Moorings Northland Environmental Policy – Waste Management

Moorings Northland operates in a sensitive coastal marine environment. This environment is under increasing pressure from a range of recreational and commercial pressures.

As a small business operating in this environment, Moorings Northland conducts all its activities in accordance with our environmental policy-waste management with the intension to mitigate our impact on the sea and coast.

Policy Statement
Moorings Northland and its agents will comply with:-

• MARPOL convention international Pollution Regulations
• Regional Council oil spill and other pollution control regulations and by laws
• MSA pollution regulations and guidelines
• All other New Zealand Government policies relating to sustainable environmental management

What this means in practical terms is Moorings Northland conducts all its activities and operations to an ‘environmental code of practice- waste management’ which defines how we manage:-

• mooring chain – used
• mooring block components – steel (cast or mild steel)
• mooring strops, head ropes, buoy line or similar products – used or damaged
• mooring buoys – damaged or replaced
• mooring block components – other materials (usually cement)
• waste oils, paints and other chemicals
• domestic rubbish
• Office waste

Environmental cost of doing business – Waste Management

Compliance costs to meet our environmental code are in the order of $15,000 per annum. This figure is derived from handling and labour, fuel and transport costs, storage costs, and land fill disposal costs. Moorings Northland proudly stands by it commitment to meet theses costs and environmental obligations.

Code of practice – waste management

Background
Historically most marine mooring contractors disposed of all old or unusable mooring components directly into the sea because this was seen as the quickest, cheapest and easiest way to dispose of waste materials.

These historical practices are environmentally unsustainable. To that end Moorings Northland manages the following waste as specified :-

All ferrous components including old chain, shackles, links, swivels, and mooring block will be removed from a mooring and transported to port. Once in port the material will be stored on land until it can be delivered to a recycle depot for recycling and reuse.

All rope material including old or replacement mooring strops, head ropes, buoy lines and similar products will be removed from a mooring and transported to port. Once in port the old material will be sorted. Any usable strops may be reused by our dive team to mark and recover sunken moorings. The remainder will be disposed through normal land fill disposal.

All unusable mooring block material will be removed from the immediate mooring ground via the barge and disposed or stored in the following two ways.

1. Taken to port and transported to an authorised refuse site; or
2. Stored in an approved NRC storage zone as identified by NRC.

All other waste including damaged buoys, waste oils, domestic rubbish will be recycled (preferred option) or disposed in an approved refuge site.