Zero Waste in Rotorua District

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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!

• The Meat Shoppe, 1294 Tutanekai Street, Rotorua
• Te Arawa Fresh Seafood, 271 Te Ngae Road, Redwood Centre, Rotorua
• Te Ngae Fish Supply, Te Ngae Shopping Centre, Owhata, Rotorua
• Redwood Butchery, 5 Tarawera Road, Redwood Shopping Centre – although the meat that is visible in the deli is all pre-packaged, if you BYO a container and ask nicely, this butcher will happily take your container out back and fill it with your order from the unpackaged meat out back.
• Unpackaged live mussels – there are a few stores in the area 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 New World Westend, 247 Old Taupo Road, Hillcrest, Rotorua; PAK’nSAVE Rotorua, Corner Fenton & Amohau Streets, Rotorua
• BYO containers to 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).

• Vetro Mediterranean Foods, 1131 Amohau Street, Rotorua – stocks unmpackaged loaves of Bread Asylum every Friday.
• Ciabatta Cafe, 38 White Street, Rotorua
• Guidough’s Bakery – two locations: 53/2 Springfield Road, Springfield; and 139 Ranolf Street, Glenholme
• Pantry d’Or Boutique Bakery, 201 Ranolf Street, Rotorua
• Baker’s Kitchen, 1291 Tutanekai Street, Rotorua
• Patrick’s Boutique Bakery, 49 Lake Road, Rotorua
• Malfroy Bakery, 176 Malfroy Road, Rotorua
• La Bonne Bakery & Cafe, 4 Tarawera Road, Rotorua
• Express Bakehouse, Te Ngae Shopping Centre, Rotorua
• Okere Falls Store, 757a State Highway 33, Okere Falls – stocks unpackaged loaves of bread from Bread Asylum on Fridays
• 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. One such place to which you can BYO bags and containers is the Rotorua Farmers’ Market, Te Manawa, Rotorua, on Sundays. For example, you can get unpackaged, locally grown organic produce from Lux Organics who provide most of their produce unpackaged. While they package their salad and micro greens, they also provide the option for their customers to get these items unpackaged too, if you BYO box or bag. They are also working on sourcing a truly home compostable bag for their salad and micro greens too. The Hungarian Artisan Co stocks their delicious artisan sausages, available unpackaged if you want to pop one in your BYO bag/container. If you’re hungry at the market, you can also stop by the Tea and Happiness food truck – they’re more than happy to put their delicious food to order straight into your BYO takeaway container. Yay!
• Trade Aid – Trade Aid’s 1.5kg sugar bags are also great for upcycling as bulk bin bags and when they start to fall apart you can home compost them. Trade Aid’s coconut oil is one of the few on the market that does not have a plastic seal around the lid and the size of the jar is fabulous for upcycling for homemade cosmetics etc. You can get these goods at Trade Aid, 1285 Tutanekai Street, Rotorua.
• Okere Falls Store, 757a State Highway 33, Okere Falls- come up to the counter with your own bags/containers to take advantage of the loose chocolate and candy.

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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 unpackaged coffee in other stores (which usually have in-store grinders also). Here are the spots we found that offer these options:

• Mourea Coffee, 385 State Highway 33, Mourea, Rotorua – an awesome coffee roastery keen to reduce their environmental footprint in many ways. They deliver coffee (on a cargo bike!) in upcycled glass jars, which you can leave out on your next order so they can be sterilised and reused – brilliant!
• BREW, Eat Street (1103 Tutanekai Street) are happy to put unpackaged beans/ground coffee straight into your own containers (yes, they roast coffee as well as brewing beer!).
• Bin Inn Rotorua (Redwood), 5/11a Tarawera Road, Redwood Centre, Rotorua. 

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:

• Spice World, 1155 Amohau Street, Rotorua
• Bell‘s loose leaf tea is packaged in 100% paper and cardboard and is readily available in most supermarkets, Four Squares and dairies.

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 – Jersey Girls Organic milk is available on tap at Okere Falls Store, 757a State Highway 33, Okere Falls. Another local milk producer, Volcanic Creamery, is gearing up to provide milk in reusable glass bottles by mid-2021 – keep an eye out!
• Milk powder in bulk bins – available at Bin Inn Rotorua (Redwood), 5/11a Tarawera Road, Redwood Centre, Rotorua, and Moshim’s Rotorua, 1197 Amohau Street, Rotorua

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, Eat Street, Rotorua – the home of Crouchers craft beer
• Liquor King, 244 Fenton Street, Rotorua.
• Good Eastern Taphouse, 279 Te Ngae Road, Lynmore, Rotorua – Good George on tap.

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).

