Zero Waste in Taupō 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!

• M21 Meats, Spa Gate Shopping Centre, 25 Paora Hapi Street, Taupō
• Lakeside Meats, 63 Rifle Range Road, Taupō
• Farmers Discount Meats, corner Taharepa and Rifle Range Roads, Taupō
• Spa Gate Fish & Chips and Fresh Seafood Market, Spa Gate Shopping Centre, 21 Paora Hapi Street, Taupō
• PAK’nSAVE Taupō, between Paora Hapi and Ruapehu Streets – sells self-serve whole fish, so try your luck with 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 PAK’nSAVE Taupō, between Paora Hapi and Ruapehu Streets; Countdown Taupō, corner Spa Road & Tongariro Street, New World Tūrangi, 19 Ohuanga Road, Turangi.
• 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).

• Baker’s Delight, Spa Gate Shopping Centre, 19 Paora Hapi Street, Taupō
• Brumby’s Bakery, 26 Heuheu Street, Taupō
• Rangatira Bakery, Rangatira Shopping Centre, 2 Mansell Road, Taupō
• 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. 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. BYO bags to get fresh produce and more from The Taupō Market, Redoubt Street on Saturdays.
• Trade Aid, 44 Heuheu Street, Taupō – Trade Aid’s 1.5kg sugar bags are also great for upcycling as bulk bin bags, and are compostable also 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.

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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:

• Bubu Coffee, Rangatira Shopping Centre, Mansell Road, Taupō.
• Volcanic Coffee – THREE options: 
  • Go to the grindhouse itself (20 Otupai Street) – if you choose this option, just call up beforehand and check that Jimmy the owner is in when you want to pick-up
  • Stop by Volcanic Coffee’s stall at the Saturday Taupō market with your own bag/container
  • Get Volcanic Coffee’s certified organic beans any day of the week from bulk dispensers at Bin Inn Taupō, Spa Gate Shopping Centre, 27 Paora Hapi Street. 
• The Source Bulk Foods, 41 Paora Hapi Street, Taupō

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 Source Bulk Foods, 41 Paora Hapi Street, Taupō
• Bell loose leaf tea is packaged in 100% paper/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:

• Uh-oh! We didn’t find any options! Did we miss anything?

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:

• Crafty Trout Brewing Co, 131-135 Tongariro Street, Taupō
• Liquor King, 88 Roberts Street, Taupō.

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 – get cocoa and/or drinking chocolate in bulk from Bin Inn Taupō, Spa Gate Shopping Centre, 27 Paora Hapi Street. 
• Kombucha – you’ll find kombucha on tap at The Source Bulk Foods, 41 Paora Hapi Street, Taupō.

There are heaps of places to buy reusable takeaway coffee cups:

• Find the Keep Cup brand at Replete Cafe and Store, 45 Heuheu Street, Taupō and Rafting New Zealand, 41 Ngawaka Place, Tūrangi.
• rCup is sold at The Eye of a Needle, corner of Gascoigne and Tamamutu Streets, Taupō
• Find glass SoL Cup at Eko, 20 Heuheu Street and Collaboration, 9 Heuheu Street (who also sell beautiful ceramic travel mugs)
• Stainless steel cups are sold at The Source Bulk Foods, 41 Paora Hapi Street, Taupō
• Chef’s Compliments, 11 Gascoigne Street, Taupō – stocks a range of reusable cups, including Keep Cup, Oasis Eco Cup, and Avanti Go Mug
• SpaceCraft, Suncourt Plaza, Shop 3, 19 Tamamutu Street – also stocks cups by JOCO and Frank Green.
• Don’t have a reusable cup, don’t want to buy one, or have one and forgot it? Throughout Taupō District you can make use of the OneCup scheme, which many cafes are signed up to! It’s basically a reusable takeaway coffee cup system – pay a small $2 deposit for the reusable cup when you purchase your coffee and then return the cup to any participating cafe whenever you have a mo, to get your deposit back or to get another takeaway coffee in another OneCup. Yay!

Reusable lunch boxes/containers

Reusable lunch boxes or containers are great to have on you when you’re out and about in case you want to get takeaways, to carry leftovers home with you, or if you find food to forage. You can get BeetBox glass containers (metal lid) at Chef’s Compliments, 11 Gascoigne Street, Taupō; and self-branded stainless steel lunchboxes at The Source Bulk Foods, 41 Paora Hapi Street, Taupō.

