The Otago Community Trust (OCT) is currently asking people across Otago a simple but important question: What matters most to you?
Your feedback throughout their engagement campaign: What Matters Most, will help to shape how OCT supports communities through their funding over the next few years – so it’s a great chance to make sure the things you really care about (like Wastebusters!) are heard.
Some of the Wasties crew recently headed along to one of their sessions here in Wānaka. It was a great chance to listen, learn and contribute to a conversation about what our communities need most to thrive – from sustainability and education to local community connection, affordability and resilience.
Why does this conversation matter?
Here in Wānaka, we are facing plenty of challenges and opportunities. Our district is growing, our environment is under pressure, and people are looking for local solutions that support wellbeing, affordability and community resilience more than ever.
At Wastebusters, we’ve always been big believers in people-powered local solutions. Through initiatives like Wastebusters 2.0, we’re exploring how we can continue to provide the social infrastructure, resource recovery opportunities, upskilling and connection that our community needs into the future to stay resourceful, sustainable and connected well into the future. Together, we can help ensure that Wānaka and the wider Central Otago remain leaders in community-led environmental action.
The OCT engagement campaign and survey highlights themes that feel especially relevant to the future of our community – and to the work that happens every day here at Wastebusters. Sustainability and the environment, community involvement, learning and education, health and wellbeing, and cost of living.
These are areas where we feel local action can make a big difference. Whether it’s through reducing waste to landfill, sharing skills, creating local sustainable jobs, or supporting people to live more affordably and sustainably, these are the threads that keep our community strong and connected.
Have your say!
If you would like to share what you think matters most for the future of our district, OCT is welcoming feedback through their What Matters Most campaign. It’s a simple way to help shape future support for the things you feel are important. If any of the themes above speak to you – Wastebusters 2.0, sustainability, community involvement, education, resilience and affordability – we’d love you to mention it in your feedback or conversations.
You can take part by attending of their hui or filling out the survey on the link below:
Take the Survey or Attend a Community Hui Here! : Otago Community Trust
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
Let us know what you love & what we could do better & you’ll go into the draw to win a $250 restaurant voucher!