Happened on this lovely educational song by Jack Johnson. It starts about a minute and half into the video. It’s a great little song to teach children about Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. You can watch another version on You Tube here – it gets stuck in your head for the rest of the day! “Because three it’s the magic number… Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. Reduce, Reuse, Recycle!”
recycle » Sift BlogPosts Tagged ‘recycle’The 3R’s from Jack JohnsonWednesday, July 21st, 2010 by AdminCountry Road with the Red Cross launches Fashion TradeWednesday, July 14th, 2010 by SophieRCountry Road with the Red Cross launches Fashion Trade, 1 July
Following on from Olivia’s blog on the Lyttleton Harbour Festival of lights and the ‘clothing swap-o-rama-rama’, we have found out that there is another opportunity for eco-friendly fashionistas to pay it forward with their well worn duds.
Introducing the launch of Fashion Trade on 1st July, being run by Country Road in co-operation with the Red Cross. Fashion Trade is a clothing donation program that focuses on rewarding Country Road customers, and their social conscience, by giving a $10 Country Road voucher to be spent in store on any item over $50 in value, when clothes are donated to the Red Cross (must include at least one Country Road item of clothing). Country Road is an international brand with 11 stores throughout New Zealand. The clothes are going directly to the Red Cross which has 6 shops in the Canterbury region, so you can be sure that your donation is reaching people in who are in need. More information on Fashion Trade here. or to find out more about the work of Red Cross visit www.redcross.org.nz
Spare a thought to the effects textiles have on local landfill every year: Textiles waste accounted for 4% of all waste to landfill in the 2007/08 year, which to make more tangible equates to approximately 126,000 tonnes. Think about every time you overfill your suitcase to go on holiday (it is about that much added to landfill per person per year).
Follow Country Road’s lead, and ask your favourite clothing retailers what they are doing to minimise the amount of textile waste that is landing in Canterbury’s landfills. As the consumers, our power is in our wallets; by preferring to spend with the brands that instill a social conscience and are actually reducing their impact on the environment, than less environmentally aware brands who are sure to follow suit.
This got us thinking of all the cool ways to reinvent your current wardrobe, or tips to reduce the amount of textile waste that is being sent to landfill.
1) Have a swapping session – (This really is one for the ladies!) – but it requires no money to change hands, just a big enough lounge to sprawl all of your no longer worn clothes, and sitting room for who ever else is invited to swap your clothes with. Beware, it can get ugly!
2) Quality over quantity. In a buy now society, sometimes it is hard to resist opening up the wallet and splurging on the current must haves. Restricting your buying to fewer, higher quality purchases, will ensure that they last beyond one winter and will take a lot longer before they reach landfill.
3) Be environmentally conscious when choosing what your clothes are made out of – We have wools from numerous animals, bamboo, mercot, cotton and hemp to name a few, these natural fibers wear beautifully – and if you shop carefully, a lot of labels are now listing their fair trade inclusion – so you know the farmers and manufacturers are getting a just deal too. So you no longer need to buy anything with poly in the ingredients list.
4) Buy vintage and second hand. There are lots of great second hand and vintage stores around Canterbury including places like Save Mart and also online like Trademe.