Reusable straws

Say “no straw thanks” next time you order a drink out and either use your mouth to drink, or get yourself a reusable metal straw instead. If you’re keen on a reusable metal straw, you can get them from Bin Inn Taupō, Spa Gate Shopping Centre, 27 Paora Hapi Street; SpaceCraft, Suncourt Plaza, Shop 3, 19 Tamamutu Street, Taupō ; Hardy’s Health Store, 37 Horomatangi Street, Taupō; Eko, 20 Heuheu Street, Taupō; Jak & Co., 21 Heuheu Street, Taupō; Replete Cafe and Store, 45 Heuheu Street, Taupō; The Source Bulk Foods, 41 Paora Hapi Street, Taupō; or a range of silicone, steel and bamboo straws at Chef’s Compliments, 11 Gascoigne Street, Taupō.

Reusable bags (shopping bags, produce bags and bulk bin bags)

Plastic shopping bags are a menace, but so too are those plastic produce bags for fruit and vege or the plastic bags often offered alongside bulk bins at bulk stores. You can avoid them by bringing your own bags or buying a set of reusable produce bags. You can get 100% organic cotton produce and/or bulk bin bags by Rethink, The Swag and other brands at Bin Inn Taupō, Spa Gate Shopping Centre, 27 Paora Hapi Street; The Source Bulk Foods, 41 Paora Hapi Street, Taupō; The Eye of a Needle, corner of Gascoigne and Tamamutu Streets, Taupō (they also stock bread bags!); Eko, 20 Heuheu Street, Taupō; Replete Cafe and Store, 45 Heuheu Street, Taupō. 

• Beeswax wrap
  • Purchase at – The Eye of a Needle, corner of Gascoigne and Tamamutu Streets, Taupō; Eko, 20 Heuheu Street, Taupō; Collaboration, 9 Heuheu Street, Taupō; SpaceCraft, Suncourt Plaza, Shop 3, 19 Tamamutu Street, Taupō; Replete Cafe and Store, 45 Heuheu Street, Taupō.
  • DIY – it’s way cheaper! You just need to get natural fibre fabric (cotton) and unpackaged beeswax. Keep an eye out at secondhand stores and fabric stores for off-cuts of cotton, or some beautiful ‘fat quarters’ from The Eye of a Needle, corner of Gascoigne and Tamamutu Streets, Taupō. See if you can get unpackaged beeswax from the market or local beekeepers.
• Reusable sandwich bags – you can get reusable sandwich bags and/or wraps from Chef’s Compliments, 11 Gascoigne Street, Taupō; Collaboration, 9 Heuheu Street, Taupō (synthetic waterproof material); and 100% cotton lunch pouches by The Swag at SpaceCraft, Suncourt Plaza, Shop 3, 19 Tamamutu Street, Taupō.
• Silicone pot/bowlcovers – a good option for storing leftovers in a bowl (other than just putting a plate on top!) or as an alternative to tin foil for roasting (as the covers can withstand temperatures of up to 220 degrees and will also keep hot food warm when transporting). You can buy these at Chef’s Compliments, 11 Gascoigne Street, Taupō.

Refills of cleaning products

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

• Bin Inn Taupō, Spa Gate Shopping Centre, 27 Paora Hapi Street – Ecostore and OurEco cleaning products.
• The Source Bulk Foods, 41 Paora Hapi Street, Taupō – stocks Conscious cleaning products who take their bulk containers back to be reused

Low-waste dishwashing

You can find dishbrushes with wooden handles and removable + replaceable, home compostable heads at Collaboration, 9 Heuheu Street, Taupō; Replete Cafe and Store, 45 Heuheu Street, Taupō; Bin Inn Taupō, Spa Gate Shopping Centre, 27 Paora Hapi Street; Chef’s Compliments, 11 Gascoigne Street, Taupō; The Eye of a Needle, corner of Gascoigne and Tamamutu Streets, Taupō; and Eko, 20 Heuheu Street, Taupō.

