This guide covers Christchurch City and Banks Peninsula only. For the rest of the Canterbury region, please click here.
Christchurch is simply amazing for zero waste living. We’ve dubbed it the Zero Waste Capital of New Zealand. Apart from the impressive array of stores and businesses offering consumers low-waste options for food, drink, bathroom and cleaning products, there are just so many community organisations and initiatives supporting the people of Christchurch to reduce waste through projects that focus on resourcefulness, resilience and creativity. We were thoroughly impressed and inspired and believe that all cities in New Zealand should have a look at what’s going on in Christchurch!
As there are just so many low-waste shopping options in Christchurch, we’ve divided the guide into FIVE geographical parts. Click on the area that’s relevant to you, although note that more than one area may be relevant (the boundaries are a bit arbitrary!), so you may wish to click between them 🙂
10 Comments
Hello, to you two wonderful people. Great that you have put all this together. And I thought that Raglan was the capital – silly me. Just one thing about compostable cups. I get some used ones from a Lyttelton outlet, and use them as seed pots. Once the seedling is ready to plant, I put it, cup and all into the ground, after slashing the cup a little to allow root growth while it is composting. By harvest time there is no trace of the cup. Could we persuade plant shops to use these instead of their plastic ones? Happy travelling.
Great idea, Juliet! I wonder if plant shops even know this is a possibility??
Spring Collective also offers gorgeous veggie boxes ?
Thanks! Are you able to confirm whether they are low-waste or not?
Thank-you for making this! It’s very helpful and I like being able to share it with people who ask me where to get things.
I can’t find Piko on here. They’re great for stocking up on bulk foods.
Thanks Annie! Yes it’s handy to have a resource to share around 🙂
Piko is on there (definitely would have been a grave oversight if we had missed them off as we love Piko and, as you note, they have a very impressive range of zero waste living options). You’ll find them in the Central Christchurch guide, very near the top of the list.
Thanks!
H and L
I would also like to add that the university of Canterbury has “free tables” at there library where you can drop off items for someone else to pick up for free
Awesome! Thank you!
The link to Reused bags website is not working. I also saw this advertised at Okains Bay over summer but I can’t remember the exact name to search on Facebook. Can you let me know if their website has moved, or what name they go by?
Hi Rachel, Ah yes I think this needs to be updated. I believe that the person behind ReUsed now runs zero waste online store The Zephyr Co. (https://thezephyrco.com/). We’ll update this accordingly. It’s possible that the group you saw advertised over summer could be a different group using upcycled materials to make bags.