Final Friday Favourites for July and my last as GM of SIFT. For all future enquiries for SIFT please email
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So here are the cool links that we have found in the past week:
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:
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.
Press article from last Friday tells us that the rubble from the Christchurch earthquake (and there is a lot – 4.25 million tonnes of rubble and 325,000 tonnes of silt) will go to a special Resource Recovery Park in Bottle Lake Forest Park, Burwood in Christchurch where it will be dumped and then sorted – some for reuse. This will help reduce the amount of reusable rubble going to Kate Valley Landfill. No doubt in the months to come there will be millions of more tonnes from buildings that might be structurally sound but the ground isn’t so they will have to come down as well to shore up the foundations. Update – this is being managed by Transpacific Industries Ltd.
Only some of the Bottle Lake Forest Park will be used as a Resource Recovery Centre – the rest will continue to be a great site for bikers and walkers.
Found out about Reverse Garbage (via Re-Nest) and it looks like a great idea that we could use here. It is available in only Brisbane and Sydney at the moment and is run by a non-profit that takes industrial “waste” destined for landfill and sells the items to local communities at discounted (really discounted) prices. There is a long list of the items that they have here and it shows just how many resources could be resused before ending up in landfill. The Super Shed, Waste Exchanges (by council) and Creative Junk are similar.
A nice little Friday interlude – a video of the Johnson family from the blog Zero Waste Home (USA). Everything looks so uncluttered and simplified and achievable. It would be great to be able to take our own containers for meat, cheese and fish as Bea Johnson does to our supermarkets. We look forward to reading more about what the Johnson family do to be zero waste.
Zero Waste Home Video - click on the image to go to the site to watch
Have a read of the blog and you might some new ideas and tips to make your life one with less waste.
A couple of entrepreneurial and environmentally positive locals from Christchurch are holding the Greatest Dress Sale Ever.
The sale is to be held on Saturday 4th December from 9am – 4pm at 86 Rattray Street, Riccarton. You can either get involved as a seller, a buyer or both!
For sellers: All you need to do is register by emailing
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. In the email please include; the size of the dress, the label, the style / brief description, the price you would like the dress sold for, and the minimum you would accept for the sale of the dress. If you want to sell your pre-loved dresses, there is a simple one-off fee, with no profit taken from the sale of your items.
$5 – ONE DRESS
$10 – TWO TO FIVE DRESSES
$15 – FIVE TO TEN DRESSES
$20 – TEN TO TWENTY DRESSES
The selling fee is to be deposited into a nominated bank account (please ask them via email) then drop your sale items of this week by arrangement through e-mail or at the sale address tomorrow (27th November), between 9am and 12pm. No more sale items will be accepted after Wednesday 1st December. Following the sale you will receive an email stating which items were sold and when to pick up your earnings!
For the buyers: The dress sale is on Saturday the 4th and it starts at 9am. Like all good sales it is advised that you get in quick to get the best picks. Private changing areas will be provided. So for all the women in Christchurch, gather your mothers, sisters, daughters and girlfriends and get involved with this fantastic local opportunity to Reduce, Reuse and Recycle.
This is a fantastic opportunity for all to get together for an enjoyable day while conciously shopping for your new (old) summer dress.
As with last week’s Green Collar Job Q&A with Simon from Wanaka Wastebusters we have not actually met Gina Dempster (also from Wanaka Wastebusters) but know that she is doing good green work. Gina looks after the communications for Wanaka Wastebusters, “pretty much anything that needs to be written is my responsibility” she says. That includes advertising, press releases, newsletters, leaflets and the website. “I work two days a week, and love the dynamic, unpredictable and energetic workplace here.” Before working at Wanaka Wastebusters, Gina was part of the media team for the Green Party in Parliament.
Here are her answers to our Green Collar Job Questions:
1. What do you do to live more sustainably (with a low impact) in your life?
I try not to throw too much out by recycling, composting, re-using things and fixing them up (although sewing is not my strong point so I have a whole basket of clothes waiting for mending day which never comes). I get satisfaction from finding the perfect second-hand object: old telephone poles to hold our deck up or a pair of nearly new ski pants for my sister. I grow most of our summer veggies and fruit, support local producers and avoid food packaging.
2. How do you live more sustainably at work?
At Wanaka Wastebusters our work is all about recycling, re-use and challenging people to think about what they really need. Our Green Christmas has been very popular over the last two years, encouraging people to give one-off gifts from our re-use shop. We have just insulated our office which means we get to take off our down jackets in the winter.
3. What do you think is the biggest environmental issue we need to deal with in Christchurch/New Zealand?
The current mode of thinking that resources are limitless.
4. What makes you smile?
Watching my four-year-old on his first ever powder run (he crashed all the way down).
5. What is your biggest pet peeve?
People who think they can’t make a difference, so it’s not worth trying.
6. What is your favourite colour and why?
Blue – because it’s the colour of the sky and the sea.
7. Do you have a favourite place in the world? Describe why?
Wanaka . I love seeing the mountains every day, especially against a clear sky at dusk.
8. What’s your connection to Sift?
Sift and Wanaka Wastebusters are working to minimise waste.
9. Do you remember your favourite teacher and why they were your favourite?
I think her name was Ms Gore, and she was my teacher in Std 2. I remember we studied medieval history and had a jousting tournament with newspaper swords. I got to be a knight and ride on two of my friends who were the horse – maybe they don’t remember that day so fondly.
10. What do you want to leave behind?
Happy kids (hopefully grown up by then). A world that values the earth.
11. What do you think the future will bring?
Sometimes I think chaos and darkness, but mostly I think communal strength and wiser ways of living.
12. Who is someone you really admire and why?
Barbara Kingsolver. For writing about things that matter.
13. What is happening outside your window right now?
It’s nearly dusk and the grey sky shows it’s that time when the temperature plummets. Time to go home and light the fire.
14. What is your favourite breakfast?
At the moment it’s scrambled eggs and gluten-free toast, or maybe some almonds and fruit.
15. What is the best piece of advice you can give us?
Once the wave forms, change happens quickly.
Lovely answers – thanks Gina. You can find more about Wanaka Wastebusters and the good work they are doing to reduce waste to landfill here.
Furniture is being moved around today in the office including the massive board table we bought last year being moved upstairs. Thanks to one of our trustees Dixon McIvor and his band of strong lifters! Hope they go okay moving the massive bits of glass! And the really early daffodils bought earlier in the week are still letting off a very spring fragrance and provide great loveliness throughout our working day as well!
A few great links have come our way over the past week:
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!”
