Resource Recovery
In nature, waste from one process becomes the food for another. Everything is recycled. Everything is a cycle. In a linear economy, we take materials from the earth, make products from them, and eventually throw them away as waste. But as a Para Kore kaiārahi we know like to say, “There is no such thing as away”. In a circular economy, by contrast, we want to stop waste being produced in the first place. We want to keep resources in use for as long as possible. We want to ‘close the loop’ so that any waste is a resource for another use.
Resource recovery is the activity of separating materials from waste that can be used as input material to create new outputs. Resource recovery reduces the need to use raw materials in the manufacturing process by reusing materials already in use and destined to be waste in the landfill. So how can we participate in resource recovery? There are many locations around Aotearoa New Zealand that are resource recovery hubs. One well-known example is Xtreme Zero Waste in Raglan.
There are many things that currently go into the landfill that can be diverted for resource recovery. But not many people know who collects them and where they can be dropped off. Sometimes the collection hubs are not so convenient as drop-off locations for your local community. If that’s the case, perhaps your church might like to consider setting up a resource recovery collection hub in your church as a community service? There are lots of considerations though - Does your church have the space for it? How will it managed so that the collections are not contaminated? Who will transfer the collection from the church to the collection point? How will the collection be transferred from the church? How will the local community know about the collection hub at the church?
On this page, we are collating information on items that can be collected for reuse. Please let us know if you know of any other items that can be added to this page or if any of the info below is outdated.
Relevant Eco Church NZ Stories
The Eco Group of All Saints, Howick, has been working hard to encourage more sustainable living in the community. Beginning in August of 2023, we’ve had conversations around the parish to get a sense of what was needed. Read on to find out what initiatives they’re starting with at All Saints!
All Saints Burwood shared with us their journey so far as an Eco Church… and the little and big steps that have been made.
Captain Simon Montgomery, a member of Salves and corps officer at Whanganui Salvation Army, leads a group of people who are passionate about caring for God’s creation and helping to sustain the environment around them. As a corps (church) they’ve decided to join the A Rocha Eco Church NZ project.
At All Saints Hataitai, we want to play our part and make meaningful and environmentally sustainable choices when it comes to the products we use and companies we support. We’re excited to let you know some of the steps we’ve taken recently, to be better stewards. Clergy, staff and ministry leaders have been working together to make exciting changes across our church – and we would love to share these with you.
Chartwell Cooperating Church is a seasoned traveller on the sustainability journey and as shown from the excerpts below - already has so many stories to share with the Eco Church whānau. Read on to find out more and be inspired to start a creation care initiative at your church!
Have you got unused or surplus clerical wear in your homes or churches? Ven Julie Rokotakala is collecting any unused clergy shirts or vestments for self-supporting priests of the Diocese of Polynesia. A practical way we can partner with and support our brothers and sisters in Polynesia.
St Hilda's Island Bay Playgroup considered the environment when they set about creating a safe and fun playground for children in their community. The playgroup was able to collect old play equipment and rubber tiles from the Wellington City Council and repurpose them for their new playground, all at no cost to the church.
Two Todman is a community space hosted by Brooklyn Anglicans that includes a chapel, co-working space, community space, and thrift shop. Recently they launched a refillery - a spot where people can come to get top-ups of common household consumables without creating more waste from plastic packaging. The concept came from consultation with their local community on what was missing from the main street and would add value to their neighbourhood.
A long awaited evening, postponed due to COVID, Tawa Anglican Church finally had the opportunity to host Liam and Hannah from The Rubbish Trip in Nov 2022. Around 40-50 people (both from the church and from the wider community) attended to hear about a huge variety of methods for living without a rubbish bin. An inspiring evening from the dynamic duo who walk-the-talk on their zero waste journey.
A Rocha hosted an Eco Church Kōrero about plastic waste with a focus on the UN Global Plastic Treaty in Nov 2022. The kōrero also included discussion on ways our faith communities can be part of this global initiative. The kōrero featured guest speaker Dr Trisia Farrelly from the Aotearoa Plastic Pollution Alliance (APPA). Read on to find out more including a link to the recording and further resources to explore.
Hannah Blumhardt and Liam Prince of The Rubbish Trip presented a talk on how to reduce waste during the Christmas season at Ngaio Union Church recently. Topics discussed included gift giving and gift wrapping, Christmas dinner and table settings, decorations and travel. Read on to explore the tips…
Season of Creation is celebrated annually all around the world, in different denominations, and many parishes in the Anglican Diocese of Wellington joined in this year. Read about the different ways Season of Creation was celebrated this year around the diocese, including an intergenerational pet celebration service, beach clean-up, eco-theology sermon series, and waste workshop.
