Zero Waste in Palmerston North City, and Manawatū, Horowhenua and Rangitikei Districts

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Our heartfelt gratitude to Sugarcube Studios, for bringing our guides to life – designing a map for us and creating such joyful imagery to go with it!

The following shops sell unpackaged meat, sausages, smallgoods, seafood, cheese and/or deli foods and will happily put these straight into a BYO container – woohoo!

• Palmy Food City, 77 Cook St, Palmerston North
• Deli-ca-Sea, 298 Broadway Ave, Palmerston North – this store is happy to put unpackaged fish and seafood into BYO containers here.
• Mr Seafood, 709 Main Street, Palmerston North.
• Steve’s Wholefoods, 101 Albert Street, Palmerston North – the owners also own Angus Farm – if you ask in advance then they will package your meat in paper instead of plastic. They also stock Bostock’s organic free-range chicken, which comes in home compostable packaging.
• Organic Buzz, 337 Broadway Ave, Palmerston North – stocks Bostock’s organic free-range chicken, which comes in home compostable packaging.
• Anzil cheese cut fresh off the wheel (and put into your own container!) is available at the Hokowhitu Farmers Market, Sundays 9am-1pm, 356 Albert Street, Palmerston North.
• Paul’s Meat Centre, 206 Oxford Street, Levin
• New World Levin, 21 Bath Street, Levin – this store sells whole fish in a self-serve cabinet, so get some in your own container 😉
• Unpackaged live mussels – there are a few stores around town that stock unpackaged live mussels at self-serve counters. We put them straight into upcycled ice cream containers/BYO containers rather than the plastic bags the stores usually provide. You can find unpackaged live mussels at Melody’s New World, Corner Broadway Ave and Albert Street, Palmerston North; New World Pioneer, 179-197 Main Street, Palmerston North; New World Foxton, Cnr Whyte Street and Main Street, Foxton; New World Levin, 21 Bath Street, Levin (also does clams); and New World Dannevirke, Denmark Street, Dannevirke.
• Supermarket delis – Most supermarkets have a deli section offering unpackaged meat, seafood, olives and other antipasti, salads, lunch foods and more. All Countdown, New World and PAK’nSAVE supermarkets officially allow you to BYO container for these goods!

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The following stores bake and sell unpackaged bread and bakery goods (in some of these stores some items might be pre-packed or wrapped in cling film, just avoid those things!). Simply BYO bread bag to put the bread/bakery goods into. Some places will bag up their bread later in the day, so you want to get in there before they do that (i.e. before 1pm).

• Wholegrain Organics, 134 The Square, Palmerston North – flour for the bread is milled instore, and the grain is sourced as locally as possible – awesome!
• Wildflour, 317 Main Street, Palmerston North
• BABCO – Brick Artisan Bread Company, 95 Albert Street, Palmerston North
• Two options for fresh artisan breads are available at the Hokowhitu Farmers Market, Sundays 9am-1pm, 356 Albert Street, Palmerston North.
• The Sponge Kitchen Bakery & Cafe, 184 Oxford Street, Levin – sells some unpackaged bread rolls, but not loaves.
• Most supermarkets (and even some Four Squares) stock unpackaged bread, bread rolls and/or bakery goods in their bakery section – just pop them into your BYO bags!

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Markets – No two ways about it, if you want a good source of unpackaged (often locally grown) produce, markets are the place to go! At most markets you can meet the grower/producer face-to-face, making them an ideal place to start fruitful conversations about waste-free food, and to develop relationships and systems that enable you to get your favourite fruit, vege and preserves without the packaging. At markets you may also find local producers of pre-made foods like tofu, preserves and sauces etc. Have a chat to see if you can leave containers with the stall holders for them to fill with your desired product for you to pick up from them the following week, or if the stallholder uses glass jars for packaging, ask whether they will take their empty glass jars back for sterilisation and reuse. Check out this list of local markets, though some of our faves are the Hokowhitu Farmers Market, Sundays 9am-1pm, 356 Albert Street, Palmerston North; Feilding Farmers Market, Manchester Square, Feilding and Ashhurst Community Market, Ashhurst Library Grounds.

