Zero Waste in Southland

.

.

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!

• Goodmeats Butchery, 28 Huron Street, Gore
• Gore Meat Processors, corner of Richmond & Irwell Streets, Gore
• Churchy’s Quality Meats, 84 Broughton Street, Gore
• Mataura Butcher Shop, 30 Bridge Street, Mataura
• Uppercuts Butchery, 166 Florence Road, Winton
• Mighty Meats, 50 Centre Street, South Invercargill
• Kings Ocean Fresh Fish, 59 Ythan Street, Invercargill – lots of unpackaged seafood. Happy to put in BYO containers
• Riverton Butchery Limited, 5 Jetty Street, Riverton – while all the meat that you see when you walk into this store is packaged, you can ask the butcher to put unpackaged cuts of meat from out the back into your own containers (or ask in advance for cuts to be left aside for you, unpackaged, to pick up with your own containers).
• 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 Southern Seafood Products, 133 Clyde Street, South Invercargill and FreshChoice, 5 Milford Crescent, Te Anau.
• Supermarket delis – Most supermarkets have a deli section offering unpackaged meat, seafood, olives and other antipasti, salads, lunch foods and more. All Countdown supermarkets officially allow you to BYO container for these goods! Watch this space for New World and PAK’nSAVE extending this practice to the South Island also… Supermarkets with delis: New World Gore, 2-8 Irk Street, Countdown Gore, 24 Medway Street, New World Winton, 293 Great North Road, Winton, New World Windsor, 51 Windsor Street, Windsor, PAK’nSAVE, 95 Tay Street, Invercargill, Super Value Invercargill, 103 Yarrow Street, Invercargill, New World Elles Road, 244 Elles Road, South Invercargill.

---

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).

• Colonial Bakery, 25 Gala Street, North Invercargill
• Southern Farmers Market, Southland Masonic Centre, 80 Forth Street, Invercargill
• Waipiti Bakery & Cafe, 2 The Lane, Te Anau – although this bakery pre-packs all its loaves of bread that go on the shelves, if you go in and ask the day before, they are happy to set aside a loaf for you, unpackaged, which you can pick up the next day and put straight into your BYO bag.
• The following supermarkets stock unpackaged bread and/or bakery goods, just BYO bags: New World Gore, 2-8 Irk Street, Gore, New world Winton, 293 Great North Road, Winton, New World Elles Road, 244 Elles Road, South Invercargill, New World Windsor, 51 Windsor Street, Windsor (rolls and other bakery goods only, no loaves), PAK’nSAVE, 95 Tay Street, Invercargill (unpackaged bread loaves, rolls and bakery goods), Super Value Invercargill, 103 Yarrow Street, Invercargill (no bread, only bakery goods), FreshChoice, 5 Milford Crescent, Te Anau and Four Square Te Anau, 30 Town Centre, Te Anau (unpackaged bread rolls and some bakery goods, no loaves).

---

• 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. 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 the following: Hokonui Community Market, St Andrews Presbyterian Church Hall, Corner of Ardwick and Devon Streets, Gore; Winton Community Market, Winton Presbyterian Church, 11 Meldrum Street, Winton; Southern Farmers Market, Southland Masonic Centre, 80 Forth Street, Invercargill; Te Anau Community Market, 20-22 Luxmore Drive, Te Anau
• Trade Aid – Trade Aid‘s 1.5kg sugar bags are also great for upcycling as bulk bin bags, and are home compostable once 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. Get both these products at Orphan’s Aid Opshop, 106 Spey Street, Invercargill, just the coconut oil at ComplEat Wellness, 24 Windsor Street, Windsor, Invercargill, or just the sugar at Holistic Health, 29 Kelvin Street, Invercargill.