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 SpaceCraft, Suncourt Plaza, Shop 3, 19 Tamamutu Street, Taupō;and Hardy’s Health Store, 37 Horomatangi Street, Taupō – 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 SPRUCE or Wet-it! 100% cotton + cellulose dishcloth sponges (home compostable at the end of their life) which are available at SpaceCraft, Suncourt Plaza, Shop 3, 19 Tamamutu Street, Taupō; and Chef’s Compliments, 11 Gascoigne Street, Taupō.
• At Charlie WHO, 24 Heuheu Street, Taupō you can get the fancy Bianca Lorenne cotton dishcloths.
• Alternatively, find 100% cotton dishcloths at Charlie WHO, 24 Heuheu Street, Taupō; and Replete Cafe and Store, 45 Heuheu Street, Taupō – Replete also stocks Nawrap cloths made of linen and other natural fibres.
• Plain old muslin/cheesecloth, which is 100% cotton and therefore home compostable at the end of its life, can be used as a dishcloth. You can find it at Bin Inn Taupō, Spa Gate Shopping Centre, 27 Paora Hapi Street; and Chef’s Compliments, 11 Gascoigne Street, Taupō.
• If you’re after a coarser scrubby, you can get 100% coconut fibre coarse scrubby by Safix from Replete Cafe and Store, 45 Heuheu Street, Taupō; and Bin Inn Taupō, Spa Gate Shopping Centre, 27 Paora Hapi Street.

Laundry

• Eco Planet laundry powder comes in a cardboard box with a cardboard scoop – no plastic lining! It is also septic tank safe. You can get it from PAK’nSAVE Taupō, between Paora Hapi and Ruapehu Streets; Four Square Praters, 61 Rifle Range Road, Taupō; Four Square, 106 Rifle Range Road, Taupō; and New World Turangi, 19 Ohuanga Road, Tūrangi. You can also get Living Green laundry powder, which is the same deal (no plastic, septic tank safe) with a bamboo scoop, from Countdown Taupō, corner Spa Road & Tongariro Street.
• Soapnuts – natural nut shells that release saponin (like soap) in water and can be used for laundry. Once spent, the shells can be composted. Bin Inn Taupō, Spa Gate Shopping Centre, 27 Paora Hapi Street and Replete Cafe and Store, 45 Heuheu Street, Taupō both stock the SoapNuts NZ brand that come only in a cardboard box with no inner plastic lining. You can also get That Red House Soapberries brand (which comes in a cotton bag with a brown paper bag inside lining) from The Eye of a Needle, corner of Gascoigne and Tamamutu Streets, Taupō.
• Non-plastic clothes pegs – bamboo pegs are available at Bin Inn Taupō, Spa Gate Shopping Centre, 27 Paora Hapi Street; or amazing stainless steel pegs at Eko, 20 Heuheu Street, Taupō and Replete Cafe and Store, 45 Heuheu Street, Taupō.

Ingredients for DIY cleaning products

• Baking soda and white vinegar – available unpackaged/on tap in bulk dispensers at Bin Inn Taupō, Spa Gate Shopping Centre, 27 Paora Hapi Street; and The Source Bulk Foods, 41 Paora Hapi Street, Taupō.
• Bars of castile soap, which you can use as a base for homemade dishwashing and laundry liquid (see how it works here) – Dr Bronner’s castile bars (made in the USA) are available at Bin Inn Taupō, Spa Gate Shopping Centre, 27 Paora Hapi Street; Hardy’s Health Store, 37 Horomatangi Street, Taupō; and Health 2000 Taupō, 15 Horomatangi Street, Taupō.

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 Bin Inn Taupō, Spa Gate Shopping Centre, 27 Paora Hapi Street; Hardy’s Health Store, 37 Horomatangi Street, Taupō; Eko, 20 Heuheu Street, Taupō; Charlie Who, 24 Heuheu Street, Taupō; The Source Bulk Foods, 41 Paora Hapi Street, Taupō; and New World Turangi, 19 Ohuanga Road, Tūrangi.
• Dental Floss – Countdown Taupō, corner Spa Road & Tongariro Street stocks 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, bamboo and activated charcoal floss has polyester in it so is landfill only). When you run out of the floss, no need to get a new dispenser, you can get refills of the floss in a cardboard box from the Do Gooder website – just pop the refill into your original metal/glass dispenser.

Unpackaged Bars of Soap

The following stores sell totally naked bars of soap:

• Charlie Who, 24 Heuheu Street, Taupō
• Replete Cafe and Store, 45 Heuheu Street, Taupō
• The Source Bulk Foods, 41 Paora Hapi Street, Taupō.

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!

