Stock with bumps and bruises means a great deal for you!

Many years ago I had a job merchandising products in supermarkets. It amazed me the amount of stock that would arrive, or become, damaged on it’s way from manufacturer to customer. The standard practice was for the retailer to return the product for a refund, whereby the manufacturer would destroy it. Considering the amount of resources involved in creating these products and distributing them, this seemed highly wasteful.

Unfortunately, over the past year of retailing toothbrushes we’ve built up a bit of a collection of toothbrushes where the packaging has been damaged. We’ve got neither the inclination, nor the resources,to return them to our supplier, and so it is that we’ve decided to offer you guys a deal! If you’re happy to receive a slightly crumbled box or individual toothbrush in return for a significant saving you’ll love this!

Until stocks last, we’re selling 12 packs for $30 reduced from $45, and individual brushes for $3 down from $4.50. We’ve got them in soft, medium and child at the moment and they are all in a similar condition to those pictured. Check out the Bathroom category in the store for more information or to purchase.

Spring update

Well, I hope like us you’re enjoying the signs that Spring is well and truly here! We’ve got lots of seeds planted which seem to get moved ten times a day; inside overnight, out into the sun in the morning, under the porch when it starts bucketing down, out into the sun…good ol’ Auckland weather!

ALL AROUND THE WORLD Over the past wee while we’ve become aware that there are lots of folk doing great things to reduce the amount of rubbish they create in their homes. In the US Bea Johnson has a Zero Waste Home, Adam & Amy have completed a Green Garbage Project in Oregon, Jen Metz in Hawaii has just finished her Trash Free Year, Beth Terry continues to blog about her Plastic Free Life in San Francisco, and over in the UK ‘Mrs Green’ and her family have My Zero Waste which chronicles their efforts. Closer to home, huge congratulations go to Robin and Heather List from Masterton (that’s Rob in the picture) who on the 24th of August, put out one, (not very full), Council bag of their rubbish from a whole year! Currently, Julz and some friends in Christchurch are trying to do 40 Days without Waste. It is part of larger self-challenge to commit to doing something for forty days, there blog is also a great example of some fantastic writing! We’re going to add all these to the Links Page, and so if you know of any others please let us know.

HANDBOOK It’s been off the shelves for a little while, but we’re proud to say our ’10 Steps to Living Rubbish Free’ handbook is available again! This is a second edition and we’re confident that we’ve got rid of all the little typos sullying the first edition, so much so, if you find one we’ll refund the shipping cost!

GLASS The latest page to be added to the Rubbish Free Guide, the page on glass outlines why you can’t put your broken glass, or window glass, in with your curbside recycling. Unfortunately it also outlines why there really isn’t too many alternatives then the landfill. It is written with a very strong Auckland bias, and you may know something we don’t, so please feel free to inform us and we’ll update the page.

NOVEMBER SPECIAL If we needed an excuse I suppose we could say it is to welcome in Spring, or it is my birthday, but I don’t think we do. All we need to do is tell you that for November our Freeset Bags Grocery Bags are available for the low price of $4.95! Usually $7.95 these great bags are strong, light and made of jute, a quick growing plant found in abundance in India. Freeset offers alternative employment to many women and girls working in the sex industry in Kolkata. Eco friendly + social justice = a feel good deal!

Cheers,

Matthew & Waveney

Renovation rubbish & the perils of buying second hand

In stark contrast to our supermarket bag of rubbish from 2008, this week we filled a massive 60 litre council bag and sent it off to landfill! The culprit? Renovations!

A couple of weeks ago we moved from our ‘apartment in the sky’, to the suburbs on the North Shore of Auckland. The term ‘slum lord’ is a great description of the previous owner, who had the place filled to the brim with tenants with very little love, or concern, shown to aesthetics and cleanliness! Knowing how important environment is on feelings of wellbeing, the last two weeks has seen us stripping wallpaper, plastering, sanding, painting, painting and more painting in an effort to make it feel comfortable to live in. Thanks to the help of family we now have a lovely place to call home and are looking forward to planting a garden next.

I set up a system in the garage for sorting out the waste as we set about cleaning the place up; boxes for scrap metal, plastic recycling, organic waste, and rehoming (via Freecycle), were dutifully set out, but it was the pile for landfill waste that grew the largest and fastest. The wallpaper was able to be put out with the paper recycling, and the carpet from a bedroom found a new home in another person’s games room through Freecycle, and Trademe is about to see a few more listings but there were other things that we just couldn’t avoid sending to landfill – such as the 100% nylon carpet from around the toilet…

At first we felt really guilty about the ‘Rubbish Free Couple’ throwing out so much rubbish! But guilt isn’t a good place to work from, so we re-framed it all and realised we are just dealing with the consequences of other people’s decisions thirty years ago when the place was decorated. Their choices in what materials to use then define what options we have available now that it is time to retire those materials in their current form.

As a result, we have been very conscious of what we are bringing into our home now, so that whoever is redecorating in thirty years hopefully has an easier time avoiding sending stuff to landfill. Our main approach is using second hand items wherever possible. Given that the most impact an item has during it’s life is generally in it’s construction, once energy has been imbeded in an item it is best to use, or reuse it, for as long as possible. We heard Resene paint has the lowest VOCs so have been buying it from Trademe off folk who had it leftover from their decorations. We got some great carpet and had a local guy lay it, and are currently on a search through the home demolition yards for a bathroom mirror / cabinet.

