic sent to our landfills each year,” said Kiwi Property shopping centres manager, Shelley Jenkin.
With an initiative in place to address plastic, paper, cardboard, organics and polystyrene waste, Kiwi Property actively diverts waste from landfill across its shopping centres and commercial buildings. In six years the company has diverted 310 tonnes of waste annually, resulting in a reduction of 137 tonnes of CO2e per annum. That is enough waste to fill 507 jumbo bins, weighing the equivalent of a 747 aeroplane.
“The Greens are a welcome addition to our centres as an important part of our ongoing sustainability programme, assisting us to provide a positive education experience for local communities to engage in recycling and reducing waste,” said Jenkin.
Kiwi Property has been committed to minimising waste and optimising resource efficiency for a long time.
“We have a wide-ranging, long-term sustainability programme, part of which focuses on waste reduction. Since 2003, we have sought to divert waste from landfill to areas where the resources can be reused or recovered,” said Jason Happy, Kiwi Property national facilities manager.
“Not only have we reduced the amount of waste we send to landfill, we have also reduced our carbon footprint by 40 percent and hold the highest rating of any New Zealand listed entity in the Carbon Disclosure Project.”
As an interactive display, The Greens will appear in Kiwi Property shopping centres until 16 September.
To promote tenant and customers’ well-being and encourage the use of drink bottles, Kiwi Property has recently installed water stations in all its shopping centres as a further sustainability-focused initiative. Each centre also offers re-useable stainless-steel drink bottles with a selected purchase in centre for a limited time.
