Product Stewardship accreditation for programme managers

Product Stewardship accreditation for programme managers

National leaders in product stewardship development 3R Group has added another accolade to its impressive CV with a paint recycling programme under its management gaining Product Stewardship accreditation.

3R manages the PaintWise paint and packaging take-back scheme on behalf of Resene.

Resene PaintWise is one of six programmes to secure Ministry of Environment (MfE) accreditation to date.

3R Group Executive Director Graeme Norton said the company was thrilled the Resene PaintWise programme joins another programme the company has developed, Agrecovery Rural Recycling, in receiving accreditation.

“We’re leaders in product stewardship in New Zealand and this is further validated by managing two of the six programmes accredited by MfE.

“We’re regarded as innovators in this sector; designing, implementing, managing and delivering product stewardship programmes on behalf of manufacturers and industry groups,” Mr Norton said.

The PaintWise programme was developed by Resene in 2004. It became nationwide just a few years later with assistance from 3R Group. Since then the take back service has recovered over one million packs of paint and donated over 100,000 litres of paint to community groups.

Resene chief executive Nick Nightingale said it was great to have the programme recognised after eight years of research, innovation and hard work and that the model should be adopted by others in the industry and by other industries.

“This is a true partnership and without the skills and knowledge of 3R Group this would not have transpired,” Mr Nightingale said.

3R Group operates a number of PaintWise trucks that regularly collect paint from over 50 Resene ColorShops across the country. The bins of returned paint are then delivered to 3R’s plants in Auckland, Christchurch and Hastings for processing.

Both steel and plastic packaging is recycled, while good quality recycled paint is used for community group projects, including covering up graffiti. A new innovation is the use of the recovered paint as an ingredient in concrete, with products such as PaintCrete™ and GlassCrete™ in development.

“These innovative end-use applications impact the lifecycle by turning what was previously thought of as ‘waste’ into a useful ingredient in a new product,” Mr Norton said.

“This ability to complete the “cradle to cradle” cycle at the heart of Product Stewardship is what makes us leaders in our field.

“We’re closing the waste loop.”

PaintCrete is a partnership between 3R Group, The Resene Foundation, Fletcher Concrete, Firth Industries and Golden Bay Cement.

3R also manages Agrecovery Rural Recycling, a model product stewardship programme supported by over 55 of New Zealand’s leading companies in the agrichemical, animal health, dairy hygiene, and silage wrap industries.

Agrecovery provides New Zealand farmers and growers with nationwide sustainable solutions for the recovery of persistent “on-farm” waste, such as agrichemical containers and silage plastic.

3R continues to lead innovation in product stewardship and is working on various new programmes around difficult and persistent waste streams.

“These projects seek to address problematic waste that unnecessarily ends up in landfill or has unsustainable disposal outcomes,” says Mr Norton.

“By developing best practice product stewardship programmes, manufacturers take responsibility for their product through to the end of its useful life and beyond.

“3R’s role is to bring our expertise to help create and deliver these new programmes, bringing benefits for the manufacturer, consumer and the environment.”

All 3R programmes are accredited to the ISO14001 Environmental Standard.

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