It hasn’t been without it’s testing moments however. This week we purchased a second hand vanity unit from a demo yard for $25 more then the identical unit was on special in the store! The plumber was all for the new one, which would have been easier for him to work with as opposed to having to use existing holes, and we had our moments where the shiny new one looked appealing, but in the end second hand won out! Because we wanted to spend as little as possible, we were essentially limited to MDF construction. And because we aren’t big fans of MDF we were very reluctant to be responsible for more of it entering the world in the form of cheap joinery. However, because there was an MDF unit already existing that no one wanted, it seems wise to re-use it for as long as possible and thus our purchase of the second hand unit.

Reading the above, you’d be forgiven for thinking that life must be very draining in our household as we agonise over every little thing! I can assure you that’s not the case. Once in the habit it is almost unconscious weighing up asthetic, price, and environmental impact when purchasing an item. Thirty years ago the decorators of our house weren’t expected to consider the third factor when choosing an item, but given what we know today it seems completely irresponsible to continue to do so.

$350 new - $375 second hand!

Umbrellas…yep, I’m really going to write about umbrellas!

On Friday, while walking from the bus stop to work, I overheard an astute young high school student observe that umbrellas and wind don’t seem well matched. It was bucketing down at the time and his companion’s umbrella had just turned inside out. I have to admit, that it was with a certain amount of smugness that I tightened my grip on our umbrella and continued my daily pilgrimige impervious to the rain falling around me.

My smugness was probably a sub-conscious attempt at self soothing, because our umbrella cost us about $120! After observing numerous umbrellas in city rubbish bins destined for landfill on a rainy day a month ago, we resolved to buy the best umbrella we could and as such the Blunt Umbrella entered our lives.

Designed and owned by a Kiwi who was sick of the disposable nature of umbrellas, Blunt has been getting plenty of media interest, even making into the TV news. In Blunt’s words; “A major flaw of conventional umbrella design is that in even light winds the fabric can tear away from a tip or comes away from the ribs. When this happens, the whole structure collapses and the umbrella heads straight to the landfill.

The Blunt solution is a uniquely tensioned canopy combined with a flatter aerodynamic profile. This revolution in umbrella design also eliminates any sharp edges and weak points.”

We’ll let you know how it goes, but judging from Friday’s outing I think we’re onto a winner!

We’re ditching the car!

Recently I’ve been reading a book called; ‘What’s Mine Is Yours: The rise of collaborative consumption’. In it, Rachel Botsman and Roo Rogers outline the increasing phenomenon of sharing, bartering, lending, trading, renting, gifting, and swapping.

Not being ones to miss out on the action we’ve decided to jump on board and give it a go…we’ve sold the car! Waveney and I live in downtown Auckland, catch buses to work where cars are available if we need them for our jobs during the day, and so we figured it’s never going to be easier then now to go car free in NZ. By the time we rent a car park, ($50/week), fuel (avg $60/week), insurance, warrant of fitness, registration and maintenance we worked out that it was costing us around $150/week to have our car! So, we’ve sold the car and are now putting that $150/week into a separate ‘car account’, and will withdraw from that account when we need to rent a car.

Yep, we’re not so saintly that we’ll never drive anywhere, we’re just going to try and do it collaboratively! We’ve signed up for CityHop, the NZ version of ZipCar. Basically, you pay $65 to join up for six months. Whenever you need a car you either phone, or go online, and book it for however long you need it. It is $15/hour which includes fuel and insurance, and between 6pm – 8am it is just $30 all up. When the time comes to pick up the car, you simply walk up to it, swipe your card over a reader on the windscreen and the car unlocks. Inside you’ll find the keys and away you go. Once you’re done you simply return it and walk away. There are cars located at different spots around the city, and lucky for us one is right at the bottom of our building, in fact it is a lot closer then our old car park which was a couple of blocks away. For weekend trips we’ll rent from a traditional car rental agency.

It’s early days, but so far we’re breaking even. Last week we put our $150 in the bank and today I just spent $95 renting a car for one day this weekend to get to a friend’s birthday out of town, by the time we pay for petrol it should be bang on. Stay tuned to hear how we go!

Eco-consumers, keep shouting!

You may not have heard of Unilever, but there is a fairly high chance you’ve used or purchased one of their products. Unilever is a British / Dutch multinational company which, according to Wikipedia, owns over 400 brands, employs 160,000 staff and had a revenue of around 44 billion dollars in 2010. In NZ we’re familiar with seeing Rexona, Dove, Lynx, Lipton tea and Streets ice cream, it would be a rare supermarket isle that doesn’t have a Unilever owned brand in it. Consequently, when they started talking about radically improving their sustainability record a couple of years ago, many people held their breath in hope…many are still holding their breath, but can at least let a little air out!

When we were in the midst of doing our Rubbish Free Year in 2008, Waveney and I were approached by Unilever in London and asked if we could create a challenge for 12 of their executives. These folk were spread around different countries and Unilever was keen for them to get an understanding of the challenges facing consumers wanting to reduce the amount of packaging and waste coming into their homes, as well as the issue of disposal. So, we created a 8 minute video introducing ‘Unilever’s Biggest Loser!’. You can watch it here! The idea was that they went home and for the next week kept all of their rubbish, which they weighed. The following week they attempted to reduce the amount of rubbish created from their homes and the person with the biggest percentage drop became ’Unilever’s Biggest Loser’. The whole exercise seemed to go very well, and seemed to be helpful in promoting the eco-consumer cause.