Trade Aid – Trade Aid‘s 2kg sugar bags are also great for upcycling as bulk bin bags, and are home compostable when they do wear out. Trade Aid’s coconut oil is one of the few on the market that does not have a plastic seal around the lid. You can get these products at Trade Aid, 25 Broadway Ave, Palmerston North. You can also get the coconut oil at Be Free Grocer, Square Edge, 47 The Square, Palmerston North.

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Look out for places that sell whole or ground coffee beans unpackaged, and bring your own bag and container to fill. Going direct to coffee roasters is the best option, but you can also look out for bulk dispensers of coffee in other stores. Here are the spots we found:

• Ebony Coffee, 208 Featherston St, Palmerston North (a coffee roaster who will happily put coffee straight from the roaster in your own bag/container! To avoid the pain of rejection, make sure your bag/container is clean.)
• Sublime Coffee, 203 Cuba Street, Palmerston North (another local coffee roaster).
• Be Free Grocer, Square Edge, 47 The Square, Palmerston North stocks Sublime Coffee in bulk dispensers.
• Steve’s Wholefoods, 101 Albert St, Palmerston North (stocks coffee in bulk bins with an in-store grinder).
• Bin Inn Palmerston North, 688-690 Main Street, Palmerston North (stocks coffee in bulk bins with an in-store grinder).
• Bin Inn Feilding, 85 Kimbolton Road (stocks coffee in bulk bins with an in-store grinder).

We avoid teabags as most have plastic in them, which we don’t want in our tea or our soil. Using loose leaf tea is an easy way to get around this. The trick is to find somewhere that sells loose leaf tea packaging-free, so you can put the leaves straight into BYO jars/containers! You’ll find loose tea leaves in bulk dispensers at:

• Be Free Grocer, Square Edge, 47 The Square, Palmerston North stocks Heke Homemade Herbals, delicious herbal tea, 90% of which is grown in NZ, so super low carbon footprint! All in bulk dispensers!
• Organic Buzz, 337 Broadway Ave, Palmerston North – prepackages their tea leaves in cellophane, but are willing to fill BYO containers/jars with unpackaged leaves.
• Petal and Bee Grocers, 68 Main Street, Foxton

Sourcing cow’s milk without the plastic bottles or non-dairy milk without the dreaded Tetra-pak is no mean feat! We’ve found the following options:

• Milk on tap or from a vending machine – raw milk is available on tap/from a vending machine at Arran Farm Milk Shop, 174 Taonui Road. Simply BYO bottle to fill up, or purchase a reusable glass bottle there that you can then refill on future occasions.
• Milk delivery in reusable glass bottles: Eketahuna Country Meats do home delivery of milk in reusable glass bottles (just like the old days!) and their delivery route includes Palmerston North/Manawatū – to check out which day they deliver to your area, you’ll need to begin the registration process on their website. You’ll have milk delivered to your door in reusable glass bottles (just like the old days!) – leave your empty bottles out on the next delivery day so they can be returned to Eketahuna Country Meats for sanitisation and refill. YAY!
• Milk powder in bulk bins – available at Bin Inn Feilding – BYO bags/containers.

Look out for places that sell beer on tap and BYO bottles/flagons to fill up. Breweries are awesome, but lots of liquor stores offer this option too! We found beer on tap at:

• Brew Union Fillery, 39-41 Broadway Ave and 78 King St, Palmerston North (you get a discount here if you BYO bottle for beer on tap!).
• Liquorland Pioneer Highway, 752 Pioneer Highway, Palmerston North
• Liquorland College St, 92 College St, Palmerston North
• Liquorland Albert St, 105 Albert Street, Palmerston North
• Liquorland Feilding, 19 Bowen St (behind Feilding Hotel), Feilding
• Big Barrel, 147 High Street, Dannevirke.