---

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:

• Roar Coffee, 6 Hill Road, Lumsden
• You can get Roar Coffee beans put straight into a BYO container from One Chef Kitchen, 5 Main Street, Gore – they will pour the amount you want into your own container from a larger bag (so it’s not entirely zero waste, but it is less waste overall).
• Broughton Street Discounter, 82 Broughton Street, Gore, where they also have a grinder.
• Wwe heard through the grapevine that you can get coffee beans loose/unpackaged from a bulk bin at Super Value Invercargill, 103 Yarrow Street, Invercargill – go and check it out for yourself if you live in Invercargill (and if it’s true, let us know so we can confirm for sure here!)

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:

• The Pantry, 133 Grace Street, South Invercargill.
• Bell‘s loose leaf tea is packaged only in paper and cardboard (no plastic) 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 – TWO options:
  • Henderson’s Dairy raw milk is available on tap from a vending machine at their farm just 10 minutes drive out of Gore. Simply BYO bottle to fill up, or purchase a reusable glass bottle there that you can then refill on future occasions.
  • Farm Fresh South raw milk is available on tap from a vending machine at their farm in Woodlands. 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 – THREE options to have raw 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 the company for sterilisation and refill (click on the companies to see details about their delivery routes):
  • Henderson’s Dairy
  • Farm Fresh South
  • Go 2 Raw Milk
• Return & Refill glass bottle scheme – two options: Henderson’s Dairy sells milk in reusable glass bottles at the Hokonui Community Market, St Andrews Presbyterian Church Hall, Corner of Ardwick and Devon Streets, Gore; and Windy Ridge Farm milk at Lumsden Lotto & Dairy, 141 Flora Road, Lumsden. The first time you buy a bottle of milk, you pay a little extra to cover the cost of the bottle and to ensure that you return it when you’re done. Return empty bottles the next time you visit the Market, and exchange it for a full bottle for only the price of the milk (or else get your deposit back). The empties are taken back by Henderson’s Dairy for sterilisation and reuse – so the bottles just go around and around – true zero waste!
• Milk powder in bulk bins – available at Broughton Street Discounter, 82 Broughton Street, Gore and The Pantry, 133 Grace Street, South Invercargill.
• Non-dairy mylk options: If you’re into non-dairy milk and want to avoid non-recyclable TetraPaks, there are a couple of options in Invercargill: The Pantry stocks coconut milk powder (something we haven’t seen before!), and ComplEat Wellness, 24 Windsor Street, Windsor stocks Vigour & Vitality Mylk, which comes in a glass jar – it’s a butter which you add to water to make into non-dairy milk. There are many different options available, from coconut through to hemp and a special barista blend.

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:

• Super Liquor Gore, 225 Main South Road, Gore (also does cider)
• Super Liquor Winton, 232 Great North Road, Winton
• Woodlands Tavern, 3 Wyeth Road, Woodlands
• Super Liquor Collingwood, 44 North Road, Invercargill
• Liquorland Centrepoint, 252 Dee Street, Invercargill
• Super Liquor Southland, 406 Elles Road, South Invercargill
• East End Liquor, 12 Bamborough Street, Invercargill (which also has craft beer on tap such as Emerson’s, Tuatara, Panhead, Garage Project)
• The Riverton Lodge Hotel, 57 Princess Street, Riverton
• Thirsty Liquor Tuatapere, 2 McFeely Street, Tuatapere.

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 – Broughton Street Discounter, 82 Broughton Street, Gore stocks unpackaged/loose drinking chocolate, and The Pantry, 133 Grace Street, South Invercargill stocks unpackaged drinking chocolate, cocoa powder and raw organic cacao powder in bulk.

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:

• Broughton Street Discounter, 82 Broughton Street, Gore
• The Pantry, 133 Grace Street, South Invercargill

Low-waste dishwashing

You can find dishbrushes with wooden handles and removable + replaceable, home compostable heads at Windsor Health, 63 Bourke Street, Invercargill, ComplEat Wellness, 24 Windsor Street, Windsor, Invercargill, Steven’s, 150 Dee Street, Invercargill and at the Riverton Environment Centre, 154 Palmerston Street, Riverton (who also stock Go Bamboo home compostable veggie brushes which can also be used as dishbrushes).

