This week, we acknowledge the passing of Warren Snow, a resource recovery visionary and WasteMINZ life member.
Warren was a tireless advocate for zero waste in New Zealand; he was a passionate environmental champion who co-founded numerous environmental consultancies and social enterprises.
Last year, he was voted in as a life member of WasteMINZ because of his drive and passion, and to recognise the significant contribution he has made to the waste and resource recovery sector and to the environment.
You can read about his achievements below.
Warren started a sign and display business at age 19 but left it due to conflict with clients not concerned about their environmental impacts.
In 1989, he co-founded the Community Business and Environment Centre (CBEC), a social enterprise in the Far North, which operates a number of environmental businesses employing over 70 people. He later started two successful environmental consultancies, Waste Not and Envision.
Warren project managed the roll out of Auckland City Council's first kerbside recycling collection service in 1997.
Warren was Manager of The Tindall Foundation where he pioneered a model of allocating funds, still used. He cofounded the Zero Waste New Zealand Trust, which successfully allocated millions of private and government funding to local projects around New Zealand.
Warren has co-written reports focused on getting to zero waste by using mandatory product stewardship to change the way products are produced and resource recovery at the local level to make sure the value in those products is returned to the economy.
Warren promoted the concept of Resource Recovery Networks in the Far North and the Auckland region, where the concept was adopted in 2012, resulting in 12 community recycling centres, with plans for another nine. These centres are creating revenue and savings for communities and local employment.
He managed The Entrust Foundation which operates The Kiwi Bottle Drive, Aotearoa’s campaign for a national bottle deposit scheme. WasteMINZ sends our sincere condolences to Warren’s friends and whanau.