The end of the year has a funny way of making us reflect. Drawers get tidied, cupboards are opened, and suddenly we notice just how much stuff we’ve gathered over the year. Maybe it’s the thought of Christmas – knowing the kids will soon have more things, or a good tidy and sort before the summer holiday period begins.
For many of us, it’s also a season of giving – to whānau, friends, and our wider community. One of the simplest and most meaningful ways to do that is by donating thoughtfully to Wastebusters at this time of year.
When consumption tends to ramp up, donating good-quality pre-loved items is a powerful way to support a more sustainable Christmas in our local community. Your donation helps someone else find what they need second-hand, keeps items circulating locally, and means we collectively send less stuff to landfill. It’s a kind of generosity that doesn’t require buying anything new.
To make sure the items we resell in our shop and yard can truly make a difference – whether that’s helping reduce the need to buy new this Christmas or allowing someone to invest in a beautifully made, quality gift – we rely on donations that are well cared for and still have plenty of life left in them. Quality clothing, furniture, books, toys and household goods help keep everyday essentials affordable for local families, while reducing waste across the district.
Less waste, more good.
Clean, resellable donations make the biggest difference behind the scenes here, too. They enable our team to reuse more, waste less, and reinvest value back into our local sustainability initiatives – from educational programmes to community support.
Quality donations also help keep our reuse operation strong, supporting local green jobs and enabling us to employ more than 50 staff on a living wage. Every thoughtful donation plays a part.
You’re part of the zero-waste cycle
When you donate items in great condition, you help us support over 85 local schools and community groups while closing the loop – reducing waste, supporting people, and strengthening our community. A small action that creates a powerful ripple of positive impact.
So as the year winds down and you’re clearing space at home, thank you for choosing to donate thoughtfully. You’re not just passing something on – you’re helping create a more resilient, connected and sustainable community.
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!