Closing the loop

Andrew Ritchie

Future Post, winners of the 2025 Wine category and Supreme winner of the Port Marlborough Environmental Awards offer to ‘close the loop,’ by recycling plastics into posts to be reused on farms and vineyards.

Fencer and founder of Future Post Jerome Wenzlick had the idea as he was breaking wooden posts while trying to fence off a waste site containing plastic products.

The company operates on two sites, one in Marlborough and the other in Waiuku in the North Island.

Speaking at a recent factory tour Jerome said: “In addition to diverting thousands of tonnes of waste plastics from New Zealand landfills, we help organisations to participate in the circular economy and meet sustainability targets.

“We provide valuable opportunities for them to highlight their positive environmental actions to stakeholders in an increasingly eco-conscious world.”

Jarrah Prior, General Manager at St Clair Wines, where plastic posts have now been in the ground for seven years, believes that the longer lifespan of the posts has been a huge advantage.

“The problem of disposing of broken wooden posts has been alleviated and we are able to support another local business. At the same time, we can relate our sustainable story to our customers.”

Edwin Massey, Sustainability Manager for NZ Winegrowers said companies such as Future Post were fundamental to the New Zealand wine industry.

“We can focus on our reputation of sustainability overseas, while we maintain our environmental footprint at the lowest possible level.”

Founder-investor in Future Post, Dave Elder, spoke of the many years of trials that had gone into developing the correct recipe for the manufacturing process.

“We are keen to utilise local forestry slash to complete our circular process. Currently we have to import Carbon Black to colour our product to prevent deterioration from UV rays, this costs up to $50,000/month.”

Waste plastic comes from Fonterra milk containers, old wheely bins and now drip lines from vineyards can be utilised.

“The supply is limitless. If we had more plants around the country we could process more.”

Our product range is expanding, we now produce bollards, wheel stops, rails, garden boxes, square posts and rounds. We are also exporting product to Vanuatu and Australia.

“The company is doing the right thing for the right reasons, and everyone is a winner.”