issue 15 11 july 2007 nz recycles eight billion … 15 11 july 2007 nz recycles eight billion bales...
TRANSCRIPT
With a population of just over four million people, New Zealand has recycled eight billion bales of steel cans. Continued over page...
Issue 15 11 July 2007
NZ RECYCLESEIGHT BILLION BALES
NO MORE MR TOAD FRESHCAN® NOT A FIZZER
HOME GROWN Innovation
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More than 2.3 billion baked bean-sized cans have been recycled there since the inception of steel can recycling 13 years ago. If these cans were laid end to end they would reach to the moon and back four times.
Four million steel cans are used in New Zealand every year, with an average family using six cans per week but only recycling half of those.
With only one more year to go to meet the Packaging Accord’s target of 43 per cent for steel can recycling, Keith Parker, chairman of steel can recycling organisation CANZBAC, said more householders need to get involved with recycling.
“If every New Zealander recycled just one more steel can a week, we would meet our target,” Mr Parker said.
“Educating householders and encouraging councils to increase the types of steel cans being collected is a high priority for us over the next year.
“Currently we have 223 million cans going to landfill each year. That amount of steel could make around 400,000 fridges. With steel being the most easily recyclable material, there is no reason to have steel cans going to landfill.”
New Zealand’s Environment Minister David Benson-Pope was on hand to witness the recycling of the eight millionth bale of steel cans.
“It’s time to accelerate our efforts to reduce waste in New Zealand,” Mr Benson-Pope said. “Individuals must be responsible for reducing, reusing or recycling their waste.
“As momentum gathers around the government’s sustainability agenda we have an opportunity to take big steps forward towards our long-term
vision of a zero-waste New Zealand.”
As part of the education program CANZBAC is targeting primary school-aged children with specific messages to encourage them to take an active role in steel can recycling in their homes.
As reported in CAN News #14, CANZBAC has launched Hanable the CAN-able to promote steel can recycling to younger New Zealanders. The Can-eating Can features on the CANZBAC website kids’ section and is also the ‘face’ of a range of activities, including crafts and colouring competitions.
www.canzbac.co.nz provides steel can recycling information for industry, brand owners, councils, householders and educational institutions.
HOMEGROWN NEWSSIDS INSPIRES BRISBANE BOATIES
When Brad and Belinda Gillam lost their 12-week-old daughter to Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) early this year the couple was devastated, but Brad found a way to turn the tragedy into a trip to raise money for SIDS work.
Mr Gillam of Toowoomba and his army reserve friends Rob Meharg and Chris Taylor used an estimated 8000 cans plus several cartons of silicone to build a nine-metre boat.
Its maiden voyage from Ipswich to Brisbane on the Brisbane River took three days and was completed in July. While the vessel suffered a few knocks to its armour it completed the trip safely.
And of course boys will be boys – so not only was the boat made of beer cans but it sported working cannons.
To donate to SIDS and Kids, visit www.sidsandkids.org or telephone 1300 308 307.
WESFARMERS SET TO TAKE CONTROL OF COLESPerth-based industrial and hardware group Wesfarmers Limited made a $22 billion offer for the Coles Group last week as it seeks a 100 per cent acquisition of the embattled retail giant.
Set to be the biggest corporate takeover in Australian history, the Coles board recommended the transaction should go ahead, giving the group that currently owns hardware giant Bunnings an unheralded position within the Australian retail sector.
A 100 per cent acquisition would give Wesfarmers control of Coles supermarkets, Target, Officeworks, K-Mart and Liquorland, with many experts predicting Officeworks and Bunnings stores will be located side-by-side.
The deal – set to be concluded by October if all goes according to plan – effectively gives Coles’ shareholders $17.25 a share, well above the price the company is currently trading at.
Wesfarmers managing director Richard Goyder admitted it would be a difficult task to turn around the flagging fortunes of Coles supermarkets before the Christmas rush, but said the sale would prove the catalyst for change throughout the chain.
Once in control of the Coles Group, Wesfarmers will own 22c of every retail dollar spent in the country.
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(L-R) CANZBAC Chairman Keith Parker is joined by New Zealand’s Environment Minister David Benson-Pope.