• Drinking chocolate/cocoa – available in bulk bins at Bin Inn Rotorua (Redwood), 5/11a Tarawera Road, Redwood Centre, Rotorua.

Reusable drinking vessels (cups and water bottles)

Refills of cleaning products

The following stores stock powdered and/or liquid cleaning products in bulk dispensers – BYO bottles/containers!

• Bin Inn Rotorua (Redwood), 5/11a Tarawera Road, Redwood Centre, Rotorua – (chemical and Ecostore)
• Okere Falls Store, 757a State Highway 33, Okere Falls – (Ecostore dishwashing liquid)

Low-waste dishwashing

• Find dishbrushes with wooden handles and removable + replaceable, home compostable heads at The Health Shop, Rotorua, 1184 Eruera Street, Rotorua; The Living Room Collective, 1131 Amohau Street, Rotorua; and Stevens, 1241 Tutanekai Street, Rotorua.
• Home compostable veggie brushes (which you can use as a handle-less dishbrush)are sold at Capers Epicurean, 1181 Eruera Street, Rotorua; Bin Inn Rotorua (Redwood), 5/11a Tarawera Road, Redwood Centre, Rotorua; and 
• 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:
  • Get hand knitted 100% cotton dishcloths made by Unni at the Rotorua Farmers’ Market, Te Manawa, Rotorua; or by local business Sage Makery at Brown Owl Organics, 197 Ranolf Street, Glenholme 
  • Knit/crochet your own! Cottage Flair, 1127 Fenton Street, Rotorua stocks 100% organic cotton yarn.
  • Or buy various 100% natural fibre dishcloths at The Living Room Collective, 1131 Amohau Street, Rotorua.

Laundry

• Eco Planet and Earthwise laundry powder both come in a cardboard box with a cardboard scoop – no plastic lining! You can get one or both fromPAK’nSAVE Rotorua, Corner Fenton & Amohau Streets, Rotorua; and New World Westend, 247 Old Taupo Road, Hillcrest, Rotorua.
• If you can find a suitable dishwash soap bar, you can get those old school metal soapshakers from Sulphur City Soapery, 1240 Eruera Street, Rotorua
• Alternatives to plastic clothes pegs – Bin Inn Rotorua (Redwood), 5/11a Tarawera Road, Redwood Centre, Rotorua and The Health Shop, Rotorua, 1184 Eruera Street, Rotorua stock Go Bamboo bamboo clothes pegs. The Living Room Collective, 1131 Amohau Street, Rotorua – stocks Bento Ninja stainless steel clothes pegs. Okere Falls Store, 757a State Highway 33, Okere Falls stocks both of these two brands (ie bamboo and stainless steel).

Ingredients for DIY cleaning products

• Baking soda is available in bulk bins at Bin Inn Rotorua (Redwood), 5/11a Tarawera Road, Redwood Centre, Rotorua; and Moshim’s Rotorua, 1197 Amohau Street, Rotorua.
• Bars of Dr. Bronner’s castile soap, which you can use as a base for homemade dishwashing and laundry liquid (see how it works here), are available at The Health Shop, Rotorua, 1184 Eruera Street, and Health 2000, 1211 Tutanekai Street, Rotorua.

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 PAK’nSAVE Rotorua, Corner Fenton & Amohau Streets, Rotorua; Bin Inn Rotorua (Redwood), 5/11a Tarawera Road, Redwood Centre, Rotorua; The Health Shop Rotorua, 1184 Eruera Street, Rotorua; Sulphur City Soapery, 1240 Eruera Street, Rotorua; New World Westend, 247 Old Taupo Road, Hillcrest, Rotorua; Capers Epicurean, 1181 Eruera Street, Rotorua; The Living Room Collective, 1131 Amohau Street, Rotorua; and Okere Falls Store, 757a State Highway 33, Okere Falls.

Unpackaged Bars of Soap

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

• Sulphur City Soapery, 1240 Eruera Street, Rotorua
• Bin Inn Rotorua (Redwood), 5/11a Tarawera Road, Redwood Centre, Rotorua – locally made by Wishin’ Tree
• Living Colour Florist, 1197 Eruera Street, Rotorua
• Simply Different, 1199 Tutanekai Street, Rotorua
• Portico Gallery, 1157 Pukuatua Street, Rotorua
• NZ Soap and Candle, 94 Pururu Street, Rotorua
• The Living Room Collective, 1131 Amohau Street, Rotorua
• Brown Owl Organics, 197 Ranolf Street, Glenholme
• Okere Falls Store, 757a State Highway 33, Okere Falls

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!

