WELLINGTON, July 17 (Xinhua) -- New Zealand renewed the accreditation of a product stewardship scheme which has been preventing environmental harm by reducing the potential for illegal or unsafe discharges of used oil, Associate Minister for the Environment Eugenie Sage said on Wednesday.
"Used oil that was previously either dumped in garage backyards or down drains or sent to the Holcim cement kilns in Westport is now collected and carefully managed. The Recovering Oil Saves the Environment (ROSE) scheme has operated since 2011 and has also improved the storage of used oil at the sites it services," Sage said.
The ROSE scheme is a collaboration between Fulton Hogan, Petroleum Services and Salters Cartage to recover, recycle and reuse used oil across New Zealand.
Under the scheme, around 2.5 million liters of used oil is collected annually from across New Zealand and then used as a fuel source by businesses which hold the appropriate resource consents. Fulton Hogan, for example, uses the used oil in its asphalt production plants around the country, as an alternative fuel source to diesel, light fuel oil and gas.
"I am pleased to renew the ROSE scheme's accreditation for another seven years because the volumes of used oil collected have been growing. Fulton Hogan collected 250 percent more oil in 2017/18 than it did in 2011/12 -- the scheme's first year of operation as an accredited scheme," Sage said.
"People and the environment benefit when businesses step up and consider what happens to products they use, and how to avoid harmful waste from them," she said.
"It's a good example of how we can shift away from a 'take-make-waste' economy to a 'make-use-return' one, where products are repeatedly reused or recycled."
The largest consumers of used oil under the ROSE scheme are Fulton Hogan Ltd., Oji Fibre Solutions Ltd. and Tegel NZ Ltd.
The ROSE scheme is one of 14 voluntary product stewardship schemes with ministerial accreditation. It complies with the Environmental Protection Authority's 2013 guidelines under the Hazardous Substances and New Organisms Act on the management and handling of used oil.