We felt fortunate to be able to engage with Unilever in this way, and it was thanks to my oldest brother Christopher letting some colleagues know about what we were doing. Until last month, (told in proud brother voice), Christopher has been heading up Unilever Canada, but is now heading back home to work with Air NZ. Just prior to leaving Unilever he gave a speech to 2000 business leaders at the Toronto Convention Centre outlining how Unilever has been doing a couple of years into it’s Sustainable Living Plan. In it he clarifies that Unilever wants to make money and believes the way to do this is by decoupling growth from negative environmental impacts and contributing towards sustainability. So, by 2020 they plan to have halved the environmental footprints of their products, source 100% of their agricultural raw materials sustainably and help one billion people take action to improve their health and wellbeing.

To try and reduce the showering time of the average North American they’ve created a ‘dry shampoo’ which allows consumers to ‘refresh’ their hair between shampoos thereby reducing the number of showers taken solely for the purpose of washing hair. Deodorant barrel sizes are being increased in order to reduce the amount of packaging to product ratio, which, if all the deodorant producers were to move to this larger barrel size over 755 tonnes of plastic would be eliminated from the waste stream in Canada.

Over the years, Unilever has come under fire from a number of quarters challenging it’s practices with regard to various environmental and social issues. But after banging on for the last few years about the need for manufacturers to change their ways, I felt it was time I acknowledged the not insignificant improvements that are being made and offer some encouragement to eco-consumers that your voices are being heard, so please keep shouting!

Batteries

Today I had a phone call from Mary in Christchurch who was querying what to do with some spent AA batteries she had lying around. It inspired me to update the information in the Guide on the subject, and reproduce it here…

http://www.flickr.com/photos/johnseb/2457508491/

NZ’s Best & Worst Packaging Awards 2011

This is a fantastic idea! The crew at Wanaka Wastebusters have come up with a way for folk to nominate the best, and more importantly, worst, examples of packaging in NZ, at unpackit.org.nz. So, nows the time to vent all your frustration with overpackaged fruit wraps, (what’s wrong with fresh fruit?), and eggplants on styrofoam trays. At the same time ,you might want to applaud, (warning: shameless self promotion coming up), these responsibly packaged toothbrushes! You’ve got till midnight 20th March to get your nominations in.

This is part of a wider project that the Wanaka Wastebusters are involved in called Demystifying Packaging Choices. The overall goal of the project is to raise awareness about the issue of packaging waste and to help people to choose the best forms of packaging so they can reduce, reuse and recycle. They’ve already conducted a survey on the packaging choices people make, have created a web resource to help with these choices, are running these awards along with a national roadshow, and will finally follow up with another survey to see if its all made any difference to the choices people make.

In the past we’ve blogged about the frustration of having to look out for greenwashing. No doubt we’ve all seen examples of it, well when looking around the Unpackit website I stumbled across this wee gem – the Seven Sins of Greenwashing. It outlines seven ways of critiquing a product to ensure you don’t spend your eco-dollar unwisely.

You’ll be able to follow the results of Unpackit’s competition on their website, and we’ll also keep you up to date with any developments.

All fired up for 2011!

When I was a kid, one of my favourite books, (and probably a strong influence on my adult worldview), was The Sneetches by Dr Seuss. The book covers issues such as consumerism, prejudice, and discrimination, but the reason I mention it here is for the purposes of a simple analogy. In the book, there is a machine into which the Sneetches enter without a star on their bellies, and emerge with a star…all that to say; ‘that’s how holiday’s feel for me!’

By the time holidays role round, my thoughts on the state of our world are often heavy with cynism, despondency, and fatalism. However, by the end of a break, these have magically been replaced with optimism, excitement, determination and a belief that things can be different. The amazing thing this year is that I haven’t even had a proper break yet from my day job as a social worker. Still, other people’s holidays must have rubbed off because Waveney and I are all fired up for 2011!

On the surface of it, the newspaper stories that were the turning point for me are really negative! On the 10th and 11th of January the NZ ran two stories highlighting the issue of waste in the waterways. The first article opens with the assertion that, “Some of Auckland’s most popular coastal spots are becoming rubbish dumps as floating piles of garbage wash up on them.” It goes on to point out that there are a number of sources for the rubbish including boaties throwing waste overboard, rain causing street litter to be washed into storm water drains, (which flow directly into the sea), and strong winds causing this waste to be washed on to beaches. In one day, four to five volunteers can gather between 3000 – 3500 litres of rubbish including plastic bottles, polystyrene, tampons, sanitary pads, condoms, nappies, car tyres, and yep, one day even a kitchen sink! The next day, a second article highlighted the estimated 35,000 cigarette butts that are washed into the Hauraki Gulf every day, making them one of the worst polluters of swimming spots in the region.

So, how did this lead us from despondency to optimism? Well, I was particularly struck by the number of people volunteering and working towards improving this situation. On the 6th of December ‘Love Your Coast‘ coordinated 1000 volunteers who collected 200,000 pieces of rubbish from Rangitoto Island in the Hauraki Gulf. Folk connected to the Waitemata Harbour Clean-Up Trust were available on their boat that day and many other organisations were present as well including; Sustainable Coastlines, The Sir Peter Blake Trust, Keep NZ Beautiful, Motutapu Restoration Trust and Forest and Bird. WIth so much education, action and general good will I’m sure the situation of waste in our waterways will be improved – how can it not?

