Reduce waste at home
 Help make the Garden City truly clean and green by being waste wise. Find out more about...
To live like we plan to stay here forever, we must use our resources wisely.
What waste is
Waste is material that we can no longer find a use for or we think has no value, so we throw it away. Waste is usually buried in a hole in the ground like a landfill. If we could think of ways to use our "waste" then it would no longer be waste, but a resource to be made into something useful.
So waste is the result of a failure to think.
Waste does not exist in nature - everything is used for something else. Even when animals or plants die worms and bugs convert them into the building blocks for something else. We need to think about how to "close the loop" for our resources and create natural cycles where everything is used by something else - just as in nature. When this happens we will no longer have waste.
Why we need to reduce waste
The Christchurch waste stream is made up of resources that could be beneficially used such as organic matter that can be composted, and paper, glass or metal that can be recycled. One of the main barriers to using these resources is that they are mixed up and so it is hard to separate out the useful parts.
Because we are throwing away our resources, which we may need in the future, we are being wasteful and could reduce the quality of life for future generations. When we create waste we are not living in a sustainable way and this threatens our future well being.
Tips on shopping wisely
Some handy tips for reducing your rubbish by shopping wisely.
To reduce your rubbish you can:
- Choose products with less packaging (e.g. refills, concentrates or buy in bulk).
- Avoid using disposable items and buy durable products that can be repaired.
- Choose products or packaging that can be recycled or that have a recycled content.
- Look for eco-labels like the environmental choice logo.
- Buy pre-loved items (from second hand or opportunity shops and from garage sales, local markets or the Supershed).
- Tell retailers that you would like to buy products that have less packaging or that can be recycled - help to apply consumer pressure on the manufacturers.
- Take your own carry bag shopping.
- Say "no thanks" to plastic carry bags.
For more information, check out the following links:
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