In our eyes, Tyne Nelson is one of New Zealand’s unsung heroes, who has built her life around the principle of working on behalf of Papatūānuku, taking direct actions to heal the land and to be a voice for the whenua (the land), the ngahere (the forest) and the rākau (plants). She’s also passionate about building connections between different communities in order to foster the collaboration we desperately need right now to heal our human and planetary ecosystems.

Tyne is a multi-talented, interdisciplinary human who weaves together loads of different mahi (work). She’s both a student and practitioner of Rongoā Maori, mentored by the legendary Robert McGowan or Pa McGowan (who you’ll hear more about in this podcast). As a contractor, she supports the Hawkes Bay Regional Council to deliver their Predator Free Hawkes Bay programme through working on Maori engagement and community research. She also supports Pa McGowan in his work for Ngā Whenua Rāhui, a funding programme that helps to protect biodiversity and remnant bush on Maori land, while upholding mātauranga maori, tikanga and tino rangtiratanga.

Tyne is also extremely passionate about zero waste. She’s the Hawkes Bay regional kaiārahi for Para Kore, a nationwide waste minimisation programme working to normalise zero waste across Māoridom. Para Kore, which means zero waste in Te Reo Māori, supports marae, kohanga, kura and Māori organisations to work towards zero waste.

In this podcast, you’ll hear lots of Māori kupu or words. We’ve created a glossary here that you can refer to if you get stuck at any point.

Glossary of words in Te Reo Māori (in order of appearance in the podcast)

The inimitable Jersey Bob wrote us a song! We’re super stoked about this wonderful gift and wanted to share it with the world! We hope you love it as much as we do <3 Some more of Bob’s music here.

Bob is mutual overlord at Raw Balance in Taupō, with the equally wonderful/joyous, Monika. Whenever we’re in Taupō they’re our go-to peeps for event hosting, and raw and vegan treats (and now theme songs too, yus!) If you’re ever in Taupō, drop in at Raw Balance (we can recommend a coffee with the house-made almond mylk and basically all of the food!!!!)

They tour and do music gigs around the country too – if you’re keen to have them perform at your establishment, drop them a line

Laura “Kitty” Cope is the Creator, Founder, Driving Force Extraordinaire of UYO Aotearoa Cafe Guide (formally, UYOC).

UYO stands for Use Your Own and is a nonprofit cafe directory. Laura launched UYO in late 2017 after seeing both David Attenborough and Jane Goodall in February 2017. The UYO directory showcases New Zealand hospitality businesses who are committed to encouraging customers to BYO cups, containers, bowls, cutlery etc. instead of expecting and accepting single-use disposables. Although UYO was initially focused on encouraging reusable coffee cups, the searchable directory goes way beyond that, sporting a range of badges that cafes/juice bars/eateries can earn to allow the public to see the awesome eco conscious things they’re doing, be that accepting BYO cups or containers, offering a discount to customers that BYO, having responsible food waste practices, willingly refilling personal water flasks for customers and non-customers alike, and so on and so forth. 

As if this wasn’t enough, in 2018, Kristy went further and established EarthSavvy, her own zero waste business, selling zero waste survival items to the people of NZ, and offering a range of in-person zero waste workshops for those living in the Auckland region.

It’s a truism that children are the future, but in the present era of ecological collapse, the pressure on the next generation to revolutionise how humans live on earth is huge. Equipping them for this task is not easy either. 

However, Lesley Ottey, is not one to shy away from a challenge. Through her business, Eco Educate, every day she creates and promotes environmentally-motivated rethink behaviours in over 130 schools and preschools across the Waimakariri and Ashburton Districts in Canterbury.

Though Lesley is a waste educator, she also brings with her a strong practice of community engagement and a deep knowledge of old ways of doing things – from knitting, sewing, foraging through to gardening. She’s helped to set up community gardens, runs waste-free events, regularly appears on local radio, and for 2 years she ran a toy rescue operation where she diverted over 9000 stuffed toys from landfill. 

Lesley’s become quite the public figure, and she’s a force to be reckoned with. In 2018 Eco Educate took out the Environmental Step Change Award in the North Canterbury Business Awards, and was also a finalist for the People’s Choice Award.

In this wide-ranging interview, we talk with Lesley about the work that she does. We focus on why she loves doing environmentally-oriented behaviour change with children specifically, why she is hopeful about the future when these kids take on the helm, and her approach to naysayers and litterers in the community at large. We also chat about her techniques for navigating the boundary between her public and private life, and making sure her dedication to waste minimisation doesn’t lead to burn out.

At the end of March 2019, a heavy storm triggered massive flooding across the West Coast of the South Island, causing infrastructural damage, as well as loss of life. The storm also ripped open a legacy landfill situated on the riverside in Fox Glacier, releasing tonnes of historic rubbish into the river, out to sea, and kilometres up the West Coast’s largely pristine beaches. The flood also swept away large piles of present-day recycling from the local transfer station.