I’m sure that by the time the next holiday roles around I’ll have plenty of answers to that question! But in the meantime this is what we’re up to here at Rubbish Free. On Waitangi Day Waveney and I volunteered at the Okahu Bay Waitangi Day Festival which is hosted by the local tangata whenua, Ngati Whatua o Orakei, in collaboration with the Auckland City Council. The aim is to avoid any landfill waste being created from the day and so we were stationed at a waste station giving the public guidance as to which waste goes where. We stayed over at the marae on Saturday night and got to know how hosts a little better which was awesome. The hospitality and grace with which we were welcomed and looked after was incredible.

On the 12th of February we’ll be at the street market in Milford on Auckland’s North Shore, promoting the Rubbish Free message and then on the 6th of March we have a stand at Ecoday in New Lynn. So, if you’re in the area on any of these days, and you see us, please come by and say hello! Happy belated New Year!

So long 2010!

Wow, what a year! When the year began neither Waveney or I had any idea what it held, as we loaded up the car and moved north to Auckland from our hometown, Christchurch. After a few false starts, it is ending with both of us working in paid employment we love, and a new and improved Rubbish Free website and online store! RubbishFree.co.nz was re-launched on 1st June 2010 and now boasts over 100 pages of ideas of ways to lighten our footprint on this beautiful planet, as well as this ongoing blog, and an online store with over 47 individual items on the ‘shelves’.

It’s that time of the year when all the ‘Top 10′ lists come out, and this year we’re adding to them! Judging by the reaction of the Rubbish Free Community, here’s a few of your favourite things from RubbishFree.co.nz…

Favourite Guide topics are;

1. Shampoo and Conditioner
2. Composting
3. No Knead Bread Recipe

Top sellers in the Store;

1. Toothbrushes – a hands down favourite!
2. Sandwich Wraps
3. Reusable Bags

On looking back on the blogs we’ve written this year, it was easy to spot the favourite three, which are;

1. A Juliet Garden
2. ‘I have a bag thanks’
3. Statistically Speaking

So, for the next few weeks we’ll be taking time out where we can, enjoy the company of friends and family, and looking forward to 2011 when we plan to at least double the size of the Guide, keep adding cool rubbish free products to the Store, and most importantly, keep up the communication with all of you fantastic, generous, and enthusiastic Rubbish Free Supporters!

Thanks heaps for all of your kind words and emails and for providing ideas and encouragement with the aim of reducing waste and rubbish. Happy Holidays and we’ll see you on the other side!

Eat lunch then brush your teeth Rubbish Free!

This week we received our latest shipment of bamboo toothbrushes, and we’ve now got three types in the Store! The original brush has been rebranded as ‘soft’ and is joined by a ‘child soft’ version with a shorter handle. The third brush is a ‘medium’ bristle brush for those who like a bit more firmness when brushing their teeth. The bamboo used is of a different type to that consumed by Pandas and therefore does not threaten their food supply, whilst also being a sustainable material. The bristles themselves are synthetic being made from Nylon 4, a biodegradable nylon, and the brushes come in paper based packaging. So, you can throw the brush in the compost to break down if you like and the packaging can go out with your paper recycling.

The other addition to the Rubbish Free Store this week is a range of stainless steel containers from LunchBot. Like the water bottles we have available, these are also made from the highest quality food grade stainless steel available (304) and come in a range of sizes. We’ve been using the Eco box for about six months and it is going great! We’ve used it for storing meat in the freezer, holding leftovers, and of course as a lunch box and it is showing no signs of aging. The thing we really like about stainless steel is that it doesn’t retain any of the flavours from previous items stored in the container and there is no risk of chemicals leaching onto our food. Also it is a great example of a reusable item, that when it has eventually done it’s dash, is recyclable.

Love your Coast

This week the ‘Love Your Coast’ campaign is kicking off with 1500 volunteers heading to Rangitoto today to pick up rubbish along the coastline and is supported by Jack Johnson. The campaign is aimed at cleaning rubbish from Aotearoa’s coastline as well as raising awareness of the huge impact rubbish is having on our coastline particularly as we head into summer. Tomorrow there’ll be a clean up in Wellington, Christchurch on Wednesday and the West Coast on Thursday, so if you are in these areas and have some time you might want to get involved.

After hearing about the Love Your Coast campaign my eyes were suddenly opened to a number of organisations working to clear rubbish from the coastline. The Waitemata Clean Up Trust has been going since 2002 and have since collected 2.5 million litres of rubbish, which is at least 60 shipping containers! There’s also Sustainable Coastlines and Keep NZ Beautiful.

Its awesome that these campaigns and organisations are out there doing this work. From looking at their websites and videos, it appears that the majority of the rubbish gets into the harbours and waterways via the storm water network. Obviously, its important to keep rubbish out of these systems, but the best solution is to avoid having the rubbish in the first place!

We’ve had some great ideas on how the Lyttelton Winter Light Festival can avoid using glowsticks. The best suggestion so far is from Freedom in Christchurch who suggested making lamps from a small glass jar, with a tee light candle inside, tied to a bamboo stick with wire. Freedom confessed to it not actually being her idea and said she remembers buying one at the festival a number of years ago. I suspect they may have been fazed out in favour of glowsticks due to the danger of children dropping them and glass smashing on the streets, not to mention a lighted candle going flying, but I’ll discuss it with Julie at the Lyttelton Time Bank. Thanks for the ideas and please keep them coming!

Arghhh….aphids!

Juliet’s gard…sorry…Waveney’s garden, has aphids! Who knew that aphids could reach the 33rd floor, but there they are, crawling all over the lettuces in particular and having a good ol’ time. Apparently aphids are spread by the wind, so I guess that explains them finding Nirvana up here, and they are one of the most destructive insects to plants in temperate regions, (thanks Wikipedia). They feed on sap and by doing this they take nutrients away from plants which soon start showing signs of distress with curling, mottled leaves, yellowing, wilting, and low yields.