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 100% cotton dishcloths at Super Value Invercargill, 103 Yarrow Street, Invercargill; and H & J Smith Invercargill, 66/74 Tay Street, Invercargill.
• The fancy Bianca Lorenne cotton dishcloths are stocked at Woodstock on Windsor, 20 Windsor St, Windsor, Invercargill
• Get your hands on truly beautiful, locally knitted, 100% cotton dishcloths from the Riverton Environment Centre, 154 Palmerston Street, Riverton.
• If you’re wanting to try your own hand at knitting/crocheting dishcloths, Wool World, 124 Dee Street, Invercargill sells organic fair trade cotton and other natural fibre yarn blends, and Fiordland House, 3 Town Centre, Te Anau also sells natural fibre yarns (avoid cotton blends because these have synthetics in them, i.e. will leach plastic microfibres).

Laundry

• Eco Planet laundry powder comes in a cardboard box with a cardboard scoop – no plastic lining! You can get it from New World Gore, 2-8 Irk Street, Gore; New World Winton, 293 Great North Road, Winton; New World Windsor, 51 Windsor Street, Windsor, Invercargill; and New World Elles Road, 244 Elles Road, South Invercargill.
• Soapnuts – natural nut shells that release saponin (like soap) in water and can be used for laundry. Once spent, the shells can be composted. Inspire Te Anau, 1 The Lane, Te Anau stocks That Red House soapnuts, which come in a cotton bag lined with brown paper (no plastic).
• Non-plastic clothes pegs – Go Bamboo pegs available at New World Windsor, 51 Windsor Street, Windsor, Invercargill

Ingredients for DIY Cleaning Products

• Baking soda/white vinegar/washing soda/epsom salts/borax etc – some or all of these ingredients are available unpackaged in bulk dispensers at Broughton Street Discounter, 82 Broughton Street, Gore; The Pantry, 133 Grace Street, South Invercargill; and Riverton Environment Centre, 154 Palmerston Street, Riverton (packed into brown paper bags).
• Bars of castile soap, which you can use as a base for homemade dishwashing and laundry liquid (see how it works here) – ComplEat Wellness, 24 Windsor Street, Invercargill stocks bars of both Dr Bronner’s and Global Soap castille soap (Global Soap is Nelson-based, so much more local than USA-made Dr Bronner’s!). Windsor Health, 63 Bourke Street, Invercargill also sells bulk soap flakes which can be used in a similar way as castile soap.

Shaving 

Liquid Toiletries on Tap

Reuse and 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 the best system would be for you, WasteNet, a service run by Southland’s three district councils, has some great info in the Home and Garden section of their site, to get you started. If you’re near Riverton, the South Coast Environment Society also runs semi-regular workshops on topics like composting, so keep an eye out! 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! If you want something super simple, a bokashi bin may be for you – look out for places you can buy these around Southland (we saw them available at The Pantry, 133 Grace Street, South Invercargill and Riverton Environment Centre, 154 Palmerston Street, Riverton).
  • Edible business food waste – food that is still edible that goes to waste is a crying shame. If you’re an Invercargill-based business chucking out food that is still edible but not saleable, you can get in touch with Food Rescue – a volunteer-run, non-profit organisation that takes from businesses edible food that would otherwise go to waste, and redistributes it to agencies who pass it on to people who need it.
• 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 Southland DisAbility Enterprises, which accepts a wide range of electronics for recycling. This recycling service will come at a cost to you (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.
• The Orange Pages – this is a waste directory run by WasteNet (the joint Southland region district councils’ waste service). If you’ve got a waste item that you are unsure what to do with, or how to avoid in the future, look it up on this A-Z directory for some pretty thorough, localised information! You’ll also find handy tips and tricks for managing and minimising your waste on the WasteNet website.
• The Garage Re-Use Shop, 303 Bond Street, Invercargill – an excellent re-use shop by the Invercargill Transfer Station, operated by Habitat for Humanity. If you have household items, timber, furniture, scrap metals, tools, or similar items that you no longer want that might still be usable, see if you can drop them off at The Garage rather than chucking them out! The range of things the community can drop-off makes The Garage a GREAT place to get your magpie on and scavenge some real treasures – you can find some choice secondhand items rather than buying them new. If you’re wanting a new appliance or gadget, new toys or bikes, or if you’re undertaking a craft, building or home maker project and need some wood off-cuts, scrap metal, bolts, nuts etc, go to The Garage before you go anywhere else – you’ll be amazed at what you can find, at super low prices.

