Point of Order: Buzz from the Beehive - 2/9/24

We are cosy with Canadians on emergency management – but how are things going on the dairy trade front?

Point of Order’s Beehive monitors have been reminded of something Trade Minister Todd McClay said a few months ago about Canada’s disinclination to stick to the deal it struck when it signed the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP).

This resulted in our taking action under CPTPP trade rules to resolve their wrangling over our efforts to ship more dairy products to Canada.

Kerre Woodham: More education on recycling would be useful

We're talking a whole lot of rubbish this morning.

I know some people who are passionate recyclers. They know their shinizzle. If Mastermind was still being broadcast, recycling - the what's the how's and the where’s - would be their specialty subject.

There are others who simply don't care. Can't be bothered. Load of nonsense. It's not going to save the planet anyway. it's too hard, a load of bollocks. Biff, everything goes in the rubbish bin. Banana skins, glass bottles and all.

Mike's Minute: Reality trumping ideology for the planet this week

It hasn’t been a good week for the planet has it?

We have found out we are making more single use plastic than ever before.

We have found out oil companies are making more money than ever before.

If you are a realist, as opposed to an idealist, none of this will have come as a surprise.

What drives most of us is convenience. It's why you should never trust polls on matters where the question involves any form of fanciful theory.

Mike Butler: Burning trash the cleanest option

Waste incinerators in which all household rubbish except recyclables and concrete can be burned are the short answer to trash disposal and panics such as that caused by China’s recent refusal to take any more recyclable plastic.

Auckland man Chris Newman, who built New Zealand’s first waste tyre processing plant, was living in Japan when he noticed that household waste there was incinerated.

Returning home, Newman submitted a proposal for a waste incinerator that also generates electricity to Cr Penny Hulse at the Auckland Council, only to have it ruled out by council staff.

He then made a presentation to the office of Associate Environment Minister Eugenie Sage and found an impenetrable government ethos of “compost and recycle”.