Providing expert support packages & programmes to help organisations minimise their waste.
Helping businesses waste less and save more
Whether your business is focussing on carbon targets, improving efficiencies or reducing staff costs and time, looking at your waste management systems is a great place to start.
At Wastebusters, we provide zero waste expertise to help organisations of all sizes reduce waste, mitigate waste inefficiencies and reduce carbon. Every business has its own challenges and its own complexities, and many are time-poor. When you’re in the thick of it, it can be hard to identify priorities; that’s where we can help.
We have over 20 years of experience supporting businesses and we have the skills, expertise and connections to find practical and effective solutions. We’re also realistic. We know that what might work for one business doesn’t work for another so we meet every client where they are and use that as the starting point. Our knowledge is far reaching; our approach is tailored.
Sometimes a staff education workshop might be all that’s needed to bring about the changes to your waste minimisation strategies, but sometimes you might need a little more. Sometimes you don’t even know you need it! This is why our business consultancy services range from education to systems reviews, from waste minimisation plans to waste audits.
We’ve worked with B Corp businesses and Qualmark certified organisations and we’ve helped businesses put their sustainability plans into practice, turning those goals into more than just ideas.
We are often asked by businesses to provide workshop support in the form of interactive workshops, educational programmes, and tailored training materials. The challenges of seasonal staff or having team members who aren’t familiar with your region’s recycling systems can lead to contaminated recycling, increased waste to landfill and unnecessary related waste management costs.
Our education services are a cost-effective way to make sure your whole team is on board with your waste reduction goals.
Waste sorting 101
Recycling 101
Organics and Composting 101
Waste Minimisation Plans are a vital tool when it comes to reducing business waste. Sitting alongside your Sustainability Plan, a waste minimisation plan is your company’s roadmap to reduced waste.
We work closely with your team to analyse and understand current practices and develop measurable strategies for minimising waste and improving operational efficiency.
Our solutions focus on minimising waste, improving recycling systems, encouraging reuse, and developing long-term, sustainable waste reduction plans, entirely tailored to your operations, team and capacity
Waste audits are a valuable tool for organisations committed to reducing waste and disposal costs. By establishing a clear baseline, we identify problem waste streams, highlight opportunities for improvement and provide practical recommendations to reduce waste at the source or divert it to recycling or composting.
Our smaller-scale waste reviews focus on the most common or problematic waste streams, using visual inspections, sorting and weighing to identify key opportunities without the need for a full audit. You’ll receive practical recommendations to help your team make measurable improvements.
Millbrook staff are passionate about reducing waste, with a number of environmental champions in the business as well as strong leadership from the Environment Committee. Wastebusters found they could build on existing practices to make significant inroads towards zero waste.
Glendhu Bay Motor Camp hosts up to 2,000 holiday-makers at the height of the summer so they have to deal with a huge amount of waste. By sending food waste to a neighbouring farmer’s worm farm, improving their recycling areas and working hard to educate staff and guests alike, Glendhu has already seen a significant decline in the amount of waste destined for landfill.
An events venue as well as a working vineyard and winery with onsite tasting room, Rippon has a number of different waste streams to manage. As a certified biodynamic vineyard, Rippon has had to consider how to process significant food and green waste that comes from external, non-organic sources.
Small changes in the office environment, with compost bins in the kitchen, improved recycling areas and staff education was all it took to reduce Mons Royale’s office waste. The team is constantly looking for new ways to reduce their plastic packaging and offer repair options to extend the life of their clothing.
The “green” in Green Fox is about having an environmental ethos through all arms of business, and waste is a key part of this. All of Green Fox’s waste is diverted from landfill but a key challenge for them is working with their suppliers to find recyclable alternatives to many of their landscaping essentials.
The Kinross team is supportive of making positive changes to be a more sustainable business. As a varied and diverse business, one of the big challenges for Kinross in their waste minimisation journey was knowing what waste stream to tackle and how to prioritise their next steps.
GET IN TOUCH
If you would like further information or want to have a chat about any of our waste consultancy services please get in touch.
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!