Also, don’t forget that most liquor stores do ‘swappa crates’ of beer – i.e. crates of twelve 745ml bottles of classic NZ beer (e.g. Lion Red/Brown, Speights, Tui, Export Gold etc.) which can be returned (when the bottles are empty) and are then sent back to the brewery for sterilisation and refill (a better outcome for glass bottles than recycling because reusing the same bottle over and over requires way less energy and resources than recycling).

• Cocoa/drinking chocolate – available in bulk bins at Be Free Grocer, Square Edge, 47 The Square, Palmerston North.
• Kombucha – available on tap at Be Free Grocer, Square Edge, 47 The Square, Palmerston North; or Organic Buzz, 337 Broadway Ave, Palmerston North. Also available through bottle swap system at Hokowhitu Farmers’ Market.

NB: you can get lots of zero waste alternatives for common kitchen/food packaging items through In My Kitchen excellent business run from Palmerston North by local Shelley Wilson with an online store where you can buy a range of useful products that are essential to zero waste living, many of which are beautifully made by Shelley herself. If you’re local to Palmerston North, you should be able to arrange to pick-up any purchases from Shelley, to save on postage waste.

Reusable drinking vessels (cups and water bottles)

Refills of cleaning products

The following stores stock a range of liquid and/or powdered cleaning products in bulk dispensers that you can fill your own bottles/containers with:

• Be Free Grocer, Square Edge, 47 The Square, Palmerston North – stocks bulk plant-based cleaning products on tap by local company, Little Foot, and Auckland/Northland based-company, Conscious, who both take back the bulk containers to refill once empty (yay!). BYO bottles/containers to fill up.
• Steve’s Wholefoods, 101 Albert St, Palmerston North – huge range of cleaning products in bulk, at affordable prices (FYI, that Steve’s stocks a whole range of liquid cleaning products, but they also stock the powder base from which you can make up liquid products – so much cheaper and less wasteful – all you do is add water when you get home).
• Bin Inn Palmerston North, 688-690 Main Street, Palmerston North.
• Bin Inn Feilding, 85 Kimbolton Road, Feilding
• Petal and Bee Grocers, 68 Main Street, Foxton – stocks bulk plant-based cleaning products on tap by Palmy company, Little Foot, who take back the bulk containers to refill once empty (yay!). BYO bottles/containers to fill up.

Low-waste dishwashing

You can find dishbrushes with wooden handles and removable + replaceable, home compostable heads at Be Free Grocer, Square Edge, 47 The Square, Palmerston North (also stock a coconut fibre bottlebrush,and a handle-less veggie brush which works really well as a pot scrubber too); Steve’s Wholefoods, 101 Albert St, Palmerston North, Steven’s, The Plaza, Palmerston North, Urban Charm, 49 George Street, Palmerston North; Petal and Bee Grocers, 68 Main Street, Foxton; Healthnuts Wholefoods, 26 High Street, Dannevirke and Gifts and Souvenirs, 150 High Street, Dannevirke (also a coconut fibre scrubby and and other organic scrubbing brushes).

Also, you can get wooden veggie brushes with plant fibre bristles which can also be used as dishbrushes (they just don’t have a handle) at Petal and Bee Grocers, 68 Main Street, Foxton – as these are made only of bamboo and plant fibre, they’re home compostable should they ever wear down.

We also encourage people to move away from using dishclothes, sponges and bench wipes made out of synthetic material (as these leach microfibres and they’re also destined for landfill when they wear down) and to use natural fibre cloths instead:

