Anna’s tips to make the most of your second-hand treasures

Colourful queen of reuse Anna has mastered the art of shopping her style. Her wardrobe bursts with vibrant colours, quirky accessories and funky patterns. In this blog, we’ll explore Anna’s style secrets on making the most out of your secondhand treasures.

Anna’s golden rule: “There’s no such thing as a clash.” She rocks signature monochromatic looks, effortlessly blending various shades of the same colour. Picture bright red Converse paired with a slightly darker skirt, topped by an even brighter red top and a dash of pink with a jacket. The result? A playful, unconventional outfit that defies fashion norms. This also works with patterns and prints too, creating stylish ensembles with slight variations of leopard prints.

Layering is another key element in Anna’s fashion playbook. Often combining colourful, patterned long sleeves with playful short-sleeve tops, effectively showcasing her favourite features from both garments in a single outfit.

“One of my latest favourite looks is popping a sweater on top of my collared shirt, with the collar peeking out. The collar works great as an accessory, and the sweater also covers a stain in the shirt that I haven’t been able to remove. It’s a win-win.”

What truly sets Anna’s style apart is her accessory game. Sporting funky sunglasses or a big chunky necklace is another playful way to enhance an outfit. Her most noteworthy accessories are her homemade earrings, made from repurposed materials such as cutlery or children’s toys, often found in reuse shops.

Anna’s fashion senses come alive while opshopping, where she uncovers unique twists on items like jeans with hand-embroidered pockets or denim jackets adorned with fun badges. Her top thrifting tip? Always try on items and stroll around the shop to ensure comfort in those shoes, ease in those trousers, and confidence in that jacket.

Anna believes that shopping your own style should be a fun way to artistically express yourself. It makes getting ready for the day more exciting knowing that she gets to start her morning on a fun note.

To embrace your style like Anna, remember: there’s no such thing as a clash, layering enhances an outfit (and hides stubborn stains), op shopping yields unique treasures, the more accessories the better, and most importantly, have fun with it!

Love this!? Check out Reuse icon Emma’s shopping secrets here.

Anna’s tips to make the most of your second-hand treasures

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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