Local Hero: The Freedom of Waste-Free Living

Local Hero: The Freedom of Waste-Free Living

Waveney Warth is a waste-free ambassador and a waste consultant at EnVision. She’s passionate about inspiring behaviour change (particularly when it comes to environmental issues) through engaging communications, education and experience.

In 2008, she attempted to live a year of waste-free with her partner. They went on to set up Rubbish Free from the insights they picked up throughout that year. She also starred in the NZ documentary “Living The Change“.

We sat down with Waveney to learn about her story in becoming one of the best spokespeople of ‘Bags Not’ in the country.

What was the a-ha moment that began your waste-free lifestyle?

Single-use plastic. It just suddenly seemed clear one day when I unwrapped an ice block, enjoyed it for five minutes, then threw away the wrapper knowing it will be around for years to come.

Sometime later I heard that scientists now believe plastic won’t ever completely biodegrade but break into microscopic plastic particles that stay around forever. When I finally let my brain acknowledge its longevity, any single-use plastic seemed hard to justify.

Then in 2008, my partner and I challenged ourselves to live rubbish free for a year. We got some reusable bags just before the challenge started, and they’ve been soldiering on ever since. I actually have a small love affair with them, and I’ll be so sad when they finally give out.

What’s your top tip for remembering your bags?

Public humiliation.

I’d been trying for years. Like Homer Simpson stuck in some stupid looping scenario. Then, when our challenge started, I made a pledge to myself that I’d never use a plastic bag again, under any circumstances, and that was that.

I turned up to the supermarket three days later, got all my things on the checkout only to realise I forgot my bags. I had to leave, bright red and in a hot sweat. You only need to do that to once.

What are your top tips for easily reducing plastic waste?

We’re all busy, and I would still be putting out a bag of rubbish a week if I hadn’t been intentional about it. So try and find local markets, butchers and bulk bin stores where you can ask for paper wraps, or take along your own containers.

You can even BYO paper or containers at your supermarket too. And be sure to compost or recycle the paper, it goes really climate-change-nasty in a landfill.

What have been the biggest changes to your lifestyle since going waste free?

We’ve accidentally scared a lot of guests off because they’re too frightened to turn up with their plastic packet of biscuits. As a result, we now bake our own biscuits and typically end up watching Netflix by ourselves on Friday nights. Or wait, is that just because we’re 40?

What have been the most challenging plastic products for you to avoid?

Cheese! Chips! To be honest, I don’t avoid them. It would be like purgatory, so even though I understand that it’s a deal with the devil… 10 minutes of personal gratification for a thousand year problem – I do it anyway.

What needs to happen to help make reducing plastic usage easier?

The government needs to continue to lead. It’s great that they’ve banned the bag, and now they need to raise the waste levy to landfill and introduce container deposit legislation. There’s a petition going right now, so sign up to it at www.kiwibottledrive.nz. Plus, it would great to see more mandatory product stewardship schemes.

Anything else you’d like to add or share?

Anyone who has read this far is awesome. Thank you. If I could give you a chocolate fish I would. Not the ones individually wrapped though.

Don’t worry about where you are at with plastic. I don’t care if you have 10 babies in plastic nappies, sucking from plastic straws, eating individually wrapped lollies, we’re all doing our best, and it’s about the direction we are heading in. All of us thinking about this stuff and making small changes is very powerful. It’s already having a massive impact, and it’s only gaining in momentum.

 

Florists Against Plastic: making the floral industry beautiful. Again.

Florists Against Plastic: making the floral industry beautiful. Again.

During a recent holiday to Bali, Auckland-based florist Rosie Holt collected memories she’ll never forget. But not all of them for the better. She was incredibly incensed by the rubbish that crowded the streets and smothered the beach. This lead to her thinking about the floral industry back home and the huge waste she’d seen over the years. From this Rosie was inspired to create the Florists Against Plastics movement.

We sat down with Rosie, the founder of Rose Tinted Flowers, to hear more about her business and her plans for cleaning up the floral industry.

Tell us about your journey to becoming a florist

“I’ve always loved flowers. The botanical influence runs deep in our family, and was passed from my grandmother to my mother, and from my mother to me. I guess it was inevitable I would follow in their footsteps”

But becoming a florist was a bit of a rocky road for me. I took a little detour along the way. I abandoned a law degree and ditched a career in fashion and media. In the end, I simply grew tired of the daily grind on behalf of someone else, and came back to that which I loved most.”

What’s the story behind Rose Tinted Flowers?