So, this week’s question of the Rubbish Free community is; where can we buy some ladybugs? Apparently ladybugs are a natural predator of aphids and one ladybug can be responsible for killing 1000 of the blighters! Today I captured one from my mother-in-law’s garden and carefully placed it on an aphid covered leaf, but unfortunately ten minutes later and it’s gone! We have heard though that there are people who sell ladybugs but we’re struggling to find these mythical folk. So, if you know of anyone we’d love to hear from you.

Next week I’ll let you know how we’re getting on in finding an alternative to glowsticks for the Lyttelton Festival of Light, which we blogged about a couple of weeks ago. We’ve had a couple of good ideas, but would love to hear more and you’d be in the running to win a free box of bamboo toothbrushes! 

Anyone got some spare sheep kidney fat?

Today I’m fighting a cold. I woke with a sore throat and as the morning has progressed it has been joined by a slightly runny nose, slightly achy muscles, and a slightly fuzzy brain. It’s like a kind of scale, after ‘slightly’ comes ‘moderately’ and then it peaks with ‘really’. So, four vitamin C tablets and a couple of cloves of raw garlic later I find myself lying on the couch reading through an old book my mother came across. I guess it dates from many, many moons ago and it makes the following suggestion regarding a cure for colds;

“Get the hard fat from around a sheep’s kidney and grate 1 teaspoon. Put in a cup and pour hot milk over, sweeten to taste with sugar or, if preferred, salt and pepper to taste. This is a splendid cure for an obstinate cold, with cough, or is very good to build anyone up after illness. It is pleasant to take, like rich, creamy milk”

The same book also has other handy hints such as; “If, when cutting fresh bread, you frequently dip the bread knife in boiling water, the bread will not crumble.” and “When roasting meat put a small teaspoonful of sugar in a corner of the baking tin. It will ensure a good supply of gravy.” Or for those who reside in cooler climes the helpful tip that; “A little common salt added to the last rinsing water when washing prevents the clothes freezing on the line.”

Now, where to get some sheep kidney fat…

A Juliet Garden

I love the creativity real estate agents show when listing properties, and I wasn’t disappointed to hear that our balcony is affectionately called a ‘Juliet Balcony’. Presumably, its because there is just enough room for Juliet to stand on to call down to her lover. If he did manage to scale the 33 floors to get to her, they’d have to go inside for a cup of tea as there certainly is no room to sit on the balcony.

So with all of this in mind I was a little skeptical when my Juliet, Waveney, announced she wanted to have a garden on this somewhat riddiculous balcony! But she prevailed, and with significantly more support from her father than from me, we now have a garden on the 33rd floor!

There were a few hurdles to be … well, hurdled. The first being the issue of the sun generally falling in the same spot we like to stand when out on the balcony. “Fear ye not my Romeo, we shalt place the whole caboodle on wheels” said Juliet. And so it came to pass that the garden now rolls effortlessly between the bedroom and living room ends of the balcony depending on circumstances. The second problem was the 900mm solid balcony railing meaning the garden had to be 900mm high in order to get sun – done. It tends to get a bit windy that high up so some sort of barrier to protect the tender plants was needed which is where some perspex my brother had sculling about came in to play, and before the week was out we had a 300mm wide, 900mm tall, garden with a perspex wind barrier!

It was quite funny doing numerous trips through the lobby and past the reception, (the building is also a hotel), with some crazy looking pieces of construction, but it was all done successfully and this is the result…

Great ay! Not only that but there are obviously rubbish free genes in Waveney’s DNA as her father was able to use various pieces of scavenged and recycled material to construct the masterpiece! Being able to grow our own fresh herbs and greens makes it a lot easier as it can be quite difficult to find fresh herbs without a layer or two of plastic. Time will tell how the tomatoes will do as they may quite easily grow up and over the barrier which may prove interesting for pedestrians if it starts raining tomatoes on them! And as the happy couple settled back and admired their new garden Romeo turned to Juliet and asked, “Do you reckon bees will come up to the 33rd floor?”  To be continued…

Here’s some challenges for you – with prizes!

Jules is the co-ordinator of the Lyttelton Time Bank and she has issued the Rubbish Free Community with a challenge! Every year the Time Bank helps with two street festivals, one is summer and the other in winter. We have thoroughly enjoyed the winter one when living in Christchurch as there is an emphasis on it being a Festival of Light. Following this last winter event however, Jules said she received some constructive criticism regarding their decision to sell glow sticks as a fundraising item.

According to Wikipedia, “Glow sticks contain hydrogen peroxide and phenol is produced as a by-product.” The wiki entry also goes on to say that, “Because the product is a one-time use device and is made from plastic, and because of the number sold, the device is considered to have a high environmental impact for purely recreational entertainment. The toxic internal substances, if released, are also damaging to the environment.”

So, an alternative is needed, and this is where the Rubbish Free Community swings into action! Jules has challenged us to come up with an alternative light emiting source, which they can sell at next year’s Winter Street Festival by way of a fundraiser for the Time Bank. Any improvement on the glow stick would be great and an ideal solution would be something able to be reused, composted or recycled with relatively non-toxic ingredients.

