Waste not want not! Reuse, Reduce and Recycle

Hi, I’m Jo Dean, Zero Waste Co-ordinator representing the three Wairarapa District Councils.

With a background in community work and roles specializing in waste minimization, I hope that my experience will help empower the Wairarapa Community to fulfill our obligation to reduce the amount of waste we send to the landfill.

Zero Waste is our aspirational goal where we can empower our communities to consciously think more about reducing, reusing and recycling our waste so that we can further minimise the amount of waste we currently transport to the landfill.

Every year Wairarapa consumers throw 1000s of tonnes of rubbish into the landfill without a conscious thought of the future impact, this isn’t great for our environment and comes at increasing costs for our region. We are looking at options to find better ways.

As communities we must look at ‘waste’ as being a ‘resource not a problem’. We all generate waste through our daily activities, at home at work and when we are out and about, but waste does not need to be wasted.

Wairarapa already has many secondhand shops that enable us to reuse stuff we don’t need anymore. Bikes for Kids project, The Oversew Fashion Awards, Boomerang Bags and the regions Toy Libraries are just some examples of community-led events & activities that help with waste minimisation.

Enviroschools is another popular initiative that engages with our Wairarapa schools to teach and encourage our children how to become “waste free”.
It is only by empowering our communities to sort their waste and find ways to reduce reuse and recycle that we will achieve our Zero Waste goal.
Connect with me via email jo@cdc.govt.nz