• For something more like a traditional dishcloth sponge, check out the Wet-it! 100% cotton + cellulose dishcloth sponges (home compostable at the end of their life) which are available at Urban Charm, 49 George Street, Palmerston North; Petal and Bee Grocers, 68 Main Street, Foxton; and Gifts and Souvenirs, 150 High Street, Dannevirke.
• Alternatively, find locally made 100% cotton dishcloths at Be Free Grocer, Square Edge, 47 The Square, Palmerston North; and George Street Collective, 44a George Street, Palmerston North (though last we checked they were wrapped in plastic here). This shop showcases a range of very cool locally made clothes and household things, as well as treasures for kids, all made by a collective of local artists. A lot of the items are made from upcycled or natural materials. As they are only selling locally made things, it would be worth asking if they would be willing to forgo their plastic wrapping. They do sell bath bombs unpackaged, though 😉
• Instead of plastic green ones, get scourers made from coconut fibre at Be Free Grocer, Square Edge, 47 The Square, Palmerston North; and Petal and Bee Grocers, 68 Main Street, Foxton.
• Four Square Woodville, 90 Vogel Street, Woodville stocks Kiwi Homes 100% cotton dishcloths.

Laundry

• Eco Planet and Next Generation laundry powder both come in a cardboard box with a cardboard scoop – no plastic lining! You can get one or the other (or both) from Melody’s New World, Corner Broadway Ave and Albert Street, Palmerston North; New World Pioneer, 179-197 Main Street, Palmerston North; PAK’nSAVE Palmerston North, 327 Ferguson Street; New World Foxton, Cnr Whyte Street and Main Street, Foxton; New World Levin, 21 Bath Street, Levin; Four Square Woodville, 90 Vogel Street, Woodville; and New World Dannevirke, Denmark Street, Dannevirke.
• Non-plastic clothes pegs – Bamboo pegs are available at Wholegrain Organics, 134 The Square, Palmerston North. Or, get stainless steel ones at Be Free Grocer, Square Edge, 47 The Square, Palmerston North. Or get both bamboo and stainless steel pegs at Petal and Bee Grocers, 68 Main Street, Foxton.

Ingredients for DIY cleaning products

• Be Free Grocer, Square Edge, 47 The Square, Palmerston North – stock a range of unpackaged ingredients needed for DIY cleaning products, such as baking soda, washing soda, epsom salts, white vinegar and more.
• Baking soda – available unpackaged in bulk bins at Steve’s Wholefoods, 101 Albert St, Palmerston North; Bin Inn Feilding, 85 Kimbolton Road, Feilding; Petal and Bee Grocers, 68 Main Street, Foxton; Healthnuts Wholefoods, 26 High Street, Dannevirke.
• Bars of castile soap, which you can use as a base for homemade dishwashing and laundry liquid (see how it works here) – Piazza Verde sells olive oil soap (aka castile) at the Hokowhitu Farmers Market, Sundays 9am-1pm, 356 Albert Street, Palmerston North. Dr. Bronner’s castile bars are available at Steve’s Wholefoods, 101 Albert St, Palmerston North; and Petal and Bee Grocers, 68 Main Street, Foxton. Also, there are NZ made mini castile bars of soap available at Knit World Levin, 197 Oxford Street, Levin.

NB: you can get lots of zero waste alternatives for common bathroom items through In My Kitchen excellent business run from Palmerston North by local Shelley Wilson with an online store where you can buy a range of useful products that are essential to zero waste living, many of which are beautifully made by Shelley herself. If you’re local to Palmerston North, you should be able to arrange to pick-up any purchases from Shelley, to save on postage waste.

Zero waste teeth and mouth

• Bamboo toothbrushes – a great alternative to plastic toothbrushes because they have wooden, home compostable handles (though bristles are still plastic and need to be removed from the handle and put in a rubbish bin). You can find bamboo toothbrushes at Be Free Grocer, Square Edge, 47 The Square, Palmerston North; Steve’s Wholefoods, 101 Albert St, Palmerston North, Melody’s New World, Corner Broadway Ave and Albert Street, Palmerston North; Wholegrain Organics, 134 The Square, Palmerston North; New World Pioneer, 179-197 Main Street, Palmerston North; Petal and Bee Grocers, 68 Main Street, Foxton; Not So Shabby, 78 Main Street, Foxton; New World Foxton, Cnr Whyte Street and Main Street, Foxton; New World Levin, 21 Bath Street, Levin, Healthnuts Wholefoods, 26 High Street, Dannevirke, and New World Dannevirke, Denmark Street, Dannevirke.
• Floss – Be Free Grocer, Square Edge, 47 The Square; and Urban Charm, 49 George Street, Palmerston North stock Do Gooder floss, which comes in a refillable glass tube with a screw on metal lid. The WHITE floss is made of 100% silk and is home compostable (the black floss has polyester in it so is landfill only). When you run out of the floss, no need to get a new dispenser, both stores also stock refills of the floss in a cardboard box – just pop the refill into your original metal/glass dispenser.
• Toothpaste tabs – Be Free Grocer, Square Edge, 47 The Square, Palmerston North stock these loose/in bulk (both with and without fluoride).

