A facility to recycle tyres and a project to reuse old photocopier toner are getting off the ground with support from the Waste Minimisation Fund, Associate Environment Minister Eugenie Sage said today. “These projects take waste that would have gone to landfills and use it for something useful. They are great examples of what needs to happen more in New Zealand,” Ms Sage said. “Significantly reducing waste going to landfill by 2020 is a goal of the Green Party’s confidence...

The roll-out of 20 innovative cleaning stations has started as part of the Department of Conservation’s efforts to reduce the spread of kauri dieback, Conservation Minister Eugenie Sage announced today. Stations will be installed on busy and high-risk DOC managed tracks in the kauri region, including the Kauri Loop track in the Hakarimata Scenic Reserve, near Huntly – the first track to have one of the new cleaning stations installed. Other tracks are in the Kauri Coast and Bay of...

The May round of the Waste Minimisation Fund will target projects that build in reducing waste from the outset, Associate Environment Minister Eugenie Sage said today.  “We need to stop thinking that recycling is the answer to our waste problems when actually producing less waste in the first place is better for the environment and our country,” Ms Sage said.  “I hope to see projects come through that encourage a circular economy where we make, use and return products and...

New Zealand has joined the United Nations-led CleanSeas campaign to rid our oceans of plastic, Associate Environment Minister Eugenie Sage announced today. Ms Sage signed a pledge showing New Zealand’s commitment to the global CleanSeas campaign at the Volvo Ocean Race Village in Auckland. More than 40 other countries have already signed up. “Turtles and other wildlife are being killed by litter in our oceans. Also the issue of microplastic in our oceans and its effect on the food chain...

“The new Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment’s first report dealing with New Zealand’s proposed Zero Carbon Act provides a valuable contribution to the national conversation on this issue,” says the Acting Minister for Climate Change, Julie Anne Genter.

Associate Environment Minister Eugenie Sage today pledged to take action on plastic bags when she accepted a petition signed by over 65,000 people along with a letter from Greenpeace. “Since I took on this portfolio I have been struck by how much New Zealanders really care about the harmful impacts of single use plastic bags. The message I’ve got is that it’s time for change,” Ms Sage said. “The previous National Government ignored this problem when a similar petition by...

Climate Change Minister James Shaw says Stats NZ’s release of their first combined Environmental Economic Accounts will provide a valuable basis for understanding New Zealand’s transition to a low emissions economy.

The critically endangered Antipodes Island wandering albatross will be functionally extinct within the next 20 years unless the devastating decline in their population is halted, Conservation Minister Eugenie Sage says. The population of this rare wandering albatross, which breeds almost exclusively on the remote Antipodes Island in the New Zealand subantarctic, has experienced an alarming decline in the past 13 years, with very high mortality of females and reduced breeding success. Ms Sage, who has just visited Antipodes Island, says...

Punakaiki suffered from a lack of planning under National, and Conservation Minister Eugenie Sage is pleased this will now change with today’s Provincial Growth Fund announcements. The fund will provide $100,000 to help Punakaiki develop a master plan to future-proof the township. “The famous Pancake Rocks and Blowholes at Punakaiki are major drawcards for visitors, as are the dramatic karst landscapes in the Punakaiki and Pororari Valleys,” Ms Sage said. “Of course people want to come see these special places...

The result of one of the most complex island mouse eradication projects ever undertaken will be known in a few short weeks. Conservation Minister Eugenie Sage is accompanying a Department of Conservation-led Million Dollar Mouse monitoring team heading to Antipodes Island group in the New Zealand subantarctic. The monitoring team will begin the month-long assessment to determine whether the project was a success. Ms Sage said it was an exciting, albeit nerve-wrecking time, for everyone involved. “The Million Dollar Mouse...