NEWS SNIPPETAn empty can of dog food stolen from Paris Hilton’s rubbish bin has supposedly been sold on eBay for $1.7 million. The brand of the dog food is Party Animal – probably a brand Paris can easily remember – and is an organic gourmet food that sells for a little more than $3 per can. It is unlikely the company will be able to market any further cans at $1.7 million in the future. Although, apparently Hilton has six dogs so there should be plenty more empty cans in her rubbish.
NO MORE MR TOADA Canberra-based company is set to launch an aerosol-powered spray that humanely kills cane toads, according to Brisbane’s Courier-Mail.
The newspaper reported that Pestat has developed a spray that contains an anaesthetic capable of putting a large cane toad to sleep in around 15 to 20 seconds.
The company’s managing director David Dall told the newspaper the spray is for people who find handling the toads a bit squeamish.
“I’ve handled thousands of toads, but my mum wouldn’t touch one,” he said.
“The idea is you spray the toads, go and have a cup of tea then come back and bury them.”
Pestat’s goal is to deliver innovative, effective and
humane technologies that help address Australia’s animal pest problems.
It has produced solutions for wild dogs and foxes, pest birds and successfully trialled prototypes of its cane toad control product in North Queensland earlier this year.
Former CSIRO scientist Dr Dall said the product contained household chemicals and would sell for $10-$20.
“Everything we’ve seen in testing shows it to be absolutely humane,” he said.
RSPCA chief executive Mark Townend said if the product was as humane as suggested, it would be a kind way of dealing with a major pest.
“Although we could do without toads in Australia, they shouldn’t be mistreated,” Mr Townend said.
Source: Source: The Courier-Mail, 26 June
INNOVATIONTAKE A POWDERGerman manufacturers of aluminium tubes and aerosol cans have teamed up with leading lacquer manufacturers to develop a new method for the internal coating of containers.
The groundbreaking technology involves a powder-based internal protective coating eliminating the need to use coatings containing solvents.
Given European legislation in force to reduce volatile organic compounds in the workplace, the branch decided to tackle the root cause of the problem by addressing the use of solvents and eliminating them wherever possible.
This resulted in a solvent-free powder technology that has been perfected and is ready for use in production.
Oliver Höll, chairman of the Tubes and Aerosol Cans Division of GDA (German Aluminium Association), explains the significance of this new process.
“Against the backdrop of widespread public discussions on climate and environmental protection, the German aluminium tube and aerosol can industry is doing its part to help make production more ecologically friendly with this new innovation,” Mr Höll said.
“It is now up to customers from the cosmetics, pharmaceuticals and food industries to embrace the new technology and conduct the filling and stability tests necessary to allow a broad use of powder-based internal lacquers in the market.”
Ecologically friendly innovations of this kind also enable these three industries to improve their own position towards retailers, where ecological and sustainable behaviour is increasingly important as a selling point.
For this reason, the German manufacturers of aluminium tubes and aerosol cans are convinced that the powder technology for the internal coating of their containers will gain a foothold and an ever-growing share of the market over the years ahead.
“The arguments in favour of this technology are simply too convincing to be ignored!” Mr Höll said.
Source: Spray Technology and Marketing, June 2007
FRESHCAN® NOT A FIZZERFreshCan® is a revolutionary new product allowing beverages containing water-sensitive ingredients to be produced and marketed in one easy-to-use package.
The system was developed by Ball Packaging Europe in conjunction with Degussa.
Inside the FreshCan® is a specially developed floating plastic container that is air and water-tight, called a “wedge”. It stores time-sensitive and
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ENVIRONMENTALIT’S A WRAPNine of the UK’s biggest brand owners and manufacturers, including Coca-Cola, Nestlé and Cadbury Schweppes, are the latest to sign up to the Courtauld Commitment, which aims to reduce the amount of packaging waste that ends up in the household bin.
The announcement came from WRAP (Waste & Resources Action Program) and means that 25 major grocery organisations have joined the Courtauld Commitment since it was launched in July 2005.
The new signatories demonstrate the agreement’s growing impetus in the bid to reduce UK packaging waste.
The Courtauld Commitment’s target is to reduce the 6.3 million tonnes of packaging reaching UK homes each year by at least 340,000 tonnes by 2010.
