Final Friday Favourites for July and my last as GM of SIFT. For all future enquiries for SIFT please email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

So here are the cool links that we have found in the past week:

• Update from Re-Nest blogger Landis Carey on her goal of living with less
• An idea on how to reuse old materials scraps (via Re-Nest)
• Great idea for the summer – reusing old wine bottles as water carafes – so easily and stylish (also via Re-Nest)
• Some gorgeous Furoshiki over on Frolic Blog.

Have a great waste free weekend.

Transglass Bottles via This Is Glamourous

Yesterday at the SIFT July Board Meeting the Trustees voted in a new trustee. We welcomed Dairne Poole to the team which now brings the trustee numbers up to 5. Hopefully, in the near future we will do a little post on her and her thoughts for SIFT but for the moment we welcome her as a great new addition to help SIFT achieve its objectives.

Here are a few cool links we have found this week:

• Gorgeous re-designed glass bottles from Transglass via ThisIsGlamorous.
• Love these simple yet stylish reusable food storage systems via ReNest.
• The MfE announced that it will be funding a $700,000 grant for Envirocomp (nappy composting) through the Waste Minimisation Fund to develop a plant in Wellington – go Envirocomp!
• Heard of Poetry Bombing? Check out this great video of a poetry bomber in Miami, USA via Good USA.
• Another bit of stylish design – this time a flat pack DIY beehive (via ReNest).
• Slow Living Essentials looks into Sow.Give.Grow-  leaving packets of seeds around the neighbourhood/city for people to take – great idea for expanding and growing the use of own-grown food. More here.

Have a great waste free weekend.

No blogging this week due to some extra aftershocks on Monday that has thrown everyone’s week. The SIFT is okay but there is a new lot of liquefaction being cleaned up.

We did come across this great little video today about a new packaging free store to open in the US. It would be great to have more of these in Canterbury. Click on the image below to go to the video. Sourced originally from Re-Nest.

A version in the UK is Unpackaged. Lovely store. We blogged about it here a while ago.

Have a safe weekend.

Meal in Jar - great lunch/snack idea with reusable packable. Source: BlackEiffiel via The Decorated Cookie

Read on below for this week’s list of great links and interesting finds:

• One man’s trash is another man’s treasure.
• Paper water bottles for 2015.
• San Francisco bans often wasteful phonebook distribution.
• Commendable cellotape producer responsibility from 3M.
• Shipwrecked.
• Sustainable toothbrush options from My Plastic Free Life.
• A good read on the stark reality of life without oil
• Meal in a Jar - more here.

Have a great waste free weekend.

Source: Re-Nest via Just a Girl

Here are this week’s favourite links from around the world:

• From glass jar to travel mug! Plastic free living from Re-Nest – make it yourself.
• Ever wondered how to responsibly dispose of batteries?
• Sustainable computer hardware  – awesome felt mouse.
• Reinventing the wheel with this great rug.
• A step forward for New Zealand’s environmental management – the EPA
• A giggle on the subject of climate change
• Toilet Paper Tube Wall Art (see photo above).

Have a great waste free weekend. Remember every little habitual change helps.

Source: Re-Nest

Here are some great links we have found over the past week on sustainability, waste and plastic:

• Sustainability vs. Renewability – A Love Affair
• Plastic fantastic? A great read that will give you the true long-term effects of the world’s obsession with plastic in every-day life.
• Seven basics to help you maintain sustainability
• Your chance to be part of something BIG that will educate, inspire and encourage recycling!
• Proving that reusing and recycling can be fantastically stylish: the chair made from recycled refrigerators
• DIY recycled plastic bag pendant light from Re-Nest

Have a great waste free weekend.

Hagley Park Christchurch Autumn via Gardenz

Here are few interesting links we have come across recently:

• Latest projects to receive funding from the Waste Minimisation Fund.
• UK Neighbourhood has an genius way to track their electricity consumption.
• Great YouTube video of some DIY lighting – with plastic milk bottles.
• New New Zealand website with green living resources – Greener Living
• A blog post on why a writer for Good USA didn’t turn off for Earth Hour – here.

Have a great waste free weekend.

Flash Dunny Video from NZ Herald

The mornings are getting cooler and the leaves are turning and every day a little bit more sad news on the state of our city comes through. It is really starting to hit home that it is going to take years to recover from the earthquake.

But, on a positive note there are still a lot of people doing good things in the world and here are our favourite and interesting links from the past week:

• NZ Herald video of the collaboration between architect Russell Devlin and H2Flow to make comfortable and environmentally friendly composting toilets for those without loos in Christchurch, out of old recycling crates. Watch the video.
• Pepsi is developing a bottle made entirely of plant materials. More here from NZ Herald.
• A great infographic from Good Magazine (USA) on waste in space.
• The Ministry for the Environment has released some guidelines on the safe disposal of Waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) here.
• Ideas on how to kick the paper habit from Re-Nest and how not to use plastic bags as rubbish bags.
• The winners photos from the 2011 Prix Pictet photo competition – Mitch Epstein on American Power (via the Guardian).
• Great photos on Junk Culture from artist Todd McLellan’s Dissassembly project.

Have a great waste free weekend.

Kate Valley Landfill (SIFT photo)

Here are some interesting tid bits we have found in the past week:

• Ministry for the Environment is funding a project to make recycled plastic into road cones.
• A nice article from ReNest on “why sustainability is boring and consuming less is not the answer“.
• Awesome video on the Good USA site on climate change from the next generation.
• Have you checked out Unpackit’s Facebook page – you can see what people are submitting as the best and worst packaging in NZ.
• New movie coming our way (soonish) called Carbon Nation.
• Could you go plastic free for a month? That’s the challenge over on the Huffington Post.
• Hot Topic discusses a new 100% Renewable Energy Report from WWF.
• Rugs made from recycled plastic straws.
• Great video showing how we are all connected – from the WWF.
• And another great video on why we need to halt CO2 emissions now (via Hot Topic).

Have a great waste free weekend.

Source: Free Fashion Challenge The Life of Clothes

February is here already! Here are a few of the interesting waste and sustainability links we have found this week for you to enjoy at the end of the first week of February.

• Got a small kitchen and not sure where to put your compost bin – ideas from Re-Nest here.
• Beth Terry from My Plastic Free Life gives a few pointers on travelling plastic free.
• How to be more organised with meal planning from Zero Waste Home.
• Biodegradable PET plastic bottle putting a spanner in the works for USA plastic bottle recyclers here.
• Reduce textile waste by having a Mend It party
• Ted Talk from Eben Bayer who has invented a new type of packaging made from mushrooms.
• Lots from the Beehive recently:

1. Green Growth Fund initiative announced.
2. New Clean Air goal posts.
3. The BlueGreens Key note speech from the Hon. Dr. Nick Smith last weekend in Akaroa.
4. Public input requested for new National Policy Statement on Biodiversity

Have a great waste free weekend. Are you trying anything new to reduce your waste this weekend?