Selected members of the Queenstown Lakes district community are set to be rewarded for dedicated waste minimisation efforts, with the return of the Zero Waste Awards.
A new top award - the Making it Happen Award - will net the recipient $1000, Queenstown Lakes District Council solid waste manager Stefan Borowy said.
Jointly sponsored by the council and Streetsmart (which operates the Wakatipu recycling centre), the award will be given to the business, school, individual, iwi or community group that enters the best waste-reduction project.
‘‘Projects in this category can range from cutting-edge to solid, proven ideas . . . we want to see them all,'' Mr Borowy said.
‘‘I'm sure there are businesses, individuals and groups with great ideas who need some cash to help reduce their waste. This is the perfect opportunity to get a plan . . . and make it happen.''
The Making it Happen Award will be judged on how much waste the project will divert from landfill and its alignment with the QLDC Waste Management Strategy.
The four other awards are the school award, the individual award and the business award - all for efforts towards reducing, reusing or recycling, plus an Innovate award for the most innovative solution to reduce, reuse or recycle.
‘‘There's lots of fantastic work going on in the Queenstown Lakes district to reduce waste, reuse and recycle, so I hope we get lots of entries.''
The awards ceremony will be held at the Millennium Hotel on Thursday, April 17.
- Entries for the awards opened last Friday and will close on Friday, April 4. Entry forms can be picked up from council offices and libraries in Queenstown and Wanaka, Wakatipu Recycling Centre, Wanaka Wastebusters or downloaded from www.qldc.govt.nz or www. wanakawastebusters. co.nz.