Challenge number two comes from an email we received from Irenee wondering whether we know of a source of either rice or oat milk where the packaging can be reused or recycled. We don’t, but if it exists we know someone reading this will be able to tell us about it! Unfortunately the only brands Irenee has been able to find use tetra-paks which, due to the multiple media involved in their construction, are very difficult to recycle. She is unable to drink soy or cow’s milk but would really like to find a environmentally lighter way of consuming the alternatives.

To up the stakes, we’ll give the person with the best suggestion for the Street Festival light a free box of 12 bamboo toothbrushes valued at $45, and for the person who can solve the ‘rice or oat milk in recyclable packaging riddle’ you’ll receive two free toothbrushes valued at $9. Click here to submit your winning ideas!

Good, Better, Best!

This whole rubbish free thing is a bit of a roller coaster! During the weekend we went down to our local Farmer’s Market and bought spinach, bok choi and asparagus. We would’ve bought a whole lot more but all that great organic food was wrapped up snug in plastic packaging…arghhh! So, the next step there is to start having a quiet word with the vendors and see if there are alternatives they could consider…like no packaging for one.

But then later, when doing a bit of internet time, I came across Lola who has been lobbying Griffins to reconsider the plastic tray they added to their biscuits a few years ago and it seems like they’ve been having a good dialogue! Apparently, Griffins have spent about $70 million on upgrading their plant so they can remove trays from packets of biscuits. They’ve also looked into using corn starch packaging but it doesn’t have a long enough shelf life. Still they seem open to incorporating more sustainable packaging once it becomes available.

Maybe Griffins won’t have to wait too long! According to this article, mushrooms have been used in the development of a material called Mycobond which is biodegradable, heat and fire resistant, energy absorbing and low impact material. Apparently Mycobond is set to make a large impact initially as an alternative to foam packaging, but also has potential as insulation and Ford are considering using it in panels and bumpers for their cars!

Rubbish free on the 33rd floor!

We don’t mean to be extreme, honest! But after having spent the last two months living amongst beautiful native bush and birds in the Waitakeres, we’ve now moved into a 34sqm apartment, on the 33rd floor, in the Auckland CBD! It has one bedroom, and what is affectionately called a ‘Juliet balcony’ – it is only wide enough to stand on…just!  And now that we’re here, we’ve absolutely no intention of giving up our rubbish free ways.

Perhaps surprisingly to many people, we’ve always been drawn towards high density living and are wrapt we’re finally getting to give it a real go. As we’ve ranted on about in the past, our primary concern that drives our rubbish free ways, is the pre-consumer waste generated in the production of the products and packaging we buy. In Story of Stuff they suggest that for every bag or rubbish we send to landfill, seventy equivalent bags of landfill waste have resulted from the production of the items in our single bag! For a long time I’ve been telling people it was 1:7, not 1:70 as it just seemed to unbelievable so I thought I must have it wrong. But the other day I watched the video again and there it was…70 times!!!

What’s that got to do with apartment living? Well it is consumer pressure that is going to force manufacturers to rethink their packaging and products and a whole lot of those consumers live in apartments. We’ve always said that although we had chickens, a large vegetable garden and plenty of space when we were doing our Rubbish Free Year, those factors weren’t essential to succeeding. So now it’s time to put our money where our mouths were!

After one week we’re off to a good start. The bokashi system is ideal for apartment living as it is small, doesn’t smell, and the product is welcomed by anyone with a garden! We’ve discovered the Recycling Room, (actually called the Rubbish Room but we think it should be renamed!),  and have found that they are very keen for separation of paper from other recyclables. Best of all it turns out there is a Farmers Market a block away every Saturday morning which, when we explored it last weekend, seems to be a great source of unpackaged organic veggies!

We’ll keep you posted on how it is going and in the meantime any tips or suggestions anyone can share on apartment living rubbish free would be greatly appreciated!

Mmmmm…salami….

Probably the most commonly asked question, in relation to our trying to live rubbish free, is; ‘what is the most difficult part’. Up until now I’ve generally answered either, ‘being prepared for spontaneity, such as the impromptu bbq on a Sunday afternoon’, or ‘nachos’. But that was because the real answer was much too difficult to admit to myself let alone anyone else…salami!

We both love spicy food, and I’ve always liked the honesty and simplicity of salami, particularly when out tramping and we sit and cut pieces off and eat them with crackers…actually that’s another sticking point…crackers. Anyway…yesterday we found ourselves at a great Sunday market in Titirangi and there I stumbled upon Salash Delicatessen selling their wares.

Salash is a family business with a heritage of five generations which we’re fortunate to have here in NZ from Serbia. They specialise in producing dry salt cured, cold smoked, air dried meats and salamis and for $13 I was able to buy the two lengths pictured of salami without any plastic packaging at all, just a brown paper bag.

So, now I’ve added a Salami page to the Guide and it’d be great if you could email me suggestions of rubbish free salami in your town or city and I’ll add it to the page.

Along with the new salami page, I’ve added one on hand cream and updated information on menstrual products and plastic bags. As always, anything you’d like to amend or add we’d love to hear it, so flick us an email!

Just give me some space!

Since moving to Auckland, Waveney and I’ve been housesitting which has been heaps of fun. However, with summer approaching we’re keen to get away ourselves during the weekends so are now looking for a place to rent.

We’ve spent quite a bit of time thinking about the best place to live considering where we work, I’m on the North Shore and Waveney is in Three Kings which is south of the city – so yep, opposite directions! We’re keen to use public transport and so think an apartment in the city could be the go. That way we can both wander down to the bus station and go our separate ways, against the traffic, and with pretty reasonable commuting times. Besides we’ve always been curious to see how we’d go living rubbish free in an apartment – the experiment continues!

