Ever been bothered by seeing cigarette butts dropped on the ground? A US company has found a way to recycle cigarette butts..read more about the initative here:

Yay! AZWA staff and volunteers recently worked at Brazilian Day Festival to help reduce the amount of festival waste going to landfill. Before the event AZWA contacted all food vendors to share compostable packaging options, and at the event staff managed a 3-bin system (compostables, recyclables, landfill), guiding the public on which bin to put their waste in. Big thanks to Kath our Zero Waste Event Manager and our volunteer group - Cook Island Outrigger Canoe Club!

At New World Bishopdale, customers are now able to purchase fresh, delicious fruit and vegetables due to the installation of a new refrigeration shelving system for fresh produce that allows them to display fruit and vegetables without plastic packaging.

“Without a doubt, there is a growing awareness of environmental issues amongst our customers. The use of reusable bags is growing at a staggering rate, due in part to our decision to go plastic bag free by the end of 2018. But it doesn’t stop there. Our team and our customers are challenging us more and more about the part we are playing to mitigate waste issues.”

The store is also stocking reusable string bags so that people can weigh and carry their produce without using any plastic, and Nigel says these are proving popular.

“A change like this means we have to look at the whole system. We’re working closely with our suppliers to look at how we can reduce packaging throughout the supply chain and in areas other than produce. The knock-on effects on our stores, our customers and the environment will be really positive as we all get to grips with a new way of working and shopping.”

Underwater photographer Justin Hofman took this shocking photo...read full article here

From the great team who brought us The Story of Stuff Project, comes another fantastic video about how our synthetic clothing is polluting waterways with microfibres when we wash them. A must see: Link to video

A first-of-its-kind investigation from Orb Media found the pervasive material in tap water supplies around the world, too. 159 drinking water samples across five continents were analysed over a ten-month period.

The results indicated that plastics are just about everywhere—83 percent of the samples tested positive for the presence of tiny plastic particles, aka microplastics. Link to EcoWatch article

A new study highlights how our laundry contributes to major oceanic pollution. Microfibers get flushed into our waterways when we wash our clothing or other textiles.

"Microfibers are tiny plastic threads shed from synthetic fabrics like polyester, rayon and nylon. These fabrics currently make up 60 percent of all clothing worldwide and their use as the dominant textile materials [is] dramatically on the rise. When washed, plastic microfibers break off and a single jacket can produce up to 250,000 fibers in washing machine effluent. Less than 1 mm in size, they ultimately make their way through wastewater plants and into marine environments where they have been found to enter the food chain. Microfibers make up 85 percent of human made debris on shorelines around the world according to a 2011 study."

You might not be able to see microfibers with the naked eye but the material is pervasive in our environment and can make its way up the food chain, according to The Story of Stuff:

"The ocean is the endgame for plastics," marine biologist Abigail Barrows, a principal investigator with Adventure Scientists, told PBS Newshour.

About half the samples were plastic microfibers and the other half were non-plastic microfibers such as cotton or wool.

For the study, researchers collected 142 water samples throughout the length of the Hudson River, USA and found about one microfiber per liter. That's a lot when you consider that this endless stream of human-made fibers ultimately ends up in our oceans. Full story

An old biscuit factory has become home to the country's first PET recycling plant, saving more than 200 million plastic bottles from the tip. Full article

Living a Zero Waste Lifestyle – Wednesday 4 October 7 pm in the Matakana Community Hall

Hannah and Liam are travelling the country (mostly on bicyles) giving talks on how to live without generating waste. Check out their website here

Mahurangi Wastebusters is delighted to be hosting them in our community. All welcome! Bring food for a shared meal afterwards.

Mahurangi Wastebusters is delighted to be offering a Repair Cafe in the Matakana Hall on Saturday 16 September from 2 – 5 pm. Repair Cafes are an international movement which aim to bring people together to fix broken things, instead of throwing them away and filling up the landfills. We’re inviting handy volunteers to come along and be the fixers and share their skills and members of the community to bring things along for fixing: toys, bicycles, small furniture or electrical items, clothes, socks, knives and tools for sharpening. We can’t guarantee we’ll be able to fix everything, but it should be a fun learning experience. Come and lend a hand!