“Rose Tinted Flowers sprung to life in April 2015. It started in my garden shed, which I soon outgrew. I graduated to a pop-up shop, which took me to many parts of the city. Our team has grown considerably too. We now create beautiful bouquets for our lovely customers in our two shops – Ponsonby Central and St Kevin’s Arcade.

We aim to be as environmentally friendly as possible. We achieve this by using locally grown flowers. We’ve moved to biodegradable bags for wrapping stems and recyclable paper to wrap our arrangements. We also offer our customers the option of purchasing a vase instead. And then there’s e-bike delivery.

As it stands, we’re currently one of the tall poppies when it comes to ‘green initiatives’ in our industry. Yes, there are still more changes I’d love to make, but am pretty happy with the progress. ”

What’s the current state of the floral industry?

“It’s beautiful on the surface, but when you step back you see the environmental impact is atrocious. About 75% of blooms purchased come wrapped in plastic from flower markets. And that’s just the start. Most florists then wrap their arrangements with single-use plastic and keep them fresh with plastic stem protector tubes. There’s no guessing where all this plastic ends up.


But that’s not where the story ends. While it’s not plastic-related, the number of pesticides used is greatly alarming too. Yes, they stop pests from damaging the crops, but what about the damage to the environment? Something has to change. And that’s why I started Florists Against Plastic.”

What are the biggest changes Florists Against Plastic are supporting?

“As with any cause or movement, someone needs to step up and simply be the first to do something. When that happens people will normally jump onboard because the hard work has been done. Well, we’ve done something, starting Florists Against Plastic and putting into place the changes in our business. Our customers are loving it too.

Florists Against Plastic promotes these initiatives:

  • Switch to biodegradable bags for wrapping stems.
  • Use recycled or upcycled materials for wrapping arrangements.
  • Consider sustainable means of delivery, i.e. bike, eBike.
  • Stop using floral foam (it’s pretty much cyanide for the environment).
  • Consider multi-use arches and other constructed arrangements
  • Encourage customers to use vases to keep flowers fresh once delivered.

I know this kind of change will be tough initially, but it just forces you to be more creative and innovative in your approach. Thankfully creativity is normally one of the key characteristics of people getting into the trade. And yes there may be some additional costs to the business, but we view it as being a point of difference, which our customers seem happy to pay for.”

How can your florist business get involved?

“Encouragingly, some florists already are on board. Take Shea from On My Hand and Felicity from Green is the Thing. Both have been actively reducing the amount of plastic used in their business for some. Shea has also been avoiding floral foam for ages and Felicity grows all her flowers in her Grey Lynn garden.

Aside from helping change practices in your floral business, we’d also love for you to check out our website here, and spread the word through social #FloristsAgainstPlastic.

Rosie Holt is the founder of Rose Tinted Flowers.

It’s a brave new world at New World.

It’s a brave new world at New World.

In 2017, the New World supermarket chain asked customers about single-use plastic bags with their Bag Vote poll. Shoppers were clear that they wanted to see them gone for good. In 2018, New World furthered their commitment to eliminating plastic bags by becoming a principal partner with “Bags Not”.

So it’s no surprise to see New World still leading the way. As of August 1, their Devonport supermarket became 100% plastic bag free at the checkouts. Customers in this seaside Auckland community have been strong supporters of reusable bags, making the move a smooth one and showing the rest of us how simple it is to make the change.

We visited New World Devonport and talked with the store manager to find out how the transition was going:

 

 

On August 29, New World supermarkets in Howick and Marton also joined Devonport as early adopters of this new way of shopping.

And from 1 January 2019, every New World around the country will be 100% plastic bag free at their checkouts. Chaoooo!!

#momentumisbuilding #solvingplasticpollution #changingourplastichabits

Plastic packaging: from bad rap to good wrap?

Plastic packaging: from bad rap to good wrap?

On August 10, the New Zealand Government officially announced the banning of single-use plastic bags. Exactly what types of bags the ban will include, what businesses it will impact, and how quickly the ban will come into force is yet to be announced as the government are currently going through all the submissions they received (we got ours in!).

We’re thrilled about this development and know that all you “Bags Not” supporters have played a significant role in creating this positive outcome. Thank you!!

The question many of you are asking is what are we going to do about all those other single-use plastics that are choking up the place, especially food wrapping and packaging.

Well, the answer is being worked on right here at home in NZ. A research project led by Professor Indrawati Oey at the University of Otago’s Department of Food Science is developing a non-toxic, biodegradable alternative to petroleum-based plastic packaging.