Unpackaged Bars of Soap

It’s easy to get soap without packaging. The following stores sell totally naked bars of soap:

• Be Free Grocer, Square Edge, 47 The Square, Palmerston North
• Steve’s Wholefoods, 101 Albert St, Palmerston North (EcoStore)
• @quisitions, The Plaza, Palmerston North
• Piazza Verde at the Hokowhitu Farmers Market, Sundays 9am-1pm, 356 Albert Street, Palmerston North.
• Kreative Mix NZ, 34 Fergusson Street, Feilding
• Eclectic County, 36 Dundas Road, Sanson
• Scullys Lavender Gift Shop, 104 Bridge Street, Bulls
• Petal and Bee Grocers, 68 Main Street, Foxton
• Go Natural Health, 178 Oxford St, Levin (Global Soap)
• There is the locally (Levin) made Muse Creations soap – just ask and see if you can purchase their soap without the packaging!
• Healthnuts Wholefoods, 26 High Street, Dannevirke

Bars for Shampoo/Shaving/Deodorant/Moisturiser

We’d encourage you to get your everyday toiletries – from shampoo through to shaving soap – in bar form, which means you totally avoid the plastic/aluminium bottles that liquid products usually come in!

• Be Free Grocer, Square Edge, 47 The Square, Palmerston North – stocks a wide range of locally made shampoo and lotion bars. They also stock a range of toiletries, such as deodorant and zinc-based sunscreen which come in 100% cardboard (and thus compostable) packaging or in refillable packaging (simply return the jars when empty and Be Free Grocer sends them back to the supplier for sterilisation and refill).
• Look out for the popular Ethique range, which includes shampoo bars, conditioner bars, shaving bars, deodorant bars, moisturiser bars, etc. (all of Ethique‘s bars come in home compostable packaging). These are available at Unichem Roses Pharmacy, Corner Albert St and Broadway Ave, Palmerston North; and Farmers, The Plaza, Palmerston North.
• Totally Balmy, a Feilding-based business specialising in locally handmade natural skincare, make a variety of shampoo and shaving bars, and are slowly phasing out plastic packaging for a variety of their other products, such as their natural deodorants. Totally Balmy is an online shop, but if you’re local you can opt for “local pickup” at the checkout to avoid the cost and packaging waste of delivery, or else you can select a “plastic-free” delivery option. Their bars are also available at Be Free Grocer, Square Edge, 47 The Square, Palmerston North.
• Petal and Bee Grocers, 68 Main Street, Foxton – stocks a range of shampoo bars by a range of brands.
• Deodorant – find deodorant packaged in home compostable cardboard tubes at Organic Buzz, 337 Broadway Ave, Palmerston North; and Petal and Bee Grocers, 68 Main Street, Foxton.

Reusable Menstrual Products

There are zero waste, low cost alternatives to disposable sanitary items like tampons and pads.

• Menstrual cups – stocked at Melody’s New World, Corner Broadway Ave and Albert Street, Palmerston North; New World Pioneer, 179-197 Main Street, Palmerston North; PAK’nSAVE Palmerston North, 327 Ferguson Street; Petal and Bee Grocers, 68 Main Street, Foxton; New World Foxton, Cnr Whyte Street and Main Street, Foxton; and New World Levin, 21 Bath Street, Levin.
• Reusable, washable pads – check out Whatakrakka Fancy Pads, made by Palmerston North local, Laura – beautiful 100% designer cotton reusable pads with a bamboo fleece core. Other locally made reusable pads are available at Be Free Grocer, Square Edge, 47 The Square, Palmerston North.

