The business started off in 2000 as Budget Plastic Company Ltd manufacturing rubbish bags and reprocessed granules /pellets. and then a name change in 2007 to Budget Plastics NZ Ltd. The name change in 2017 to Aotearoa NZ Made Limited reflecting the desire to promote New Zealand made products from recycled materials. We are a Palmerston North based manufacturer, with 2 sites located around the city, a logistics nightmare as each site is at different ends of the city. We currently operate 24/6 with a team of 25 staff including myself. Factory 1000 sqm building. Raw material warehouse/storage 7000 sqm building & yard space of 15000 sqm. Our business is focused on reprocessing postconsumer plastic mainly milk and detergent bottles, ice cream and yogurt containers and plastic film sourced from all over the North Island from preferred recyclers back into granules.

Once we have reprocessed the recycle materials into granules, we use them in our own manufacturing or on sell to other companies, so they can manufacture their own products. Currently we send out approximately 2000 tonnes per year of granules, damp proof film and rubbish bags all manufactured from recycled materials.

Rubbish bags are manufactured on site mainly made up of 80% reprocessed LDPE film (pallet wrap and coloured film) and 20% reprocessed HDPE (detergent, hair wash, laundry bottles,5L, 20L containers etc). Clear bags are made from reprocessed clear granules. There are certain rubbish bag lines we have to import due to the lack of power and factory space to run all the machines.

In the past few years, we have started to concentrate on the rubbish bag side of the business offering a wider range of bags. Rubbish bags are a small but growing part of the business.

The advantages of buying a New Zealand made product is that it helps reduce the carbon foot print, and uses a recycled material which would otherwise be exported or landfilled. Which has now become very important to companies as they try and reduce their carbon foot print. Which makes a good story on a marketing prospective as the bags are manufactured in New Zealand from recycled postconsumer materials reducing the carbon foot print.

Major companies are now very conscious of their own carbon foot print and effects on the environment from their plastic waste. We recycle plastics for some of New Zealand’s largest companies who were previously landfilling their recycle because no one was interested in reprocessing it or exporting it. They want to know the process of reprocessing the granules and eventual products that the recycled material is made into so they can tell that story to their customers.

We work with recycle companies to actively try to help our customers and suppliers find a solution to their plastic waste problems but sometimes it is difficult to due the types of plastic that they have to recycle. As some of the recycle cannot be recycled in New Zealand.