 Fashion Trade - www.countryroad.com Following on from Olivia’s blog on the Lyttleton Harbour Festival of lights and the ‘clothing swap-o-rama-rama’, we have found out that there is another opportunity for eco-friendly fashionistas to pay it forward with their well worn duds. Introducing the launch of Fashion Trade on 1st July, being run by Country Road in co-operation with the Red Cross. Fashion Trade is a clothing donation program that focuses on rewarding Country Road customers, and their social conscience, by giving a $10 Country Road voucher to be spent in store on any item over $50 in value, when clothes are donated to the Red Cross (must include at least one Country Road item of clothing). Country Road is an international brand with 11 stores throughout New Zealand. The clothes are going directly to the Red Cross which has 6 shops in the Canterbury region, so you can be sure that your donation is reaching people in who are in need. More information on Fashion Trade here. Or to find out more about the work of Red Cross visit www.redcross.org.nz Spare a thought to the effects textiles have on local landfill every year: Textiles waste accounted for 4% of all waste to landfill in the 2007/08 year, which to make more tangible equates to approximately 126,000 tonnes. Think about every time you overfill your suitcase to go on holiday (it is about that much added to landfill per person per year). Follow Country Road’s lead, and ask your favourite clothing retailers what they are doing to minimise the amount of textile waste that is landing in Canterbury’s landfills. As the consumers, our power is in our wallets; by preferring to spend with the brands that instill a social conscience and are actually reducing their impact on the environment, than less environmentally aware brands who are sure to follow suit. This got us thinking of all the cool ways to reinvent your current wardrobe, or tips to reduce the amount of textile waste that is being sent to landfill. 1) Have a swapping session – (This really is one for the ladies!) – but it requires no money to change hands, just a big enough lounge to sprawl all of your no longer worn clothes, and sitting room for who ever else is invited to swap your clothes with. Beware, it can get ugly! 2) Quality over quantity. In a buy now society, sometimes it is hard to resist opening up the wallet and splurging on the current must haves. Restricting your buying to fewer, higher quality purchases, will ensure that they last beyond one winter and will take a lot longer before they reach landfill. 3) Be environmentally conscious when choosing what your clothes are made out of – We have wools from numerous animals, bamboo, mercot, cotton and hemp to name a few, these natural fibers wear beautifully – and if you shop carefully, a lot of labels are now listing their fair trade inclusion – so you know the farmers and manufacturers are getting a just deal too. So you no longer need to buy anything with poly in the ingredients list. 4) Buy vintage and second hand. There are lots of great second hand and vintage stores around Canterbury including places like Save Mart and also online like Trademe. Friday FavouritesFriday, April 9th, 2010 by Admin Newspaper as Wallpaper from Re-Nest Happy Friday! Here are the cool things we have come across this week:
Story of Stuff does the Story of Bottled WaterTuesday, March 23rd, 2010 by Admin
Even though the video is aimed at the American audience it still has some excellent messages. Christchurch and Canterbury has great home grown tap water that we can use to keep us healthy and hydrated instead of imported bottled water. You can watch the video here: Story of Bottled Water Catalyst for ChangeSunday, March 7th, 2010 by Admin Source: Flickr Ed's Photostream 11 Butterfly The Sustainable Initiatives Fund Trust is a catalyst for change. We know (roughly) how much waste is generated, how much goes to landfill, what the negative environmental impacts are of that waste (leachate, toxins, global warming from methane emissions etc) and the amount of work and cultural behaviour change that is required to reduce how much waste is generated and sometimes that can be rather overwhelming and depressing. But, everyday we are reminded of those individuals, businesses and community groups who are doing good work and we are uplifted everyday by those we are helping to make the numbers better and improve the health of our environment – one step at a time, one day at a time. Sometimes it can take a few years from the start of the relationship to the final outcome of the project. And that final outcome may just be the first step in many steps to creating a sustainable and commercially viable process that can help to significantly reduce the amount of waste that goes to Canterbury’s landfills. It is about having a long term goal for our future – a sustainable Canterbury future where any waste generated is reused, recovered or recycled on shore first and where landfill and sending it offshore is the last resort (for all waste streams). But it will take time, patience, innovative ideas, advancement in technology, sound investment, collaboration (public and private partnerships), commitment, affecting cultural behaviour change, walking the talk, leading and being the catalyst for change. That is what SIFT is about – being a positive force for good as a social lender. We have profiled a few businesses that are leading in waste management on our blog in the past and you can see some of the good and impactful work that we have done here. We have a number of super exciting projects on the go at the moment that will make a difference to Canterbury’s waste and will let you all know in due course about what they are and what good they will do. If you are looking for funding for a project that will reduce the amount of waste going to Canterbury’s landfill or have a new idea that we could help with you can apply here. You can check out our Flickr photos here too. Friday FavouritesThursday, February 25th, 2010 by AdminIt’s a beautiful sunny end-of-summer day here in Christchurch (New Zealand). Back to blog posts now after concentrating on the new website. If you haven’t already go for a spin and check out what SIFT is all about. Lots of great projects that are making a difference to reducing the amount of waste that goes to landfill. We also have a few projects in the pipeline we are really excited about. The deadline for the government’s Waste Minimisation Fund is 5pm on Monday. If you miss out and have a project focussed on Canterbury try applying to SIFT. In the meantime here are the favourite links we have found from around the world:
That should keep you all going for a while. Have a great weekend.
