Auckland Council’s Waste Solution team has been recognised in two separate national award ceremonies.
At the WasteMINZ Awards for Excellence last month, Auckland Council Waste Solutions received two awards:
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Best resource recovery or value recovery initiative for our partnership with community recycling centres across the Auckland region.
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Best research or advocacy project for our partnership with more than 30 organisations to engage with diverse communities in support of the regionwide rollout of the food scraps collection service.
At the annual New Zealand Workplace Health & Safety Awards, Auckland Council Waste Solutions won both the Innovation Award and the Supreme Award for the development of the food scraps bin designed to ensure the health and safety of collectors. Judges were impressed by council’s partnership with academic researchers at AUT, the collectors and our human-centred approach to design out problems.
Waste Solutions Project Delivery Manager Terry Coe says recognition from peers in the waste and the health and safety sectors speaks to the professionalism of the council team.
“The strength of our partnerships and our commitment to innovation has been vital to the success of the food scraps collection service rollout and the Resource Recovery Network. I am incredibly proud of the work of the Waste Solutions team and positive impact we have had together with our community partners for Tāmaki Makaurau.”
Sei Brown, Zero Waste Network, and Terry Coe, Waste Solutions at WasteMINZ Awards for Excellence.
About the Awards
WasteMINZ represents members across the waste, resource recovery and contaminated land sectors in Aotearoa.
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Best resource recovery or value recovery initiative: The Auckland Council and Community Resource Recovery Network (ACCRRN) is a partnership between the council and the individual community enterprises that run 14 Community Recycling Centres across the region. The CRCs focus on reuse, recycling and resource recovery while supporting the local economy and creating jobs. Judges said the successful model could be replicated nationally.
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Best research or advocacy project: To support the regionwide rollout of the food scraps collection service, Auckland Council partnered with more than 30 diverse organisations to engage with Auckland’s many communities in creative ways. Their efforts have contributed to diverting 30,000 pa tonnes of food scraps from landfill.
The annual New Zealand Workplace Health & Safety Awards are organised by Safeguard magazine with the support of WorkSafe New Zealand and ACC.
The Innovation Award recognises the development of a New Zealand design or technology which eliminates or manages a risk to safety and health at work. Auckland Council commissioned Auckland University of Technology to identify and recommend an ergonomic design of the bins that would ensure safe handling by collectors. As a result, there have been no health and safety incidences reported to date by collectors.