Zero Waste Information and Support Networks

• South Alive, Shop 6, South City Mall, South Invercargill – what an amazing initiative South Alive is – a community-led urban rejuvenation project that has revitalised South Invercargill. South Alive supports the local community to develop initiatives that are important to them. Turns out several of these touch on waste and/or waste avoidance. The Pantry is the commercial arm of South Alive, which is in itself incredible for wast reduction, but South Alive has also organised sewing bees to create reusable shopping bags out of upcycled fabric for the store (and they’re always looking for volunteers for this, so get your sew on!) South Alive also run a community garden (see below), and their Zero Rubbish initiative, which is all about locals picking an area of South Invercargill that they’d like to take responsibility for keeping free of rubbish!
• Rakiura Hummingbirds – a wonderful group of Stewart Island locals who are working together to reduce waste in the Rakiura/Stewart Island community. One of the things they’re working on is improving the second hand goods shop at the island’s transfer station. They’ve also set up one of the most successful Boomerang Bags initiatives we’ve seen (because their bags actually boomerang back to the local Four Square rather than going on permanent walkabouts – woah!). If you live on Rakiura and are keen on reducing waste, check this group out, they’re always keen for new members!
• Riverton Environment Centre/South Coast Environment Society (SCES) – a total taonga in the Riverton community. The Riverton Environment Centre is not only home to the Riverton Organic Food Co-op, it’s a total hub for info about sustainable living, much of it related to waste reduction. For example, the South Coast Environment Society runs regular workshops, including the Living Lightly workshop series, which cover topics like homemade skin care/cleaning products, upcycling, and how to use baking soda (a zero waste essential).

Share and Exchange

• Crop Swap Invercargill, currently running on the second Saturday of the month at The Pod, 133 Grace Street, South Invercargill (behind The Pantry), but check the Facebook page for more up to date information – 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.
• 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 in Southland – there are a few, including a really amazing one at the Gore Kids Hub!
• Murihiku Time Exchange – There’s a timebank in Invercargill, yay! Through timebanking you can share skills and services without the exchange of money, making it a great way to reduce waste on a budget because you can harness skills of creating and repairing that exist in your community (repairing broken clothes or electronics, for example), or having someone pass these skills on to you (how to garden, how to build). Perhaps you have some of these skills already that you could pass on to someone else for time credits? Wellington’s Timebank is thriving and well worth getting involved with, if you aren’t already!

Skills and Resourcefulness in Communities

• Community gardens – community gardens are an excellent way for residents to get kai without packaging, and to learn skills of growing food and setting up composts – both very useful skills for low-waste living. There are several community gardens dotted around the region, including Mataura Community Gardens; Winton Community Garden; Great North Road by the Mitre 10; South Alive Community Gardens, 262 Ness Street, South Invercargill; Stewart Island/Rakiura Community Gardens, Argyle Street, Stewart Island; Tuatapere Community Gardens. 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.
• Riverton Environment Centre/South Coast Environment Society (SCES) – SCES also runs the Open Orchard Project (which maps and replants heritage fruit trees across Southland – increasing the region’s food resilience and access to nutritious (unpackaged) food), and created and manages the Riverton Community Forest Garden, inspired and driven by the Guytons who have their own incredible (and legendary) food forest at their home in Riverton. By spreading information about food forests, the Guytons and SCES help to show the importance of food resilience, and demonstrate how we can grow foods in less labour intensive ways! Ultimately, the more food we can grow at home and in communities, the less of our food that needs to travel long distances or come to us in packets.
• 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.