Shaving

Avoid plastic shavers that are designed to be disposable and go for 100% metal razors that will last you decades and only require the 100% metal and recyclable blades to be replaced (or sharpened with a leather strop!), and remember to use a bar of shaving soap instead of shaving foam that comes in an aerosol can (see above) – note, you’ll need a shaving brush to make this work. You can buy razors and replacement blades from Klassic Kuts and Beauty, 16 Broadway Avenue, Palmerston North; or Totally Balmy, Feilding (if you’re local, opt for “local pickup” at the checkout of the online shop to avoid the cost and packaging waste of delivery, or else opt for the “plastic-free” delivery option). Shaving brushes are available through Totally Balmy and most pharmacies.

Ingredients for DIY cosmetics/toiletries

• Baking Soda is an essential ingredient in lots of homemade toiletries such as toothpaste and deodorant, as well as a great general cleaner when teamed up with vinegar. You can get it unpackaged in bulk bins from Steve’s Wholefoods, 101 Albert St, Palmerston North; Bin Inn Feilding, 85 Kimbolton Road, Feilding; Petal and Bee Grocers, 68 Main Street, Foxton; and Healthnuts Wholefoods, 26 High Street, Dannevirke.
• Steve’s Wholefoods, 101 Albert St, Palmerston North also stocks bulk cosmetic oils, such as Rosehip Oil, and bulk Witch Hazel, at great prices!
• Refills of essential oils – get locally made Kereru essential oils at Be Free Grocer, Square Edge, 47 The Square, Palmerston North. When your bottle is empty, return it to Be Free and the empties will be taken back by Kereru for sterilisation and reuse!
• Unpackaged beeswax is available at Organic Buzz, 337 Broadway Ave, Palmerston North; Steve’s Wholefoods, 101 Albert St, Palmerston North; and Petal and Bee Grocers, 68 Main Street, Foxton.

Liquid Toiletries on Tap or Toiletries in Refillable Packaging

• Be Free Grocer, Square Edge, 47 The Square, Palmerston North stocks a wide range of locally-made toiletries on tap (BYO bottles!) Furthermore, all cosmetics sold in jars at Be Free Grocer, Square Edge, 47 The Square, Palmerston North can be returned when empty for take-back by the supplier for sterilisation and refill. 
• Kreative Mix NZ, 34 Fergusson Street, FeildingPetal and Bee Grocers, 68 Main Street, Foxton sells a range of locally made cosmetics, which although are packaged, may be able to be supplied without packaging (or in reusable/returnable packaging) if you ask nicely!
•  Petal and Bee Grocers, 68 Main Street, Foxton – stocks Ayurvanna and Kereru skincare products in jars/containers that can be returned for reuse.