NEWS SNIPPETIn India the Hindustan Tin Works entered into a joint venture with UK-based consumer packaging company Rexam in 2006 to set up a facility in Mumbai to make beverage cans. Production started in June 2007 at India’s first drinks can plant and the SOM brewery has taken delivery of its first shipment. The plant has a capacity to make 400 million two-piece steel beverage cans a year. The joint-venture is 51 per cent owned by Rexam and 49 per cent by Hindustan Tin Works.
liquid-sensitive ingredients that are held in a dry state within the surrounding beverage until the tab of the can is pulled. Then the mixing process is initiated.
The sound and fizz of the active ingredients mixing with the beverage make it a fun experience as well as a fresh one, with the ingredients only mixing on demand.
The working principle of the FreshCan® system is pressure difference. The opening of the can results in an immediate pressure drop which the “wedge” container, because of its special design and construction, cannot quickly adjust to. As a result of this pressure, the “wedge” container’s lid pops off.
Sports drinks and items with a short shelf life can benefit from this new system.
Source: The Canmaker, June 2007
TREND WATCHCHEAPER CHOICEAustralian families are handing over less of their hard-earned money for essential groceries now than they did nearly 30 years ago, according to an independent study commissioned by the Australian National Retailers Association (ANRA).
“Food now takes up a much smaller portion of people’s budgets than it did over the past three decades, and supermarket shoppers are getting more for their money in terms of quality, choice and price,” ANRA CEO Margy Osmond said.
The study shows Australians had to do just 229 minutes of work in order to buy a typical basket of groceries in 2006, compared with 250 minutes of work in 1978.
“The competitive nature of the retail sector in Australia also puts strong downward pressure on prices – major supermarkets are making less than five cents in the dollar,” she said.
Capital City Minutes work required in 2006
Perth 209.4
Sydney 210.8
Brisbane 222.8
Melbourne 226.6
Adelaide 241.9
Hobart 260.2
Australia 229.5
Visit www.anra.com.au for more information.
CLIMATE CHANGE IN THE CANClimate change is affecting the canned food industry all over the world.
In China the current asparagus season was again very poor, the third bad year in asparagus harvesting for Chinese farmers. The season is past the half-way mark with no improvement in sight.
During 2007, China’s asparagus production (the largest in the world) was forecast to reach 500,000MT, assuming normal weather conditions had prevailed, according to the United States Department of Agriculture’s Foreign Agricultural Service Gain Report.
In Thailand pineapples are in short supply at the end of the country’s summer season. As in China, the crop is expected to be down by about 50 per cent.
High temperatures in Thailand have caused small-sized fruit. Last minute rains did not help the summer crop, but it is hoped that these will help the coming winter crops and perhaps next year’s summer season. Thailand is the world’s largest supplier of pineapple.
In Morocco small catches of sardines heralded the start of a lean year and it was suggested that it may have more to do with the very hot summer than over-fishing.
Source: Foodnews, 25 May, 8 and 15 June
WORLD NEWSCHILD’S SPRAYAn interesting patent application has appeared in the United States for a unique aerosol-powered spray.
The product’s inventor Shauna Schoenborn describes it as “a composition for substantially deterring unwanted behaviours in children”. The spray is basically designed to stop children from misbehaving.
Consisting of 69.1 per cent water, 27.5 per cent apple cider vinegar and 3.4 per cent goldenseal tincture, the composition is sprayed toward the mouth of the child after he or she engages in unwanted behaviour.
The unpleasant, bitter taste left by the spray is designed to deter the child from further unruly behaviour.
The background to the product highlights Ms Schoenborn’s reasoning for its creation.
“Child discipline is an important and emotional issue for parents,” Ms Schoenborn wrote in the patent application. “Parents worry about their child’s misbehaviour and how they should handle it. They become angry and frustrated with ongoing behaviour problems, but dislike having to punish their children. Effective discipline helps children develop empathy and self-control, while too harsh discipline puts a child at risk of numerous emotional and behavioural problems.”
Ms Schoenborn even details ways of deterring children from unruly behaviour and provides instructions as to the best way to approach discharging the spray.
NEWS SNIPPETThe fourth annual Cans for Cash – City Recycling Challenge will take place in the United States during October this year. The event encourages US cities to recycle aluminium beverage cans, with 12 grants of $5000 awarded to the cities that collect the highest amount of aluminium.
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