Introducing Mōhio Para – Waste Wise

Published on 01 December 2021

There are SEVEN golden rules when it comes to reducing waste – they’re easy to remember, they all start with R.

And if we consider those rules when we’re buying something, or about to throw something out, then we’ll be able to reduce the amount of rubbish going to the landfill landfill.

So, what are the seven golden rules?

1. Refuse – say no to stuff that’s single use or wasteful.
2. Reduce – buy less stuff you don’t need.
3. Reuse – keep reusing it until it’s broken.
4. Repair – put stuff back into use by repairing.
5. Repurpose – create new jobs for old stuff.
6. Rot – compost all organic stuff e.g., dirty paper and food waste.
7. Recycle – when all else fails.

Some of these you’ll know well, for others you might need a few landfills to get started.

Our Waste Wise page has lots of handy information for each of the seven Rs.

Things like where you can recycle hazardous items like batteries, oil, and polystyrene, where you can take items to be repaired (yes, Upper Hutt has a Repair Café!), what saying no to junk mail can do, and even how to create a worm farm at home.

Helping households, community organisations and businesses in Upper Hutt to reduce, reuse and recycle as much as possible is a big goal for us, and for New Zealand, and the rest of the world!

Sometimes it feels like it’s such a big problem, how does what we do at home help? 

But by following these golden rules (the seven Rs), you’ll have a big impact on our environment.

This is the start of a much bigger conversation about reducing waste in our community but for now, go to check out our Waste Wise page and see what you can start doing today.