As national attention focused on the infrastructural damage caused by the flood, including the crumbling of the Waiho River Bridge, locals in Okarito were starting to uncover devastating amounts of rubbish strewn across the beaches and up the riverbeds, and to recognise the urgent need for a coordinated cleanup effort. One of these locals, Mike Bilodeau, was the first to start sounding the alarm, taking it upon himself to call upon authorities to acknowledge the scale of the problem and to respond accordingly. Within a short amount of time he found himself in charge of coordinating the volunteer clean-up effort and briefing politicians and other emergency response teams on the ground.

In this podcast, recorded seven weeks on from the day the storm hit, Mike describes to us the nature and scale of the problem caused by the opening of the historic Fox Landfill. Despite the fact that there’s still no end in sight to the clean-up effort or the risk of further pollution, Mike explains how both public attention and central government funds appear to be drying up. He also shares with us what this devastating event can teach us about the responsibility we all share in reducing our waste footprint.

The situation on the West Coast is continually unfolding. To keep yourself updated on the clean-up, follow the South Westland Coastal Cleanup Facebook page. If you’re able to volunteer, have the specialist skills necessary, and can sort yourself out with food and accommodation while on the West Coast, send Mike an email at bilofro@gmail.com.

Emma Heke is someone who greatly inspires us. In 2015, Emma started Heke Homemade Herbals, a business selling beautiful herbal tea she grows herself on her south-facing urban garden in Nelson. Nowadays, her tea still comes from this property, but has also expanded to include growers all over NZ. Unlike most NZ tea suppliers, 90% of the herbal teas Emma sells are NZ-grown. The tea is also totally organic, the blends are delicious, and to top it off, Heke Homemade Herbals has recently embarked on an impressive pathway to zero waste. We just love it!

Emma’s path to growing and selling tea is not what you might imagine. Her studies were in Fine Arts and she was an Art and Photography teacher for many years at high school. In 2008 she began making documentary films about nature, art and green business, through her company Red Heke Productions, beginning with the highly acclaimed OURS NZ Nature children’s documentary. In September 2011, this endeavour led her and her 7 year old son to take on a 6 month film trip across NZ, documenting the stories of a wide range of kiwis working and living in environmentally sustainable and economically viable ways. This trip resulted in the documentary Our Green Roadie, which is available to watch, for free, on Vimeo (along with Emma’s other films too!).

In this podcast, we talk to Emma about how the experience of Our Green Roadie inspired her to start Heke Homemade Herbals, and to run the business with integrity – producing teas that are delicious, affordable and truly eco. Being environmentally conscious is clearly something that comes naturally to Emma, so we started off our kōrero by asking her where she thinks this comes from…

International research has made alarming discoveries about the pervasive nature of microplastic pollution in soil, waterways and the ocean, and revealed uncomfortable truths about how our everyday activities contribute to this problem. You may have read or heard about some of this research, but have you ever wondered how much these kinds of findings apply in the New Zealand context?

Helena Ruffell is a Masters student of Environmental Science at the University of Canterbury. Her research is analysing whether New Zealand’s wastewater treatment plants are a source of microplastics into our environment. It’s the first study of its kind in New Zealand and has already produced data and findings that demonstrate that our wastewater is indeed a concerning source of plastic pollution for the land and waterways that effluent is discharged on to.

Helena was also one of the scientists analysing plastics collected by a trawl run off the waka Te Matau a Māui as it sailed down the East Coast of New Zealand’s North Island in early 2018. This was a collaborative scientific research project (involving Algalita South Pacific, Te Matau a Māui Voyaging Trust, 5Gyres, and the Institute of Environmental Science and Research), which set out to analyse microplastic pollution in the South Pacific. The trawl collected alarming amounts of plastic from the New Zealand waters through which it sailed, which Helena subsequently analysed in her lab in Christchurch.

In this podcast we chat with Helena about some of her preliminary findings, and the implications they have for our lives and policy. Should we be worried about microplastic pollution in New Zealand? If so, what can we do about our microplastic footprint?

Palmerston North local Shelley Wilson is at the forefront of the low-waste living movement in New Zealand, which has grown rapidly over the past few years. In 2017 Shelley launched In My Kitchen, an online retail store and info hub, designed to help her customers and followers make changes to reduce the waste they produce in their daily lives. The retail and educational branches of In My Kitchen draw on Shelley’s practicality and creativity, and the learnings she has gained from consciously reducing her family of four’s waste over the last three years.

In August 2018 we chatted with Shelley about what motivates her both to reduce her waste and inspire others to do so too, how to manage zero waste living when you’re time-poor, on a budget or have small children, the importance of being kind to ourselves while doing what we can to cut waste, and thorny issues like how Shelley balances the tension between wanting to sell products while also promoting a philosophy fundamentally grounded in reducing consumption.

Apart from Shelley’s swish website (link above), you can check out In My Kitchen on social media – both Instagram and Facebook.