I/V w/ Flight Plastics on recycling: July 17, 2019

As part of Sherry’s investigation into New Zealand’s process with Waste Management, she spoke with Derek Lander from Flight Plastics, one of New Zealand’s only PET recycling plants. Currently, type one PET, clear soft drink bottles, and type 2 HDPE, milk bottles, are recycled domestically. The other 5 types of plastics, including mixed, are sent off shore to be processed. However with the tightening of China's and South East Asian countries intake of offshore waste, active solutions for domestic waste management is all the more pressing. Sherry begins by asking Derek about the organisation Flight Plastics and how PET plastic is recycled.

Plastic recycling is only one of the solutions to reducing the environmental impact of waste. While Sherry was looking into solutions to recycling other forms of plastic, she stumbled upon the Taranaki road and Northland fence posts made from recycled plastic. And while these are exciting developments, the question remains on the effect of micro plastics as these products breakdown...