Reuse & Recycle

• Food waste and composting – food waste in a bin gets sent to landfill where it breaks down anaerobically, producing methane (a potent greenhouse gas). No! Here are some alternatives:
  • Home composting/worm farms/bokashi – Having a composting, worm farm or bokashi bin system at home is the best and cheapest way to deal with your food scraps. If you’d like help setting one up or working out what system would work best for you, look out for composting workshops that are run periodically by different groups around the region, including RECAP (Ashhurst), Supergrans Manawatū, and Palmerston North City Council’s Eco Design Adviser, Dr. Nelson Lebo! Linking up with your local community garden (see below) is also a great way to pick up some composting skills, or perhaps the community garden compost has space for your food scraps!
  • Edible business food waste – food that is still edible that goes to waste is a crying shame. If you’re a business chucking out food that is still edible but not saleable, get in touch with Just Zilch, 248 Featherston Street, Palmerston North, who rescue and redistribute food otherwise destined for landfill through their Free Store or to NGOs operating throughout the region. Check out their Free Store if you’re low on supplies and struggling to make ends meet. Or, do you have food or toiletries to donate? Apart from taking food from businesses, Just Zilch also takes donations from individuals.
• E-waste – electronic waste is the world’s fastest growing waste stream, with huge environmental implications because of the toxins that can be leached from this waste, but also the loss of incredibly precious resources embedded in these items that are not recovered when the waste is dumped in landfill.
  • Repair – Rather than throwing you broken electronics out – have you considered trying to get them repaired first? You could pay someone to do it or look out for Repair or Fix-it Cafes where experts donate their time to fix people’s broken items for free at a designated repair event (usually run by community centres, churches or councils).
  • Recycle – If your electronics really have given up the ghost, rather than chucking them out, take them to be recycled responsibly. You can do this at Ferguson St Recycling Centre, 545-573 Ferguson St, Palmerston North (see details here); Kawakawa Rd Transfer Station, 125A Kawakawa Road, Feilding; most of the Rangitikei Waste Transfer Stations (see details here); and Foxton Transfer Station and Resource Recovery Park, Harbour Street, Foxton (see details here). For some of these items, you will have to pay to recycle them (until the Government starts to regulate manufacturers of these products), but it’s a small cost relative to damage these items otherwise cause in landfill.
• Reclaimed Timber Traders, 86 Bourke Street, Palmerston North (at the Awapuni Resource Recovery Park) – this amazing organisation rescues and restores timber otherwise destined for landfill. If you need timber or wood for any kind of project, see if you can get some from Reclaimed Timber Traders (RTT) rather than going somewhere like Mitre 1o to buy it brand new. If you’re after furniture or a bespoke wooden item, check out the RTT workshop (as they have lots of secondhand furniture up for grabs), or the goodies that volunteers at RTT have made out of rescued timber, or ask if they’ll make a bespoke item for you out of the rescued timber they’ve got on-hand, on-site. If you’d like to know more about RTT, check out our podcast interview with founder Robert Scott.
• Rosco’s Bulk Yard, 36 Gladstone St, Feilding – offer bulk garden and landscape supplies. They also accept Green Waste!
• Marton Re-Use Drop Off Shop, Marton Transfer Station, King Street, Marton – if you have items you no longer want but are still saleable, bring them to the drop off shop at the Marton Transfer Station rather than chucking them out. If you need new items or bric-a-brac, check out the drop off shop to see if you can find it here first, rather than going straight to buying brand new.
• Refreshed – a creative, funky Levin-based business creating all kinds of products out of various waste materials, for example, using waste perspex and waste window blinds to make items such as jewellery. If you’re keen for some upcycled creations (in pretty impressive, upcycled packaging), check this business out. Also, if you’re a business with a fairly regular type of waste, you might want to get in touch with Refreshed to see if they’d be keen to take this waste from you and develop a product line out of it – win, win!

Zero Waste Information and Support Networks

• Zero Waste Academy – if you are interested in the technical, research side of zero waste, you will be pleased to know that New Zealand’s Zero Waste Academy (ZWA) runs out of Massey University’s Manawatū Campus. The ZWA is currently spearheaded by the formidable Jonathan Hannon.
• In My Kitchen – run from Palmerston North by local Shelley Wilson, In My Kitchen not only features an online store of useful products that are essential to zero waste living, but the Facebook page is a treasure trove of information. Shelley is constantly sharing in-depth and local zero waste tips and tricks on a huge range of low-waste living topics in an accessible, down-to-earth, and fun way!
• Zero Waste Manawatū – a Facebook group dedicated to sharing locally-relevant information about zero waste living, and for people interested in reducing waste in Manawatū to share ideas and support each other.

