Waimea Weekly Locally Owned and Operated
Wednesday 10 March 2021
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Page 20-21
Sat 13 - Sun 14 March
The little drummer girl Jacqui Rawson Reporter
jacqui@waimeaweekly.co.nz
The Tasman Bay Food Co. are finding it difficult to move the mountain of steel drums created as part of their business of making Juicies ice blocks. Managing director Marina Tristam says as a company they work hard to reduce their waste but it’s not proving easy to find avenues for the repurposing of the steel drums. “At the end of the day we want to see things being recycled not going into landfill,” she says. The company buy fruit concentrate in 200-litre steel drums at their Brightwater location, but as their business has grown. so has the quantity of the drums. “I’m sure there are people or businesses in this region who could make use of them,” says Marina. She has tried offering the drums to scrap metal yards but the cost to collect them outweighs the worth of the drums to them. “It’s only worth it to us if people can dump it at the gate,” says Nelson Metal Industries owner, Denise Smith. She says the steel market has crashed, especially since the involvement of China who started in the scrap metal industry
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Full of titanium and fun Tasman Bay Food Co.’s Marina Tristram. Photo: Supplied.
around 10 years ago. According to Denise, China are masters at working the market. Knowing how to increase and shrink the cost to their own advantage. “Prices can drop by $200 a tonne overnight,” says Denise. Being in Nelson means paying $3500 a time to get it shipped across to the North Island. The Tasman Bay Food Co. have had some people collect drums for the use of horse jumps, collecting water or placing around new trees in lifestyles blocks. While others have used them for storage, buying 20 at a time. To date, Marina has been using Facebook’s Marketplace to let people know of the drums which are, in the most part, in pristine condition having only been used once for the concentrate. Tasman Bay Food Co. press apples which then get blended with the concentrates that come loaded in the drums, to create the different flavours of the ice blocks. A product like boysenberries that are only a once-a-year harvest are made into concentrates so that the ice blocks are available all year round. If you would like a steel drum, or have an idea on repurposing them, please contact Marina at info@tasmanbay.co.nz.
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