• A couple of places stock 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): Farmers Rotorua, Central Mall, Cnr Amohau and Amohia Sreets; and Okere Falls Store, 757a State Highway 33, Okere Falls
• Sulphur City Soapery, 1240 Eruera Street, Rotorua – stocks in-house made shampoo and conditioner bars!
• Portico Gallery, 1157 Pukuatua Street, Rotorua stocks Wouldn’t Know ’em From a Bar of Soap shaving bars and activated charcoal facial cleansing bars.
• Get Fair + Square toiletries bars at The Living Room Collective, 1131 Amohau Street, Rotorua.
• Get unpackaged toiletries bars and also products like lip balm in compostable cardboard tubes from Brown Owl Organics, 197 Ranolf Street, Glenholme; and The Health Shop, Rotorua, 1184 Eruera Street, Rotorua.

Reusable Menstrual Products

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

• Menstrual cups – stocked at Bin Inn Rotorua (Redwood), 5/11a Tarawera Road, Redwood Centre, Rotorua; The Health Shop Rotorua, 1184 Eruera Street, Rotorua; Te Ngae Pharmacy, 5 Tarawera Road, Rotorua; and Unichem Central Pharmacy Rotorua, 1181 Amohia Street, Rotorua.

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). Get safety razors and blades at Wilson’s Barber Shop, 1126 Pukuatua Street, Rotorua.

Ingredients for DIY cosmetics/toiletries

• Baking Soda is an essential ingredient in lots of homemade toiletries such as toothpaste and deodorant. You can get it unpackaged in bulk from Bin Inn Rotorua (Redwood), 5/11a Tarawera Road, Redwood Centre, Rotorua; and Moshim’s Rotorua, 1197 Amohau Street, Rotorua.
• Unpackaged epsom salts available at Moshim’s Rotorua, 1197 Amohau Street, Rotorua.

Other

• Cotton Buds – Go Bamboo makes home compostable buds so you can avoid the single-use, unrecyclable plastic ones. Get them from Bin Inn Rotorua (Redwood), 5/11a Tarawera Road, Redwood Centre, Rotorua; The Health Shop Rotorua, 1184 Eruera Street, Rotorua.
• Get bath salts into your own jar at Sulphur City Soapery, 1240 Eruera Street, Rotorua

• Food waste – food waste and scraps going to landfill not only produces methane, but also represents the loss of an excellent resource that could be turned into compost to enrich our soil, or, if the discarded food was still edible, the loss of perfectly good food that could go to someone that wants to eat it! If you would like to set up your own home compost, worm farm or bokashi system, but aren’t sure where to start, consider linking up with your local community garden (see below), which is a great way to pick up some composting skills, or perhaps the community garden compost has space for your food scraps! If you’re struggling to set up a system in your own home, or if you have space in your compost for others, check out Sharewaste, New Zealand’s nationwide website linking up people with composts with those who don’t! If you’re a business chucking out food that is still edible but not saleable, get in touch with Rotorua Whakaora, who rescue and redistribute food otherwise destined for landfill to people who need it throughout Rotorua City. 
• 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. 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). 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 the Recycling Centre, 24 Te Ngae Road, Rotorua. 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.
• Para Kore – Para Kore is an amazing organisation working with marae, kura and Māori institutions and businesses to transition towards zero waste. Their resources/services are free and their regional kaiārahi are totally fabulous. Para Kore’s Kaiārahi for Rotorua is Harina Rupapera – if you’re keen for some awhi with waste reduction, she’d be stoked to hear from you 🙂
• Food growing, sharing and community gardens – getting set up to grow some of your own kai is a great way of getting good food without packaging. Kai Rotorua has a great kaupapa and is well worth checking out. Community gardens are another excellent way for to learn skills of growing food and setting up composts, and it works well if you have limited space where you live to set up a māra. There are some great community gardens around Rotorua. For example, check out Hannah’s Bay Organic Community Garden. Community gardens are always looking for volunteers to help out and come along to working bees, so if you are interested in picking up gardening skills, or if you are already a keen gardener and would like to have the opportunity to share your skill with others, consider getting involved with your local community garden. Also, if you’ve got a fruit tree or vege garden at home that’s producing excess food, check out Rotorua’s branch of Community Fruit Harvesting that picks excess fruit from backyards and orchards around NZ and redistributes it to those in need!
• Menzshed/The DIY Shed/Community Sheds– Rotorua has some great community shed options where people of all ages get together to share tools and a workspace (reducing the wasteful overduplication of these resources) to learn and pass on skills of woodworking and other trades. Community sheds frequently offer communities the service of repairing broken items like furniture (at a small cost), work with upcycled material that might otherwise go to waste, and also create bespoke items for community and charitable purposes. Definitely look up your local! In Rotorua there’s a Menzshed AND the gender inclusive DIY Shed – woohoo!