 Suitcase Chairs via The Violet Hours via Apartment Therapy Unpackaged.Thursday, February 4th, 2010 by AdminAn often blogged about business that is taking a lead on selling products with little or no packaging is London’s Unpackaged store. Set up in 2006 to provide a better way to sell food you can only purchase items if you bring your own refillable storage containers with you. There are some items in cans and glass that can be recycled for purcahse and we love the wooden crates and super large paper bags that contain a range of fruit and vege. They only stock products that are good for the environment. As they say on their website recycling will not be enough to reduce the amount of packaging waste that goes to landfill so we need to consume items with little or no packaging first – again it’s about reducing our consumption to reduce our waste.  Source: Unpackaged  Source: Unpackaged  Source: Unpackaged  Source: Unpackaged For those living in Christchurch Piko (and Lyttle Piko in Lyttleton) is probably the closest wholefoods store that we have that also has a policy of bring your own refillable containers. Last year they celebrated their 30th birthday and are now a favourite of many who live sustainably. As well as great bulk produce (some organic) they have a great range of seeds (for growing your own produce – no packaging), fair trade goodies and organic goods. There is some packaging but most can be recycled. If you need to use a bag they have brown paper bags which can go straight in the compost.
Keep a look out for other ways to shop with less packaging – visit farmer’s markets, fruit and vege stores that package in old cardboard boxes, grow/make your own, reusable bags for the supermarket (especially reuse those plastic bulk bin bags) and recycle what packaging you do get. And for businesses – start looking at the amount of packaging you produce for your product (or service) and think of ways to reduce or provide packaging that can be recycled (or returned to you for recycling as part of a Product Stewardship scheme) or better yet – can you do without packaging? Reduce First, Reuse Second, Recycle Third and then only landfill if you really have to. Green Collar Job Q&A – Catherine GibsonTuesday, February 2nd, 2010 by Admin
 Catherine Gibson - SIFT's bookeeper This weeks Green Collar Job Q&A is with Catherine Gibson who assists SIFT in what it does by keeping the books and accounts in order. Thanks Catherine! 1. What do you do to live more sustainably (with a low impact) in your life? Recycle, recycle, recycle! Walk when I can and have a vegetable garden. 2. How do you live more sustainably at work? Recycle and bring lunch from home. 3. What do you think is the biggest environmental issue we need to deal with in Christchurch/New Zealand? Pollution, waste and hazardous substances. 4. What makes you smile? Puppies and babies. 5. What is your biggest pet peeve? Arrogant drivers. 6. What is your favourite colour and why? Purple – it’s rich, royal and wise. 7. Do you have a favourite place in the world? Describe why? South Bay, Kaikoura – my sanctuary. 8. What’s your connection to Sift? I’m the keeper of the books. 9. Do you remember your favourite teacher and why they were your favourite? Miss Thompson – she was pretty, kind & smart! 10. What do you want to leave behind? Four awesome adult children impacting their world! 11. What do you think the future will bring? Too much to put into a sentence. 12. Who is someone you really admire and why? Nelson Mandela – he had the faith to believe when it seemed hope was lost. 13. What is happening outside your window right now? The moon is rising. 14. What is your favourite breakfast? Muesli, fruit and yoghurt. 15. What is the best piece of advice you can give us? Always be true to what you believe and know to be right. Merry Christmas from SIFT.Thursday, December 24th, 2009 by Admin
 RecycleNow.org Cardboard Christmas Tree Merry Christmas to all who have been reading our blog posts for the past few months. Have a wonderful Christmas break what ever you end up doing and don’t forget to be conscious about the waste you will be producing (reduce, reuse, recycle). We are looking forward to relaxing in the Summer weather and recharging for a super busy 2010. We have lots of plans and projects in place to continue reducing the amount of waste that goes to Canterbury’s landfills and look forward to sharing the successes and challenges here. We will be signing off from the blog for a few weeks and won’t be back in the office till the 18th of January. Until then Merry Christmas and all the best for a sustainable 2010. Office-made Christmas decorationsFriday, December 18th, 2009 by AdminThis year we have made our Christmas decorations out of paper that we were going to recycle. Paper chains, paper snowflakes and a paper/cardboard snowflake wreath. The paper chains are being held together by a no-staple stapler (no unnecessary use of steel for staples). The wreath is from old cardboard, paper, a bit of glue and paper raffia from the handle of an old bag for the bow. A little bit of deft cutting and we have a lovely little Christmas theme all from waste paper! And it can all be composted on our return from holidays. A good bit of sustainability and creative craftiness in action. Might look to match the heat with the theme next year though!  Wreath and paper chain
 DIY snowflake wreath  Snowflakes |
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