Professor Oey’s project has been boosted with one of four recently awarded Toxicology Research Grants. This funding will help her team to investigate the usage of chitosan and zein – by-products of the seafood and corn industries. These ingredients are blended with poly-vinyl alcohol – a water-soluble polymer that’s often used as a food additive and in cosmetics. The resulting film they’ve produced in their lab has good mechanical and barrier properties.

The toxicity of the team’s new film is now being tested, an essential part of the development for any product that’s intended to be used in food applications. Initial tests suggest their alternative is so harmless you could eat it.

#innovation #solutiontothepollution #problemsolving #numbereightwire #kiwiingenuity

 

Imagine the headache if there was no soft plastic to recycle?

Imagine the headache if there was no soft plastic to recycle?

 

The Soft Plastic Recycling Scheme run by the Packaging Forum is stockpiling all the soft plastic collected from their drop off points across New Zealand. That’s because their recycling partner in Australia has been overwhelmed with the volume. You can’t help but feel for those involved having to scramble to find an alternative recycler.

According to the RNZ article, there is a New Zealand based recycler lined up and an announcement will be made soon. However, with further expansion of the scheme planned and a predicted increase in volume from 365 tonnes collected last year to over 600 tonnes this year, I think this as a very short term, band-aid, solution.

The simple fact remains, there is very little value in recycling soft plastic. And due to the chemistry, it can only be recycled a minimal number of times (as is the case with all recyclable plastics). Further to this, it is very common that the products made from the recycled plastic cannot be recycled themselves. Recycling is simply delaying the inevitable. All plastic will eventually end up in a landfill, the open environment, or be incinerated.

Meanwhile, the global production of plastic rises and rises. According to the Ellen Macarthur Foundation, that has done extensive research as part of their New Plastics Economy initiative, worldwide we produced “311 million tonnes in 2014, and is expected to double again over the next 20 years”.

Add to that their staggering finding that “95% of plastic packaging material value, or USD 80–120 billion annually, is lost to the economy after a short first use”. Madness!

Knowing what we do about the end of life options for plastic and the economic and environmental costs incurred, don’t we have a duty to stop the flow of new plastic?

One of the biggest and easiest solutions, for at least reducing the flow of new plastics, is to engage and inspire individuals, families, sports teams, communities and businesses to be extremely mindful of their consumption of single-use plastics, then help them embark on a journey of reducing their plastic waste.

The quicker we all go on the plastic reduction journey and the more that do it, the easier and more impactful it will be for everyone.

Speaking from experience – reducing your plastic waste is a bumpy journey. A hard journey. A frustrating and at times demoralising journey. But it’s also a journey full of learning and mindfulness. So let’s make that journey as simple, inclusive, and as quick as possible for everyone.

This is exactly the role “Bags Not” is playing.

Plastic shopping bags were an obvious place to start, but with the plastic bag as our poster child we will spread our focus wider to help New Zealanders drastically reduce their contributions of other plastic products to the plastic pollution crisis.

For many that may sound confronting and overwhelming. But for us, it is full of opportunity and reward. And it’s the right thing to do.

Remember, this problem is global. If New Zealand and New Zealand businesses can create solutions here, there is a big old market out there ready to adopt them.

But can the solutions be created by just one or two businesses? And if so, will they be quick enough? Or could we bring businesses together to collaborate on the solutions, share the wins, and make a really demonstrable impact?

We’ve had an amazing journey to date and as we continue to see the rising need for our tips, tricks, advice, support and collective learning we would love to see more businesses join us and help us expand the work we are doing, while helping to take the pressure off the Soft Plastics Recycling Scheme.

 

Nick Morrison

Co-Founder Bags Not

 

Time to say “Bags Not” to all single-use plastics

Time to say “Bags Not” to all single-use plastics

Take a bow folks, pat yourselves on the back, maybe even high five your neighbour. Thanks to the efforts and energy of thousands of Kiwis like you, the NZ Government has done the right thing and made a stand against single-use plastic bags. It’s great news and we all deserve to celebrate.

But don’t forget, when we all get over our plastic bag ban celebratory hangovers, there’s still plenty to do.

Next up, there’s a consultation process to decide exactly what shape, size, thickness and style of plastic bags will be banned and when. Get involved and have your say here.

You’ve just proven what a difference you can make, this is a real step forward. Keep checking in with us to find out how you can continue to say “Bags Not” to all the other unnecessary plastics in your life.

This is a great start, but it’s just the beginning. With momentum on our side, let’s move full steam ahead towards a New Zealand that’s free from all single-use plastics!