Project Litefoot is a charitable trust led by ten of NZ's top sportspeople, and seeks to inspire New Zealanders to be environmental...one of their projects involved launching a Waste Minimisation Netball Academy at Trust Waikato Hamilton City Netball Centre. The Litefoot team - including Claire Keeling, (one of AZWA's original Zero Waste Event Facilitators - yay!) installed colourful recycling stations around the courts to help divert plastics and cans from landfill. If your sports club is interested in launching its own Waste Minimisation Academy, get in touch with Claire at claire@liteclub.org. Awesome effort LiteClub! Check out their videorecording of the event..and here's a link to their website http://www.projectlitefoot.org/

Sign the Greenpeace petition to ban plastic bags in NZ. Greenpeace reports that plastic bags are killing our marine life, including turtles who mistake them for food. One in three turtles found dead on New Zealand beaches have swallowed plastic.SIGN THEIR PETITION NOW TO BAN THE BAG

Make this fantastic planter box from pallets, perfect for veggies! Find out how here

Love Titirangi is on a mission to make make Titirangi plastic bag free. See their Facebookpage for more info.

Plastic Free July aims to raise awareness of the problems with single-use disposable plastic and challenges people to do something about it. This is a world-wide challenge involving over 130 countries. Sign up to the challenge here

Help ban the use of plastic bags in NZ by 2020 by signing this petition:

In Central Auckland a group of waste champions, led by zero waste blogger Amanda Chapman, have embraced the overseas trend of community fridges as a way to reduce food waste and share excess food to those in need.

The fridge which is situated in the pop up Griffith Garden in Auckland's CBD, is stocked by businesses and individuals. Operating 24 hours a day, food in the fridge is available free for anyone who is hungry. A cool idea!

Plastic-eating caterpillars known as “wax worms” may one day help reduce the global pollution crisis, a study revealed. Researchers have described the tiny caterpillar’s ability to break down even the toughest plastics as “extremely exciting” and said the discovery could be engineered into an environmentally-friendly solution on an industrial scale.

CLICK HERE for more info

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New Zealand's first zero plastic and zero packaging bulk wholefoods store has arrived!

GoodFor is a ‘wholefoods refillery’ where you can bring your own container to fill up on various grocery items. Founder James Denton was inspired to found GoodFor after being sparked by “the ridiculous amount of waste we create.” According to Statistics New Zealand, the proportion of packaging waste that Kiwis recycle has doubled since 1994, but packaging consumption has also risen – each New Zealander uses 162kg of packaging per year. Go check it out: the address is 2 Williamson Ave, Grey Lynn - near Countdown.

A recent survey by Greenpeace found that five global soft drinks companies sold a combined two million tonnes of single-use plastic bottleseach year. And only 7% of single-use plastic bottles is made from recycled materials. Greenpeace wants soft drinks brands to do more to tackle marine plastic pollution, for example by producing more 100% recycled bottles and committing to phasing out the use of throwaway plastic.

The firms surveyed were Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, Suntory, Danone, Dr Pepper Snapple and Nestle, but Coca-Cola would not disclose how many tonnes of plastic it sells; if their figures were able to be included then the yearly tonnage figure would be much much higher, Greenpeace said.

Louise Edge, senior oceans campaigner at Greenpeace said: “We know that plastic bottles are a huge ocean-polluter. If we’re going to protect our oceans we need to end the age of throwaway plastic.

“Companies need to move away from single-use plastic, embrace reusable packaging and make sure the rest is made from 100% recycled content.”

Single-use drinks bottles are a visible part of the problem of plastics pollution in the world’s oceans, forming the most common type of plastic packaging found washed up on shorelines globally, Greenpeace said. Millions of tonnes of plastics are ending up in the ocean every year, harming marine wildlife, taking centuries to break down and spreading toxic chemicals.