• Many 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): Bin Inn Taupō, Spa Gate Shopping Centre, 27 Paora Hapi Street; Unichem Mainstreet Pharmacy, corner Tongariro and Heuheu Streets, Taupō; Life Pharmacy, 35-37 Heuheu Street, Taupō; Hardy’s Health Shop, 37 Horomatangi Street, Taupō.
• However, there are other shampoo and conditioner bars out there!:
  • Get Mia Belle bars of shampoo, conditioner and body butter at Eko, 20 Heuheu Street, Taupō or Bin Inn Taupō, Spa Gate Shopping Centre, 27 Paora Hapi Street
  • J.R.Liggett’s shampoo bars at Bin Inn Taupō, Spa Gate Shopping Centre, 27 Paora Hapi Street
  • Simple Naked Soap (wrapped in a cotton pouch) at Bin Inn Taupō, Spa Gate Shopping Centre, 27 Paora Hapi Street
  • AND… last but definitely not least,, check out the amazing Dandans Nature – solid shampoo bars locally-made in Taupō by high school student Dan Stephens-Kingi! Find the bars in-person at Tuwharetoa Māori Trust Board Office, 81 Horomatangi Street, Taupō or order them directly from Dan by sending him a private message on his FB page. Too cool!
• Deodorant – you can get natural deodorants in home compostable cardboard tubes around Taupō. Hardy’s Health Shop, 37 Horomatangi Street, Taupō stocks the Nature Body brand; Eko, 20 Heuheu Street, Taupō stocks the Mia Belle brand (as well as lip balm in a compostable cardboard tube).

Reusable Menstrual Products

There are zero waste, low cost alternatives to disposable sanitary items like tampons and pads. For example, you can get menstrual cups at Bin Inn Taupō, Spa Gate Shopping Centre, 27 Paora Hapi Street; Countdown Taupō, corner Spa Road & Tongariro Street; Life Pharmacy, 35-37 Heuheu Street, Taupō; Hardy’s Health Shop, 37 Horomatangi Street, Taupō.

Shaving

• Food waste and composting – 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. The best way to avoid this is to start dealing with your food scraps at home through home composting/worm farms/bokashi. If you aren’t sure how to do this, the Taupō District Council runs home composting workshops through Taupō Community Gardens in Taupō and Awhi Farm in Tūrangi every month between October and May – so go along to one of these! Otherwise, if you’d like to get started but are put off by the cost of setting up a new system, FYI that the Taupō District Council also offers subsidy vouchers for a variety of food waste systems, including Earthmaker composts, Hungry Bin worm farms, Can-o-worms and Bokashi ZING. So do take advantage of these great offers!
• Boomerang Bags Taupō – get yourself some lovely cloth bags instead of plastic shopping bags from the Boomerang Bags Taupō crew. You can find their bags around Taupō. If you’re a sewer, sign up to help sew a few if you feel up to it! The Boomerang Bags movement is taking NZ by storm and Taupō is a long-running stronghold, so it’s a great opportunity to get amongst it 🙂
• Taupō Community Gardens, 48 Richmond Avenue, Richmond Heights, Taupō – growing your own kai is a great way to get food packaging-free (and just free generally…) But if you don’t know how, or if you don’t have space, it can be hard! Taupō Community Gardens to the rescue – a great place to try your hand at growing and to partake in the produce too 😉
• Toy Libraries – reduce the wasteful over-consumption of toys and save money by joining a toy library! Check out the toy library nearest you.
• The Timber Recycling Co. – building? renovating? need some timber? The Timber Recycling Co rescues and restores used timber that might otherwise have gone to landfill. If you need timber or wood for any kind of project, see if you can get some from The Timber Recycling Co rather than going somewhere like Mitre 10 to buy it brand new. If you have timber that you don’t need that might be usable, rather than taking it to the dump, see if The Timber Recycling Co would like it – they buy timber off the general public.
• Tip Shops/Recycling + Reuse Shops – For all your recycling and reusing needs, look out for reuse shops at local landfills. There’s the Habitat for Humanity ReUse Shop at Taupō’s Broadland Roads Landfill and Resource Recovery Park, but also all transfer stations in the district have reuse shops on-site. If you’ve got a hard-to-recycle item or something that’s still functional but which you no longer want, rather than chucking such things out, take them to one of these reuse shops and see if they’ll accept them. Furthermore, if you’re ever in need of a new one-off purchase – from materials for a home fit-out, cuts of wood, building materials, through to cutlery, appliances, furniture or other knick knacks – consider coming to shop here first, before going to buy something new. You might be amazed by what you find (and the low cost)…
• Menzshed – there are Menzsheds throughout the district. Menzshed provides 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), 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!
• 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 Tūwharetoa is Raewyn Rāmeka– if you’re keen for some awhi with waste reduction, she’d be stoked to hear from you ?