So, now we’re in the midst of checking places out, and it is occurring to us that the difficult thing with apartment living and being rubbish free is a lack of space. One of the keys to avoiding rubbish is being prepared and buying in bulk. That way when friends drop in suddenly and you want to give them kai, in the freezer are some sausages that were purchased rubbish free from the butcher, saving a quick dash to the supermarket and the resulting styrofoam. But, a lot of these places don’t even have freezers, often just little beer fridges, let alone space for lots of baking soda, vinegar, flour and all the other staples of a rubbish free life!

On the other hand, being rubbish free is once again making the search a bit simpler. In a previous post I wrote about doing a late night dash to a supermarket to buy curry powder where I was confronted with four different brands all about the same price. But there was only one I could buy rubbish free – decision made! It is a similar situation with apartment hunting. With 301 apartments available in our price range in central city, being able to disregard a fair few because there is no space for a freezer or storage is actually really handy! We’ll let you know how we get on.

‘I have a bag thanks’

I, (Waveney), just popped down the road to get some rolls for lunch.  I went to Bakers Delight and, as is habit, took my own bag.  I asked the teenage girl serving if she would mind using my bag.  She looked utterly confused, like I had just asked her if she minded using a can opener, as she tentatively reached out her hand she said “All our bags here are free,” then with a smile added for clarification, “we give them away.”

Now, its true that I have been asking butchers, bakers and even the occasional Chinese take out if they could use my bag or other container since February 1^st 2008, but I’m not sure I could honestly say its something I particularly enjoy.  My butcher in Christchurch was such a gem (Corner Stanmore and Avonside Road shops).  He would smile when he saw me coming, simply stretch out his hand to take my container and effortlessly recalibrate his scales whilst commenting on the weather. But since moving to Auckland we haven’t had great small-retailer luck. It seems to prickle some people and fluster others. Others are happy to pander to the weird customer but just don’t get it.  Neither Matthew or I do the ‘weirdo’ thing very well, we just want what we are doing to be normal, no fuss. But instead the practice of using a plastic bag just once, before its starts a 500 odd year journey of polluting and decomposing, is normal.

So, wishing I’d been organised enough to bake rolls this morning, I say, “Thanks.  But its not about the money, its about the plastic” Her blank look returns, I add “Plastic lasts for hundreds, maybe thousands, of years so I’m just trying to use a little less of it.”   She fills my bag with rolls, and says that’s “4.90.” I hand her my card.  And then, she says: “So you’re against plastic but you use a plastic eft-pos card?”  Well! What was going through her head? “Plastic has rights?” or “If you can’t save the world then its OK to contribute to screwing it up?” I’m genuinely annoyed, tempted to unleash years of tertiary study on this unimposing teen.  I stand there with options scrolling through my mind: Wrath? Laughter? Lecture? – I go for pleasantries. We both wish each other a nice day.  But as I turn to leave, I think better of it.  I say that because of the way our world is, it’s pretty much impossible to live without plastic and that I was simply trying to minimise it’s usage.  When I make it home with my rolls I tell Matthew all about it, expecting sympathy, but he thought it was hilarious.  At least one of us still has a sense of humour.

Perhaps you already know of some environmentally switched on small traders who would welcome the opportunity to create less waste?  If so, comment below. If you’d like some information on how to cut down your usage of single-use plastic bags when shopping for fruit, vege, meat, fish and bread then click here, or go straight to the rubbish free store to buy reusable bags . And don’t worry, if we all do it then it will be nice and normal in the twinkle of an eye!

New packaging for our toothbrushes!

We are wrapt to announce a change in the…ah…wrapping…of our bamboo toothbrushes! The brushes are now contained within a light paper wrapper and inserted into an unbleached cardboard box. The pack of 12 also come in an unbleached cardboard box. The packaging can either be recycled with your paper recycling, composted, however, I find the 12 pack box really handy for holding all sorts of things and for sending small packages in so tend to hang on to them.

We launched the new packaging at the Nelson Eco Show last weekend where it was very well received and lots of people took the opportunity to stock up with brushes that our children’s children won’t have to live with. The brushes are made from bamboo which, as anyone trying to get rid of it from their garden will testify to, is remarkably fast growing and self renewing. The bristles are made from nylon 4 which is a biodegradable material so the brushes can be safely composted. They’re available individually or in a pack of 12 in the Rubbish Free Store.

A Weekend in Nelson

Its not every Sunday evening that I think, ‘well that was a cracker of weekend’, but it was this one! I’ve just got back from spending the weekend in sunny Nelson, which while being the obvious couplet, is also extremely true – they predicted rain each day of the 10th Annual Nelson EcoFest and on both days blue skies were the only things reigning.

