BioPak Wins WasteMINZ’s Awards For Excellence Product Stewardship Award 2022

What is WasteMINZ?

WasteMINZ is the largest representative body of Aotearoa New Zealand’s waste, resource recovery and contaminated land sectors.

WasteMINZ is a trade association for the waste industry. It was formed in 1989 and has over 1,500 members including small operators, councils, environmental consultants and large industry operators.

They are the authoritative voice on waste, resource recovery and contaminated land management in New Zealand and seek to achieve ongoing and positive development of the waste industry through strengthening relationships, facilitating collaboration, advocacy, knowledge sharing and championing the implementation of best practice standards.

WasteMINZ Product Stewardship Award 2022

This year BioPak are excited to have won the product stewardship award for the category of ‘A project, initiative or research that has made a significant contribution to the sector group’.

Compost Connect – BioPak’s Product Stewardship Initiative

Compost Connect is an organic recycling initiative and online platform that provides businesses with access to products, services and information that allows them to participate in a circular and regenerative system by diverting waste from landfill and converting it into nutrient-rich compost.

There is a significant opportunity to capture and recycle a larger portion of the nearly 900,000 tonnes of organic waste generated by the foodservice and hospitality sector whilst simultaneously recovering and recycling an estimated 10 billion individual single-use foodservice disposables.

Built as an open, not-for-profit organisation, Compost Connect allows businesses to identify suppliers of certified compostable packaging and access a sustainable end-of-life option. The platform also acts as an educational platform to provide resources and support. Data on the number and names of businesses recycling their organic waste are collected via a map allowing end users to locate businesses composting their organic waste and their packaging.

Building upon BioPak’s previous Compost Service, Compost Connect, has connected 22 industrial compost facilities with 250+ businesses across Australia and New Zealand to recycle their food scraps and compostable packaging. This has amounted to 4,680 tonnes of organic waste diverted from landfill, 3,276 tonnes of compost created and 2,387 tonnes of carbon dioxide avoided and sequestered.

Compost Connect, a not-for-profit, independent, agnostic platform – continues to help businesses find their local composter and suppliers of certified compostable packaging. By involving various players in the packaging and the waste industries, this initiative could help divert a larger portion of food waste and compostable packaging from landfill. If only 20% of the food waste produced by the food service and hospitality sector was captured by this program, it would see 180,000 tonnes of materials avoiding landfill.