As the saying goes, it takes a village to raise a child. When it comes to creating a successful social enterprise, it takes a community to build a Wastebusters.
There’s nothing like a significant birthday to make you reflect on life. It’s a time to celebrate how far you’ve come, laugh about some of the mistakes, and get energised about the next phase of life. And of course, it’s a great reason to have a party.
Wastebusters turns 25 this year.
And with so many people having been part of the creation and evolution of Wastebusters, there are a lot of memories to celebrate, as well as some big plans for the future.
Over the past quarter of a century, our community has gathered around the shared purpose of leading the way to zero waste.
Last year, Wastebusters contributed $3.7million of resource recovery and waste reduction services to our district. As a social enterprise, the majority of our revenue comes from trading services at the top of the waste hierarchy: selling reusable goods, picking up and sorting recycling and delivering community engagement and education programmes.
Wastebusters is part of normal life in Wānaka. Popping into the shop for a browse is an opportunity to find an unexpected treasure, or bump into someone you know. Getting things for a bargain also helps make it more affordable to live in an expensive town. Nearly every business in town sees our recycling crew out daily, picking up their recycling. They know that every recyclable item taken back to Wastebusters to be sorted by hand is going to get safely to the reprocessor to be turned into something new.
Our events and workshops, like the reFashion show, Repair events and the Sustainable Christmas market, are a great chance to get together, have fun, learn how to reduce waste and share circular economy thinking and actions.
But Wastebusters’ popularity and the growth of Wānaka’s population are creating a pressure cooker. We’re still operating on the same site that we started on all those years ago, but dealing with more people, more cars, more stuff to find new homes for and more materials to recycle. Wastebusters is bursting at the seams, and that results in, sadly, more stuff having to go to landfill when there isn’t room to store or display it. We have cars and people squished into the same small thoroughfares, which creates risks that we constantly need to manage.
Wastebusters 2.0, as we’re calling the evolution of Wastebusters, will be bigger and better, We are planning to have a dedicated construction and demolition hub, onsite spaces for education and events, better and bigger reuse facilities, onsite repair, car-free areas, facilities for food waste and recycling consolidation, and ... more toilets!
We also have heaps of other fun ideas we’d love to incorporate, from selling upcycled products to hosting other community organisations. The goal is to get Wastebusters ready to support resourcefulness, resilience and positive action in our community for the next 25 years.
Don’t worry, all the quirky details everyone loves about Wastebusters will live on, as will the music. As a recent visitor said, "Wastebusters is like three different dance parties all trying to break out of a workplace".
We’re stoked to have the support from the Wānaka Community Board for our request to the council to extend our site to 32,250sq m, future-proofing it until 2055. Deputy mayor Quentin Smith recognised Wastebusters as a partner for the council on waste and "absolutely integral to waste minimisation outcomes".
In a stroke of luck, the council owns a large parcel of land next door to Wastebusters at 189 Ballantyne Rd, which we hope means we will be able to access additional land without having to move.
At the same time, we’re working with multiple funders to raise the millions of dollars that will be needed to build Wastebusters 2.0.
The magic of Wastebusters has always been in the people, so we’re putting out a call to everyone who is part of our wider Wasties community. We want you to be part of the creation of Wastebusters 2.0.
We’d love you to come celebrate Wastebusters’ 25th birthday with us at Wastebusters on Saturday September 20.
If you can’t make it in person on the day, you can also show your support for Wastebusters 2.0 online through our website.
Gina Dempster is Wastebusters general manager. Each week in this column, writers address issues of sustainability.
The impact
Wastebusters’ impact in the past year.
- $3.7m waste minimisation services
- 133,493 customers chose second-hand items
- 1400 tonnes saved from landfill
- 11,308 people came to workshops or classes (83 events and workshops)
- 493 items repaired
- 55 employed at Wastebusters
- Living wage employer
Wastebusters’ history
1999 The seed: The Wānaka/Hāwea community plans a resource recovery hub. Wastebusters’ shed is
built over months of working bees.
2000 Reuse shop and business recycling (ongoing) begins.
2005-11 Kerbside recycling: Wastebusters picks up and sorts Wānaka kerbside recycling.
2006 Community Recycling Network launched (ongoing): Wastebusters is a founding member of the nationwide network now called Zero Waste Aotearoa.
2007 Education (ongoing): Enviroschools and Dr Compost programmes launch across the district.
2007 Events recycling (ongoing): Waste and recycling service launched for festivals and events.
2011-14 Unpackit Awards: Wastebusters launches Unpackit Awards nationwide, highlighting the best and worst packaging.
2012 Site lease: Wastebusters signs a 35-year site lease with council with public support.
2015 Central Otago Wastebusters saved: Wānaka merges with Central Otago Wastebusters to save Alexandra resource recovery hub.
2015 Fire destroys the Alexandra hub. The Wasties cat escapes unharmed.
2019 Resourceful Communities programme launched supporting repair and waste minimisation.
2020 Business and events waste minimisation guidance (ongoing): Wastebusters helps businesses and events to reduce waste through advice, audits, workshops.
2023 Alexandra site closed: Hard decision made to close Alexandra site due to lack of financial sustainability.
2023 Every Bite programme (ongoing): Wastebusters becomes a foundation hub for the national food waste prevention project.
2024 Winner of three Business Excellence Awards 2024: : Supreme Business of the Year, Community Contribution and Business Sustainability & Environmental Impact Awards.
2025 Wastebusters becomes an Environment Centre: Wastebusters joins Environment Hub Aotearoa.
2025 Wastebusters 2.0 project: Wastebusters turns 25 and launches project to extend site, upgrade facilities and add an education centre and C&D (construction and demolition) hub.
