Waihī Beach Carton Recycling Scheme Turns Waste into Building Materials

A community-led initiative to recycle food and beverage cartons is taking shape at Waihī Beach, driven by Sustainable Waihī Beach, Te Kura Tātahi o Waihī – Waihī Beach School, and the Packaging Forum. The scheme aims to address the roughly 5000 tonnes of food and beverage cartons that go to landfill in Aotearoa New Zealand each year.

Collected cartons are shredded, heated, and pressed into low-carbon building boards resembling plywood — a product called SaveBOARD. The New Zealand-based process uses 100% renewable energy, requires no glue or resins, and recycles all water used during production. Waihī Beach School already has sheets of the finished material in its PE shed.

Coordinator Pip Coombes says the more cartons collected, the greater the impact. Community members are asked to cut open their cartons, clean them, flatten them, and leave the caps on. Only food and beverage cartons — such as alternative milk cartons, stock cartons, and juice boxes — are accepted; paper, glass, plastic, and metal cannot be included.

Drop-off points are spread across the area, including Waihī Beach School, Surf Shack Eatery, Bowentown Beach Holiday Park, Waihī Beach RSA, Secret Garden, and Athenree Hot Springs & Holiday Park. School students have been actively promoting the collection stations throughout the township and help with processing the cartons at drop-off sites.

Originally published in Katikati News (Sun Media).