Waste
Reducing our waste is a good place to start on the Eco Church journey. It is practical and achievable. It is a good way to get a whole congregation on board and thinking about our impact on God’s world. It is also good to be working together with the other community groups who use church buildings. It shows that we care about the planet and that we are making the connections between what we say we believe and how we live that out.
Rubbish is not attractive; it is the stuff we’re finished with, it’s messy and we want it to be someone else’s problem. But every time we add to landfill we are wasting the good creation God has made, and adding to the vast piles that will continue to be a huge problem for generations to come. Thinking about our rubbish from a Christian faith perspective is about integrity: Are our values being expressed in our actions? Mission is not just what we show the world at the front door, it is also about what happens at the back door.
Reducing our waste…
saves money
involves rethinking what is purchased
is a whole-church project
creates opportunities for learning and community inspiration
makes a significant measurable impact.
Zero Waste Programme for Churches
In partnership with Para Kore, A Rocha offers a Zero Waste programme that enables churches to create a waste minimisation system that works for them. We have started a pilot programme with churches in Christchurch in August 2020, with future plans to roll it out in other regions.
To find out more about this initiative, please click here.
If you’re interested in this initiative, get in contact with us.
A Rocha’s Rich Living WASTE booklet
Small Group Resource
Rich Living: Waste - A Rocha’s small group booklet is available for download from the A Rocha website.
Talks and Presentations
Otago University Faith and Thinking series: “A Throwaway Society: Reflecting on Rubbish” by Andrew Shepherd.
Useful Videos
The Story of Stuff Project - Their first movie, The Story of Stuff, started it all, launching an honest conversation about our consumption-crazed culture. Since then, they've produced dozens more animated shorts and documentaries that chart a path to a more just and sustainable future. They have a whole series on The Story of … series which cover Stuff, Bottled Water, Cosmetics, Electronics, Microbeads, Microfibres and many other topics. There are also many other documentaries on their website such as Plastic Documentaries and Water Documentaries.
Para Kore - Our partner in Zero Waste produces many videos on Zero Waste from a uniquely Aotearoa perspective. They showcase some of the Zero Waste efforts at marae around the country and also links to many other inspiring videos on their website. Para Kore’s youtube channel is also worth checking out with lots of short videos and tips for those on the Zero Waste journey.
Campaigns
Tearfund’s Rubbish Campaign - A variety of resources to help you get your church or small group involved in Tearfund’s Rubbish Campaign. These include Rubbish Talks for you to use or adapt, a Rubbish Event leader’s guide for a stand-alone event exploring waste and consumerism, and a range of fun and creative all-age Rubbish Activities to get your whole church involved.
#TakeawayThrowaways - A campaign calling on the Government to ban single-use disposable food and drink serviceware containing plastic (including degradable, biodegradable or compostable plastic), and mandate co-designed, accessible, reusable alternatives instead
Zero Waste Shopping Guide
Zero Waste Spot - An interactive map of zero waste shopping options across Aotearoa New Zealand, researched and maintained by The Rubbish Trip, and kindly hosted and designed by Eco Spot and the team at Sugarcube Studios!
Websites / Podcasts by Zero Waste champions in New Zealand
The Rubbish Trip - The two No-waste Nomads behind The Rubbish Trip are Hannah Blumhardt and Liam Prince. Here’s what they have to say: “We started living zero waste at the beginning of 2015, in our home town of Wellington, New Zealand. We were spurred by concern about the massive amount of plastics in the oceans, the staggering levels of energy and inefficiency associated with producing and managing disposable products, and how throwaway, high-consumption culture is shaping community mindsets and living spaces. Motivated to spread awareness, in Plastic Free July 2016 we began talking to community groups, schools, businesses and households about how to reduce rubbish, and why it is important. After countless people told us that we had inspired them to reduce their waste footprint, we felt we could make a real difference by stepping things up a notch. So… we decided to go full-time and take our zero waste presentations on the road.”
Rubbish Free - Matthew Luxon and Waveney Warth created this website to help New Zealanders on their zero waste journey. They blogged about how their decision to commit to a year of living without creating any rubbish - and documented week by week the challenges of doing so.
How To Save The World - An environmental podcast that uses science, humour and suggestions on real world action you can take to make a positive contribution to help the planet. Hosted by Waveney Warth (an environmental advocate who went 100% waste-free for an entire year) and Tim Batt (a comedian who’s trying to learn and do better by the planet). They discuss everything from organic farming to Fairtrade, to renewable energy to greenwashing, aiming to inform and arm you with ways to help the environment.
Zero Waste Digital Summit - The Zero Waste Network organised a Zero Waste Digital Summit in November 2020. All the presentations are now available for viewing covering topics such as reuse systems, creating change towards zero waste, organics, product stewardship, zero waste culture, practical zero waste, zero waste technology, anti-incineration, community approaches to zero waste, and zero waste design. A great opportunity to listen to experts in this field!
Planning a Zero Waste Event
A website outlining a guide to planning a zero waste event from Auckland Council. A PDF of the guide is available here.
A guide to creating signage for zero waste events from WasteMINZ - a representative body of the waste, resource recovery and contaminated land sectors in New Zealand. You can also download PDFs of signage to help separate your waste from this website.
Let’s Talk Rubbish: A Practical Guide to Event Waste Minimisation - A series of 9 short videos to take you through the steps for planning a zero waste event by Beyond the Bin - a social enterprise team passionate about diverting waste from landfill and creating lasting positive impact along the way.
Set up a Recycling Collection Hub at your church
Did you know you can recycle toothbrushes, empty toothpaste tubes, razors, used pens, and many other things? Check out this Terracycle page for a list of free national recycling solutions for a variety of waste streams. You could set up your church as a community collection hub for these waste streams - a great way to bring the community into your church! Or collect these items and send to a community collection hub near you.
Run a Repair Cafe at your church
We throw away vast amounts of stuff. Even things with almost nothing wrong, and which could get a new lease on life after a simple repair. The trouble is, lots of people have forgotten that they can repair things themselves or they no longer know how. Knowing how to make repairs is a skill quickly lost. Church premises provide an ideal hub to engage church and local communities to run Repair Cafes. Repair Cafes are free meeting places, and they are all about repairing things together – people with broken items and repair specialists coming together to repair and learn or just enjoy a cup of tea or coffee. Valuable practical knowledge is getting passed on. Things are being used for longer and don’t have to be thrown away.
Repair Cafe NZ is an independent Steering Committee dedicated to providing resources and support to community groups around New Zealand wishing to run Repair Cafe events. For more background info, please also visit the international Repair Cafe website.
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