Share and Exchange

• Toy Libraries – reduce the wasteful over-consumption of toys and save money by joining a toy library! Check out this guide to find the nearest Toy Library to you.
• Food Sharing – getting better at sharing our excess food with each other not only reduces food waste, it also opens up access to unpackaged fruit, vege and other homemade goodies (as nature intended). Levin has some great food sharing systems going, including the Community Fruit & Veg Stand, 49 Gordon Place and The Sharing Shelf, Waiopehu College, where anyone can drop off fruit, vege and other produce, and anyone can take, no questions asked. The local Supergrans have also launched a monthly Crop Swap, every Thursday from 11am-12:30pm at 8 Bath Street, Levin. At a crop swap, individuals who have veges or seedlings they’ve grown, preserves or baking they’ve made (or similar), or even home-made knitting/crochet (etc.) crafts (anything made or grown by your hands), come together once a fortnight or once a month, to trade their offerings without any money changing hands – all free! Just bring something to share and let the swapping begin! Trading homegrown or home created goodies with friends and locals means you can avoid all that packaging that often comes with a store setting. You can also have friendly chats about how to share goods without the waste.

Skills and Resourcefulness in Communities

• Community gardens – there are some really awesome community gardens around Manawatū/Rangitikei/Horowhenua. We were really impressed by the Ashhurst Community Library Garden, set up by RECAP (the Society for the Resilience and Engagement of the Community of Ashhurst and Pohangina), and the Marton Community Garden, set up by Project Marton. Greenheart Hub in Foxton is also developing a community garden with a view to offering workshops too and is keen on volunteers for working bees. At all community gardens anyone is welcome to come down to these gardens and try their hand at gardening and growing food, or to help others to do so (a great way to get food without packaging!) At most gardens you can also learn a thing or two about composting, which helps to reduce the amount of food waste going to landfill. In addition to fruit, veg and herbs, the Ashhurst Community Library Garden is also home to gorgeous flowers planted by local children, which locals are also welcome to pick from (in case you wanted to gift a loved one some flowers, but wanted to avoid all the packaging!!) We totally recommend getting down to your local community garden, helping out, meeting some rad peeps, and getting some kai 😉
• Greenheart Hub, Tote Building, Foxton Racecourse – a wonderful organisation in Foxton that is transforming the Tote building in the Foxton Racecourse into a sustainability centre, aiming to help minimize waste in a creative form, educate in Sustainable Living practices and promote the arts. The hub has already been creating stunning (and functional) creations out of upcycled plastic bags (they need to be seen to be believed), and intends to run workshops that will help with aspects of sustainable living (including zero waste). Also in the pipeline is the creation of a community garden from which to run hands-on horticultural education. This organisation is certainly one to watch and to be involved with if you live in Horowhenua District!
• RECAP (Society for the Resilience and Engagement of the Community of Ashhurst and Pohangina) – a totally inspirational volunteer-run charitable society that runs workshops and services with the aim of building community, caring for the living environment and ecology, and developing new skills and connections to make the region sustainable, resilient and self-reliant. While RECAP focuses on Ashhurst and Pohangina, individuals from further afield are more than welcome to attend and take part in almost all the programmes and activities RECAP runs. RECAP runs many workshops that can help with low-waste living – from preserving and fermenting, through to natural building, soap making and composting. It’s worth perusing their website to see the impressive range of programmes, activities and workshops they run.
• Menzshed – Menzsheds provide a great opportunity for men of all ages to share tools and a workspace (reducing the wasteful overduplication of these resources) and to pass on skills of woodworking and other trades. Menzsheds frequently offer communities the service of repairing broken items like furniture (at a small cost), and also creating bespoke items for community and charitable purposes. Check out this list to find the nearest Menzshed to you.
• Supergrans – living low-waste often requires the development of a whole host of skills that we don’t always get taught anymore – things like cooking from scratch, mending and repairing, and sewing, knitting and crocheting. Skills like budgeting and frugal living also crossover with the zero waste lifestyle. Supergrans is an excellent organisation that transmits many of these skills from older generations to younger ones. This intergenerational sharing of knowledge is so crucial for low-waste, savvy living. There are Supergran branches in both Levin and Palmerston North, both running excellent programmes and workshops on topics that are very relevant to low-waste living – definitely check them out!