Solving problems: recycling vineyard posts

The idea for their initiative germinated after buying a 500-hectare sheep and beef farm near St Arnaud. With a shoestring budget they needed an economical way to complete some urgently needed fencing – 30km of it no less!

“My father-in-law Allan, who’s a fourth-generation farmer, suggested we go to Marlborough because so many vineyards have unwanted broken posts,” Dansy says. “Greg’s a builder so he hopped in his truck and found a vineyard all too happy to get rid of some.”

The couple started their fencing mission using the wood but needed to remove the many clips and nails that had previously supported the trellis lines.

After cleaning up over 10,000 of them, Greg’s hands were covered in blisters, so – with many thousands more still to go ­– he and Allan designed and built from scrap a special hydraulic clip and nail puller.

The results were such a success neighbouring farmers and friends asked if they could have some too – and so the new business was formed. 

A philosophy graduate and with experience in marketing, Dansy took care of the admin and accounts, while Greg focused on processing the posts. At busy times, family and friends helped out – and supply was never a problem.

Repost now repurposes this broken wood for some of New Zealand’s best-known producers – including Villa Maria, Pernod Ricard and Yealands.

“We’re a portable service so process the posts on the vineyards,” Dansy adds. “It works with the industry because its aim is to be zero waste to landfill by 2050.”

Repost has now repurposed over 854,000 posts and has a team of 17. Their supplies have also been used at mountain bike parks to create ramps, by local councils for walkways, and by the Department of Conservation.

The couple have now also found a use for the sections too short to meet the 1.6-1.8m requirement for farm fencing.

“We’re keen to divert as much as possible from landfill so Greg and our qualified engineer Tom Te Heu Heu designed a new machine to process the shorter lengths to make batons. They’re also in demand by the everyday farmer, and ours are a fraction of the cost of buying new.”

The business has recently added another new product essential to farmers. “Some wire netting companies got in touch wondering if we could help with an issue they were having,” Dansy says. “They explained that when they make a roll, which could be up to 500m long, if there’s even a small defect where the machine hasn’t calibrated properly and a tiny length isn’t perfect, they can’t do anything with it.

“They’re still perfectly fit for purpose, so we now sell these seconds for the value-hunting farmer rather than them going to scrap metal, or just sitting there. It’s not like a cow or sheep would be worried it doesn’t look perfect!”

The company is on course to reach a milestone this year of processing over a million vineyard posts, enough to enable landowners to fence a distance of nearly 8,000 kilometres.

“We're the only organisation in New Zealand and the world, from what I've been told, that recycles this treated timber for a second life cycle,” Dansy says.

“We feel so passionate about what we do – it’s a pretty cool journey to be on and it’s really rewarding. We hope we’re showing New Zealand that a circular economy can work on a large commercial scale, even if you’ve got a shoestring budget.”