Here we have it – a zero waste shopping guide for the Greater Wellington Region (including Wellington City, Porirua, Hutt Valley, Kāpiti Coast, and Wairarapa). Woohoo!
As Wellington was our training ground for living zero waste, it was natural for us to scope out the options in the city and the surrounding region, to discover what exciting and forward-thinking businesses and community groups make Te Ūpoko o te Ika home. So, in this guide we have expanded our Wellington-based experience to include as many options as possible for living zero waste in Porirua, Kāpiti, the Hutt Valley and Wairarapa.
Please, if you know of a business that we have missed from this list, let us know! We will happily update this post with any suggestions, provided that the business stocks something that helps its customers to reduce their waste.
The guide is broken down into five geographical areas so that you can search your neck of the woods with ease (just click on your area in the bullet list below).
16 Comments
Thanks for a great list.
Re e-waste, the landfill at Linden/Porirua takes electronic household items, which they endeavour to repair for their trash Palace shop
Thanks Margaret, we will add that on to the list! 🙂
Great list, thanks for sharing! Any tips for milk drinkers, and avoiding buying plastic milk bottles? Thanks heaps
Kia ora Steph,
Potentially Manna Milk (https://mannamilk.co.nz/) would be the one to look at – they deliver all over the region and last we heard you may be able to twist their arm to get it to you in a reusable pail rather than the plastic bottles they otherwise use. We hadn’t included them in the list because we haven’t yet gotten around to calling them to see if they can offer this option to people officially. However, you’ve just reminded us that we need to do this, so will get on to it!! Thanks
Kia ora Whanau,
For byo container re-fillable milk on the Kapiti Coast go to Faith Farm Fresh on SH1 just south of Te Horo turn off. It’s A2 and unpasteurised and comes straight from the milking shed half a km away via a 24hr self serve vending machine!! You can also buy glass bottles on site. Please add them to your great guide.
Thanks for this heads up! Will add to the guide 🙂
Manna Milk is permanently closed.
Thank you for this update, we will remove from the list.
Great list,there’s a few Wellington places I hadn’t heard of. I love berries and would love to figure how to buy berries (fresh or frozen) without plastic in Wellington. Any thoughts on how that could be done?
Hi Patricia – yes, berries are a tricky one! the only time we have seen unpackaged, pre-frozen berries in bulk was at a Bin Inn in Rotorua!! So it’s not something you see often. The only solution for frozen unpackaged that we know of is to do a pick-a-berry over summer (so now is the right time of year to look!) and pick your own and then freeze yourself in something like ice cream containers (this does require you to have a freezer with room to store). Liam’s parents go to an organic blueberry farm and do pick-your-own once a year. They manage to do a year’s supply for the two of them in one day! And they eat blueberries every morning. The one they go to costs $10 per kilo – so cheapest year long supply of organic blueberries you could probably find. plus it’s a nice day excursion. Have a look up the Kapiti coast or Wairarapa to see where the closest pick-your-own might be.
In terms of fresh berries, now is also the time of year to find them! Most of the Wellington fruit and vege markets have unpackaged options for things like cherries and potentially also strawberries etc as the season develops. you can also pick blackberries for free all around Wellington over summer and then freeze them (or eat them fresh) – just make sure they have not been sprayed by council. Last summer we picked kilos and kilos around the city!
So, there are options but it just requires a little more planning and effort (especially if you want to have the frozen berries all year round). Hope that helps!
On the food waste front – if you live in Hataitai there is a small community garden at the old Hataitai bowling club and you can pop your scraps in the compost bins there:
http://hataitai.org.nz/community-garden
Fabulous! We’ve just added that into the guide now. Thanks for helping us to keep it up to date 🙂
What a fantastic list! A few things I didn’t know about 🙂 Could we have a region for Porirua too please, there are a few things around here as well 🙂 We even have farmers markets, community gardens, ( I see you have Trash Palace ) and a few other initiatives around the region. Thanks!
Great list! Does anyone know where you can buy everyday cheddar cheese without plastic packaging… that doesn’t cost 10 times the price? It’s one of THE LAST things in our trolley that we have yet to find a plastic-packaging-free solution for.
Hmmm… one of the few places that you can get unpackaged cheese, sometimes, that we know of, in Wellington, is Moore Wilsons… but it’s not really every day cheese… Maybe someone else has seen some recently?
Excellent guide, most helpful. thank you!