Designing Waste Out of Operations
Pacific Coast News
Pacific Coast Village boasts the largest hospitality offering within the Generus Living Collection. The recent installation of a milk tap has avoided the use of a staggering 3,120 ‘two litre’ plastic milk bottles per year.
With the popular Bloom Eatery & Lounge and The Grill Restaurant serving on average around 100 to 125 residents a day, plus catering for functions, and the addition of the newly opened 58-bed Te Manaaki Care Centre, it is a large food and beverage operation indeed. Waste has been one of the key focus areas of the Pacific Coast Village sustainability programme. “We have been working closely with our suppliers at ways to eliminate waste from the supply chain” says Erika Rans, Pacific Coast Village Operations Manager. One of the big challenges was the amount of milk bottles used per week. “We recently engaged with Kaipaki Dairies to install a milk tap. We now receive 10kg milk pails instead of individual bottles. After use, the pails get cleaned, refilled, and then are reused. The installation of a tap has immediately enabled us to avoid a staggering 3,120 two litre bottles per year [based on calculations before the new Care Centre opening].” At the same time, the cost of milk per litre has remained the same, the café bins have to be emptied less frequently, and there is less milk waste. It is a great win!
According to the Generus resident sustainability surveys, waste minimisation is something most of the residents think about in their daily lives.
Pacific Coast Village have achieved the Tauranga Resource Wise Business Programmes highest Stage-5 - GREEN status. Pacific Coast joined the programme in 2019 and an annual waste audit is carried out by the programme. The audits are based on the SWAP survey standards [Solid Waste Analysis Protocol] which is a nationally recognised method of waste auditing in New Zealand.
Pacific Coast Village have made impressive steps towards minimising waste to landfill and achieved impressive 90% diversion rate from landfill from its operational waste*. The Village has been awarded the highest GREEN status as part of the Tauranga City Council Resource Wise Programme. The Resource Wise Programme is a programme run by Tauranga City Council for all businesses, schools, community groups and clubs who want to reduce waste to landfill.
“Congratulations, once again, for reaching the top of the programme and especially on the 6 tonne reduction in waste per annum,” says Sarahann du Plooy [Sustainability & Waste Tauranga City Council].
*The Resource Wise audit does not include gardening Green Waste. Close to 100% of the Pacific Coast Gardening Green waste is diverted from landfill.
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