Fight fashion waste with the Six Items challenge

Keen, or want to know more? Sign up here

This March, Wastebusters is once again turning the spotlight on fashion waste by encouraging people to have a go at the Six Items challenge. (Yes, it’s back!)

Participants limit their wardrobe for a month, with the goal of rethinking their relationship with clothing as well as raising awareness about the waste, exploitation and environmental impacts of its production and disposal. 

Like last year’s challenge, participants commit to wearing just six main items for four weeks. Don’t panic, this excludes underwear, footwear, active wear, accessories or a jacket, plus this year we’re introducing some more accessible options:

The Straight Six

Limit your wardrobe to just six items for the month (not counting underwear, footwear, active wear, accessories or a jacket)

The Wildcard Six

Add one wildcard choice each week to your six items (plus underwear, footwear, active wear, accessories and jacket)

The Flexi-Six

Choose the number of items to suit your lifestyle – it could be 8, 10 or 12 (plus underwear, footwear, active wear, accessories and jacket)

Don’t let fear of failure put you off, any level of participation is worthwhile! By participating in Six Items, you’ll be part of the change by

  • saying no to fast fashion, and yes to quality clothing, repair, longevity, your own personal style and fair working conditions. 
  • inspiring others and changing attitudes. It’s the perfect opportunity to spread the word about the downside of fast fashion. 
  • having more time – you won’t have to think about what to wear. 
  • getting the satisfaction of taking up a challenge, with insights into what fashion means to you and how to make it work for you

We can support you throughout the Challenge with tips, information, and facts you can share. Remember to sign up even if you’re just thinking about it or want to know more about the issues involved.  

You can also join the Six Items conversation on social media by tagging Wastebusters. 

“Don’t try to be perfect. Don’t give up, bend the rules if you have to and above all think about the message. It can be a lot of fun. Even if you think you are well aware of the issues around fast fashion it will still get you thinking differently” – 2020 Six Items participant

From our General Manager - Na Tō Tātou Kaiwhakahaere

This year our amazing Wastebusters whānau has been busy keeping everything we can out of landfill and supporting resourcefulness in our community while also working on bringing our dream of Wastebusters 2.0 into reality.

We were humbled and absolutely stoked to take home the Wānaka Chamber of Commerce Business Awards Supreme Business Award, along with the Community Contribution and Business Sustainability awards. This success was a powerful recognition of the dedicated mahi of our entire team, giving us huge confidence for the ambitious journey ahead.

We welcomed Aviette Musin on a fixed-term contract as our new Programme Manager for Wastebusters 2.0. Her expertise provided the dedicated, focused capacity needed to accelerate progress on this strategic goal.

Funding was secured through Queenstown Lakes Community Composting Project for the Compost Collect pilot, a joint venture with our neighbours Wānaka Greenwaste that will turn commercial food scraps into valuable compost, launching in 2026. We also intensified our focus on Construction and Demolition (C&D) materials, trialling diversion methodology and securing initial partnerships to divert waste from landfill. With our current site so space-constrained, we are extremely limited in the C&D materials which can be accepted for reuse, but this work will lay the groundwork for future diversion on a bigger site.

We made a compelling case to the Council for the necessary land expansion for Wastebusters 2.0 and prepared for the MfE Waste Minimisation Fund application process to support our expansion plans. 

A continued focus for us this year has been on strengthening the Wastebusters whānau and ensuring we are equipped not just for the daily challenges, but for future growth. We continued to be a Living Wage employer, reflecting our commitment to the well-being and value of our staff. Feedback from the team via staff survey results highlighted strong morale and resilience within our workplace culture with 89% saying they enjoy working at Wastebusters and 93% feeling cared for by their manager. 

The district’s rapid growth brings challenges as well as opportunities, particularly the Ballantyne Road/Riverbank Road roadworks which demanded flexibility and good humour from our team and customers throughout 2024. Despite the road cones, ongoing community support ensured our Reuse Shop continued to be a first choice destination for both locals and visitors. Improved donation flows and adding new changing rooms has made the shop operation smoother and more efficient for everyone.

Wastebusters’ partnership with events continues to go from strength to strength: including the trial of a food scraps collection from vendors. And our Recycle team did the huge job of relabeling all our events recycling bins to align with national recycling colours, making it easier for event-goers to know what to do. Wastebusters recycling trucks continue to be a much-loved presence in town servicing our 408 business customers, with the team doing a great job of keeping our aging fleet serviceable, in line with our kaupapa of keeping resources in use for as long as possible. 

Our Reduce team has continued to deliver exceptional impact, with more than 11,000 people engaged in person through our education and engagement in the community. The Resourceful Communities programme inspires our community to take action and builds the knowledge and know how to engage in areas like repair, low waste living and textile waste diversion. It is proudly supported by QLDC’s zero waste district’s programme which recognises the impact of community connection for zero waste action. 

We were stoked to join Environment Hubs Aotearoa, and we look forward to collaborating with this network and amplifying our collective impact on environmental action and resourcefulness across Aotearoa.

We worked with an impact consultant to implement an evaluation framework and behaviour change model to better plan, deliver and measure our impact, and have begun rolling out our learnings across all our programmes.

It was a busy year in advocacy, starting with participation in QLDC’s Waste Management and Minimisation Plan process. We appreciated QLDC’s approach in bringing Wastebusters and other stakeholders in early in the process, which has resulted in a constructive plan for the next six years. Wastebusters has also made submissions on national and local level, including The Right to Repair Bill, the Container Return Scheme and the publicly notified resource consent for McDonald’s in Wānaka.

Ultimately, this year has been about delivering impact while building the foundations for a much larger and even more impactful operation, securing Wastebusters’ future for our community. The heart of our work remains resource recovery and community engagement, and we enter the next 25 years of zero waste leadership with great confidence, welcome community support and an unwavering focus. 

Gina Dempster

General Manager

November 2025

wastebusters yard team summer fair 2024

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