Our Environment
Addressing Greenhouse Gas Emissions
Marking a first for the waste industry in New Zealand, Waste Management achieved independent certification for managing and reducing our greenhouse gas emissions in May.
Our team worked for over two years to complete CEMARS® (Certified Emissions Measurement and Reduction Scheme) certification, measuring all greenhouse gas emissions and joining 53 companies from other sectors in New Zealand who have taken this step.
The CEMARS® programme is New Zealand’s leading internationally accredited greenhouse gas certification scheme. It provides tools for organisations, products, services and events to measure and reduce their greenhouse gas emissions, and optionally offset it.
As an original launch member of the Climate Leaders Coalition, Waste Management has committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions in line with the Paris Agreement for a future low carbon economy.
Our People
Increasing diversity
We are looking to attract more women to the traditionally male-dominated industry of truck driving and have been actively involved with Women in Road Transport to support this.
Shiree Boereboom is a great example of a woman who has made driving a successful career and recently featured in the Women in Road Transport newsletter and Facebook page. Shiree has been with Waste Management for 11 years, collecting organics, rubbish and recycling waste streams, driving Iveco and Hino trucks, and adapting to the many changes in lifting equipment and advancements in technology. She is currently a valued member of the Christchurch City Council Kerbside Collections Team.
Our Business
Identifying solutions for problem waste streams
We have worked hard to form strategic partnerships with local onshore solutions for scrap plastic and now sell approximately 70% of plastics we process to New Zealand customers. For example, international markets for plastic film declined over the past few years and we have worked locally to encourage a market here in New Zealand. We are pleased that there are now three processors here who take plastic film and process it into new or secondary raw materials. We have also been focusing on reducing recycling contamination with our customers to achieve this. We are really thankful to our customers for the success we are having together, with contamination rates improving, resulting in better recycling recovery rates for us all.
Our Customers
Improving customer experience
GOBuild has been successfully launched to a small number of our customers! We are now looking to expand this online booking and ordering service for our building and construction customers, who we know are always pressed for time, much more widely. Providing digital self-service means we can provide updates on any changes to services and we can easily manage their deliveries, exchanges and removals for any bin at any site across New Zealand.
We have also launched a new website for residents where we provide regular council services – Queenstown and Waimakariri. The website lets residents know their specific collection details, get text and e-mail reminders and includes information on what waste types can go into each bin. Already we have over 1,400 residents in Queenstown and 650 in Waimakariri signed-up to receive regular reminders.