As part of the Simplify series at Massey Community Church, members in our Sustainability Group took turns to produce a video about an aspect of their own sustainability journey. There are videos on groceries, transport, clothes shopping, making things at home, being sustainable on a budget, and more.
At Wellington South Baptist Church we’ve been imagining new ways to engage with our local community, to share something of God’s amazing reconciling vision for the world. This past Sunday, we partnered with a local charity, EkeRua/ReBicycle, to host a ‘Free Bike Fix Up/Repair/Swap’ event. After a shorter ‘normal’ service on the Sunday morning, we transitioned into a space of welcome for whoever was going to attend, including the bike workshop, a morning tea spread, and a place for kids to hang out while their (or their parent’s) bikes were getting fixed up!
During 2021 Tawa Anglican Church became an Eco Church, making a corporate statement that we want to actively care for God’s earth as an integral part of our mission. We were pleased to join the Eco Church movement to access support and resources as well as a connection to a network of other Eco Churches throughout Aotearoa. We share with you some of our initial action and longer-term goals.
At Pauatahanui Anglican parish, one of our four core values is legacy. For many years prior to the launch of Eco Church, a group called God’s Earth Our Home operated within the parish, fostering a deep spiritual sense of ecological responsibility within parishioners and nurturing environmental action. This provided a natural launching pad for the parish to join the Eco Church movement at the start of 2021.
Girls Zone’s Got WOW! Considering eco-awareness, a show presenting outfits made only from recycled and upcycled items was held at Karori Anglican Church. This was themed on the Creation Story in Genesis. Psalm 8 pulled together the foundation of the project along with the Genesis creation story to "teach" GZ what an amazing world we have been given and entrusted with.
How to get children engaged in sustainability? Baking! Our Kids' Church have been learning about the wonder of Creation, how it's struggling, and how we can participate in God's healing work. When asked how we could reduce our waste at Kids' Church, the children had the fantastic idea of doing some home baking to replace the plastic packets of biscuits they consume each week for morning tea.
The Papanui Baptist Earth Care Group wants to give a shout out of appreciation to Carol Aitken, our church administrator for the proactive and intentional things she is already implementing in the practical life and running of our church facility, that are at the core of what we are about – better stewardship, less waste and the promotion of beauty, in respect of God’s amazing creation!
St Michael’s Anglican Church in Kelburn recently had a first go at calculating their church’s carbon emissions. We corresponded with Caitlyn Lee, a parishioner at St Michael’s who worked on the carbon calculation for the church about the process.
In November 2019, ADJust - Diocese of Auckland Young Anglicans for Social Justice, put out to churches in the Auckland Anglican Diocese a "Green Up and Give Challenge". St John’s Anglican Royal Oak took up this challenge and set up a Pātaka Kai (community pantry) and community garden which is now contributing greens to their monthly community meals. Cathy Bi-Riley, the Sustainability Fieldworker from the Anglican Diocese of Auckland visited the church and talked to Sarah Pidgeon from the gardening team who shared with us their small beginnings and future hopes!
As you go past the unassuming church of St Matthew’s Anglican Church in Titahi Bay, you might notice the neat garden beds that line one side of the walkway to the church. Walking a bit further to the side of the hall, you will find some 20 feijoa trees. This is the Titahi Bay Community Garden @ St Matthew’s (TBCG@SM), a community garden run by the Titahi Bay community hosted at St Matthew’s grounds.
We all know the frustration of not being able to fix something that breaks. Why not let people share their fix-it knowledge and expertise, and run a Repair Café?
In October last year, The Village Presbyterian Church in Ōtautahi-Christchurch decided to tandem up a Repair Café event with our usual monthly Community Market Day. The idea was to have volunteers on hand to help fix broken items that members of the public brought along, thereby stopping stuff going to landfill.
We at the Tribe Church are at the beginning of our journey exploring what it means to be stewards of creation. The journey started when our bible study group went through Tearfund's The Good Lives Project. This study really opened our eyes to seeing how our everyday actions can be an expression of our faith. It inspired us to see what changes we can make at church so we can have a lighter impact on the earth.
At Grace, we want to play our part and make meaningful and environmentally sustainable choices when it comes to the products we use and companies we support. We’re excited to let you know some of the steps we’ve taken to become better stewards over the past year. We’ve been working closely with the leadership team and over the past few months, we’ve made some really exciting changes across our church – and we would love to share these with you.
Outraged by the amount of landfill-fugitives (plastic waste) buried into a Wellington natural taonga, Anglican Advocacy decided to organise a four-month, all-ages, and stimulating challenge to inspire parishioners to take action at personal and political levels.