Building Better, One Move at a Time
Plastic, it’s versatile, useful, and used across multiple industries in a multitude of ways. Without it, Conroy couldn’t protect people’s precious items to avoid damage in transit or cover mattresses and soft furnishings to keep them clean and in good condition when moving.
For many organisations, it’s hard to imagine life without it, but there’s no denying plastic is a huge problem for the planet. So, what can you do when you rely on a material as a core part of your operational process, but it’s at ethical odds with your business values?
You look for solutions and partnerships with clever and innovative big thinkers who are repurposing plastic waste into something greener and more sustainable than its original design.
When fencer, farmer and passionate environmentalist Jerome Wenzlick kept breaking his wooden fence posts attempting to ram them through the buried plastic waste in the ground, he had a brainwave. What if he could turn discarded plastic waste into a hard-wearing, long-lasting product with zero negative environmental impact? And like that, the idea for Future Post was born.
Traditional fence posts can rot, split or crack when exposed to water, insects and fungi or become a chew toy for livestock, often requiring ongoing maintenance. Made from 100% recycled plastic, Future Post is as strong as timber, with a longer life span that’s environmentally friendly and helping solve the plastic peril the world faces one fence post at a time.
As a fellow pioneering Kiwi business, we appreciate and respect the entrepreneurial spirit, so when Conroy learnt of Future Post’s Recycling Advocate( RAd) partnership, we leapt at the chance to avoid contributing to the tonnes of plastic waste entering landfill every year. Joining the growing number of New Zealand businesses committed to ‘closing the loop’, much of our soft plastic waste is now collected and converted into Future Posts.
“It is exciting to partner with well-known brands and businesses around the country, such as Conroy, who are seeking a sustainable alternative and end of life solution” says Jerome. “At Future Post we can recycle 5 different and often “difficult to recycle” plastic types of all colours and have found a way to process and UV stabilise this waste material into a highly durable post product, all designed and recycled right here in New Zealand. It takes all of us working together to make the lifecycle of recycling actually work. We are proud to help enable Kiwi’s to “close the loop” with both their recycling and the resulting 100% recycled post products that are proving highly durable for a wide variety of applications, from farm and waterways fencing, to council bollards, landscaping and vineyard posts to name a few!”
As Auckland Branch Manager Nick Dobson explains, Conroy has been on this recycling, and repurposing journey for some time, so partnering with Future Post to extend the programme was well received. “We have been directing nearly 100% of our paper and cardboard waste for recycling for a couple of years, so attacking our industry’s plastics problem was the next logical step in our sustainable journey towards our ultimate goal of zero waste”. While the moving industry is sure to move towards non-plastic packaging alternatives, until then, Nick and the Conroy team are committed to diverting plastic waste from our landfills and supporting organisations like Future Post to repurpose it into something valuable.
New Zealand General Manager Fiona Conroy is keen on ensuring Conroy Removals is leading the way in minimising waste while meeting the expectations of commercial partners. “This is one of the most significant sustainability initiatives Conroy’s have undertaken, and as a company passionate about moving with the times, we’ve got our eyes fully focussed on a cleaner, greener future for our business.”