In a region best known for being the home of some of the biggest food producing companies in Aotearoa New Zealand, 3R Group is showing Hawke’s Bay can also lead and grow in the burgeoning sustainability space.

We’re celebrating our 20th anniversary this year. It’s a notable achievement for any business but especially for one which has made things like the circular economy and product stewardship our bread and butter.

Sustainability has long been considered a ‘nice to do’ – quickly dropped when times get tough – so being a company which leads the charge and relies on businesses joining us on the sustainability journey, poses challenges.

It wasn’t the promise of easy business success which drove 3R’s founders to open shop two decades ago. 

At its core, 3R is about the power of collaboration, relationships and circular-economy thinking, to tackle big, difficult challenges in a way which is beneficial to the environment, the community, and the bottom line.

Changing the sustainability landscape in Aotearoa

When 3R began in 2004 the view of sustainability was very different. Few Kiwis took notice of climate change, there was no Waste Minimisation Act, New Zealand’s emissions were at their peak, and the ‘circular economy’ and ‘product stewardship’ were mostly academic phrases.

Despite this, the early days saw us work alongside Resene to create the Resene PaintWise product stewardship scheme. It gives the public a way to return unused paint and its packaging for recycling and reuse rather than send it straight to landfill. This work has since grown to include take-back programmes for other major brands like Dulux and Wattyl, expanding widely across the motu.

The agrichemical industry is another area of focus from the early years of our work. This led to the co-design of Agrecovery – the product stewardship scheme for agrichemicals and their containers.

3R’s foundational work left Agrecovery in good shape to continue their programmes, and their Green Farms Product Stewardship scheme has recently became officially accredited under the Waste Minimisation Act 2008.

Tyres have been a big part of our work for over a decade. The Tyrewise product stewardship scheme launched this year, bringing an entire industry under one scheme to ensure tyres are properly dealt with at end of life. 

It’s the first of its kind in New Zealand, so leading the work from inception through to operational launch has been one of our proudest achievements. This is not only because of the hugely positive environmental impact it will have, but how it’s showcased the ability of a large, competitive industry to collaborate on a shared sustainability goal.

We also tackle ‘less obvious’ waste, like recycling child car seats through our SeatSmart programme, operate a chemical collection service, ChemCollect, and ran The Great DDT Muster to collect and properly dispose of banned chemicals from the New Zealand countryside.

We manage the Glass Packaging Forum’s voluntary product stewardship scheme for glass bottles and jars and have offered our expertise to various businesses and councils to reduce their waste in favour of sustainable solutions.

The common thread with all this work is the importance of relationships, collaboration and thinking about waste in a different light.

E wana ake 

The theme for our anniversary, e wana ake – strong roots, flourishing shoots – reflects how viable sustainability solutions require proper development to lay the groundwork for their future success. 

We’ve taken a similar approach to helping the next generation of sustainability experts by hosting university student interns each summer. This year we created our first year-long Product Stewardship Intern role, which gives a unique opportunity to gain hands-on experience designing circular businesses solutions.

He tangata, he tangata, he tangataIt’s the people, it’s the people, it’s the people

We’re a business, but creating sustainability-focused solutions goes beyond keeping our doors open. Our aim is outcomes which will have benefits which go far beyond the next quarter or the next year and well into the future.

We take the same approach with things like donations and sponsorships. As part of our 20th anniversary, we donated to Wharariki Trust and the regenerative planting project for Hikanui Pā. We also support The House of Science, by sponsoring the ‘A Load of Rubbish/He Putunga Para’ kit, which introduces school children to the circular economy and the waste hierarchy.

We also partner with social enterprises wherever possible, whether it be contracting them to work with us, or offering work experience opportunities at our sites.

I don’t say all this just to blow our own trumpet – although I am proud of 3R’s community focus – but to show that being a business in the modern era can and should have multiple markers for success.

The future

We’ve grown from small beginnings to around 30 full-time staff, with sites in Hastings, Auckland, and Christchurch, working alongside major national industry players and government to change the way New Zealand deals with its waste.

We’ve had our share of challenges, up and downs and have had to adapt and innovate to stay ahead. The business landscape is always changing, but when you measure your success by financial sustainability and positive impact on the environment and the community, your success is even more meaningful and satisfying.

3R design, implement and manage product stewardship schemes for individual businesses or industry-wide groups. They also help businesses take a fresh look at their waste to first minimise and then recover what would otherwise be wasted.