One Aucklander has helped his household of 11 people downsize their waste and now they create less than one bin of rubbish a week.
Koia Teinakore became interested in minimising waste while he was a bus driver. One day, he dropped passengers off at a zero-waste learning centre and decided to sit in on classes.
He was hooked straight away and now helps other families downsize waste in his role at the Mangere East Family Services Centre.
With his help, his family has whittled their waste down to one rubbish bin or less a week between all 11 of them. But up to about seven years ago, they would throw out about five rubbish bags a week, so Teinakore showed his family "very dramatically" the amount of waste they all create.
"I just had to tip a rubbish bag out in front of them and see what we're producing throughout the week," he told The Project.
Another inspiration to minimise his waste was his grandchildren, because he doesn't want them cleaning up rubbish in years to come.
"If grandad starts now, then hopefully it can rub off onto them. And for them to know that waste can be a resource now," he said.
"They've got good ears, they listen, so it's pretty easy teaching our mokopuna how to reduce. Getting them in the garden with me, getting them to get their hands into the dirt, that's very important to me for them to understand where food comes from and how it's grown."
In his garden at the moment, he's growing a range of winter vegetables.
"We've got our leeks, we've got our hardy beetroot that's growing, our lettuce is all growing hard-out, just our basic simple winter feeds."
His top three tips for people who want to minimise their waste are taking reusable bags when you go shopping, buying in bulk, and comparing products in-store so you can buy one with less packaging.
