Sand Art by Jim Denevan

Can’t believe that this is the last friday of July. The daffodils are already pushing their green tips through the hard, frosted ground. Big frost here today. The days are getting noticebly longer with more light in the mornings and evenings. Soon we will be able to spend more time outside breathing in the fresh Canterbury air (and planting the vegetables to reduce our packaging waste!).

Had a lovely drive to Rangiora yesterday to visit Enterprise North Canterbury and then took an inland road to Amberley to visit Hurunui District Council. Today we are off to Ashburton District Council and then we will have met nearly everyone who looks after solid waste for the individual districts. Kaikoura, MacKenzie and Selwyn to go. It is great to get out of the office and remind ourselves of all of the businesses, individuals and other organisations doing good green work (or who might need financial assistance from SIFT) in the region.

Here are this week’s great finds that you might find interesting:

• Live in or near Nelson – or feel like a trip to the sunniest spot in New Zealand? Visit the 2010 EcoFest Nelson.
• Illegal dumping of waste seems to be on the rise but needs to be stopped – how hard is it to dispose of the waste you produce? This guy obviously found it hard but was fined for doing it.
• This is why we need to start living more sustainable with less impact – this is our home. It is apart of this.
• No Impact Man’s great tips on creating change in your organisation. Want more – check out our blog post about this here.
• Why Doing One Thing does make a difference.
• The Empire State Building is going green here.
• Plastiki made it!
• Cool waste bin labels – we upgraded ours.
• Worldometers - there are some scary numbers here (especially the number of species extinct this year).
• Watch this great video on how e-waste is broken down into reusable parts – here.

Have a great waste free weekend.