The Rubbish Free stand seemed to go down very well with the public and organisers and in fact went down so well that we won the Best Community Stand Award! We were on the end of a row and so had three sides, one of which displayed the rubbish we couldn’t avoid from the Rubbish Free Year, another some of our products from the store, and the third provided space for folk to enter a competition we ran. On Friday night we spent an hour picking up rubbish around Nelson. This was strung up in a clear plastic bag above the stand and people were invited to guess how many individual pieces of rubbish were in the bag. We have three $80 shopping kits to give away thanks to the generosity of the Bin Inn, Ekko Solutions and Rethink. The kit includes;

• Bin Inn vouchers to the value of $50
• 3 x Ekko grocery bags
• 3 x Rethink reusable organic cotton produce bags

The first guess was a rather pessimistic 2,793 countered by an equally optimistic 35! The actual number was 122  and so our three prizes will in fact be split in four! Congratulations to…

• Laya Mutton-Rogers with 122
• Jay Pope also with 122
• Leonora Soares with 123
• Margaret Ufton with 123

What I found very heartening was the relative difficulty we had in finding enough rubbish for the bag! I really thought it’d be a 10 minute job, but it did actually take an hour with the bulk of the waste being from the ‘big four’ junk food places. Nelson folk bought me back to earth however by saying we were looking in the wrong places and there is plenty to be found and this was supported by the manager of the Nelson Landfill who came by our stand. He was saying that they now work on an equation of one tonne of waste being thrown out per person in Nelson per year which is significantly higher then the 720kg I’ve heard is the national average. He also told me that they are able to heat the Nelson Hospital with the methane collected from the landfill and that they have enough space for another 40 years or so at that rate!

This conversation highlighted the most enjoyable aspect of the weekend for me – yarning to some fantastic people. Everybody we talked to seemed to be doing things to the various degrees they are able, and to make changes that reduce the need for packaging and therefore rubbish. On the store side of things, the biggest selling items were the sandwich wraps, toothbrushes and handbook.

Thanks to everyone who came by our stand, and to those who made it possible. In particular thanks again to the Bin Inn, Ekko, and Rethink for the prizes, Jo Reiley the Ecofest manager, and my Dad, Graham Luxon, who went above and beyond the call of fatherly duty in accompanying me from Christchurch to Nelson and imparting sage like wisdom and reassurance!

Rubbish Free Hair Care!

It’s been a long time since I, Waveney, blogged – but I want to tell you all about my hair!  During our Rubbish Free Year I felt that nice, expensive salon shampoos and conditioners were ‘permissible’ – partly because I had chosen brands with hard plastic containers that can be recycled at kerbside, but mostly because my hair isn’t what it used to be.  I know that’s the cue for the 50 somethings to say ‘honey you haven’t seen anything yet’ but nevertheless, as the sun has set on my silky 20-something hair a growing dependence on allsorts of hair products has steadily risen.

I say all this as a defense of some sort because I don’t use the shampoos and conditioners at my local bulk eco food stores where I can refill my own container. I also have to confess to not trying any of the completely natural, and rubbish free, suggestions that people in the know have offered – until two weeks ago that is.  My mum rang me all excited,  she had been told that cider vinegar is an amazing hair conditioner and she had just tried it, “Its silky” she said, ‘’you’ll have to feel it to believe it.”  And when I next saw her I actually was impressed. It sat better, it looked better, it really was silky.

Do you get that problem when a hair product that used to work really well starts to be less and less effective?  My conditioner has been getting that way recently and mum’s hair was looking better than mine (and she’s 60 something).  It was all the convincing I needed, I tried it and actually couldn’t believe it. It worked better than my salon silky treatment stuff, in fact I don’t know if my hair has ever looked and felt so nice.

And that’s not the end of the story.  A few weeks earlier I had actually read a blog, by the legendary Lyn of Taranaki (Pigs Tits and Parsley Sauce), saying that cider vinegar conditioned and baking soda cleaned hair.  And Lyn was raving about it, saying all the heady things I’m saying now.  Although I hadn’t quite believed it, I did remember it. So yesterday I went back to the blog to sus out the baking soda thing feeling convinced that Lyn could be trusted and that I was on to a winning ticket.  Consequently, my hair got the double-hippy-whammy, first the baking soda then the cider vinegar! I waited expectantly as it dried.  And the verdict? Silky, shiny 20 something hair! With results this good saving a serious bit of cash and helping the planet out almost fade into the background. I couldn’t recommend it more.  But if you don’t feel quite  ready to flush decades of lab tested, break through developments down the drain, then next time you think your product of choice isn’t working as well as it used to, wash your hair just once with baking soda, it will completely strip away the build up of the hair product out of your hair thus allowing it to become fully effective again.

Check out the shampoo and conditioner page in the Rubbish Free Guide for a step by step walk through on how to do it.

Statistically Speaking

Statistics aren’t always useful, as Des McHale observed with, “The average human being has one breast and one testicle.” However, today I’ve come across two statistical announcements which seem very much more useful.

The Christchurch City Council have released information on waste collected and processed for the year ending 1st July 2010 which you can check out in full here. Christchurch introduced a new kerbside collection system around the start of 2009. The system involved giving all residences three wheelie bins, reducing in size from the yellow lidded recycling bin, to a smaller red lidded rubbish bin, and an even smaller green lidded organics bin with organics collected weekly from the kerbside and the other two bi-weekly.

It appears that while Christchurch folk have embraced with gusto the recycling and organics options, this hasn’t meant a reduction in the amount of landfill rubbish being disposed of residentially. Rather, there has been an increase of about 4,000 tons. Despite this anomoly however, the total amount of rubbish being sent to the Kate Valley Landfill has reduced by about 50,000 tons, presumably due to commercial operations reducing their rubbish output and finding new waste recovery options. I assume that there is a financial incentive at play here, with it being worthwhile for businesses to reduce their rubbish output, whereas it doesn’t directly impact residential dwellers in the same way.

Although this has nothing to do with rubbish, sticking with statistics a bit longer, the Auckland Regional Transport Authority recently announced that there has been an overall increase of 3.4% in the number of people using Auckland’s trains, buses, and ferries. There has been a huge increase in June of this year compared with the previous June with an increase on the buses of 6.7% and 8.8% on the trains. Cool ay!