We’ve been working with businesses in the region for over two decades, helping them reduce their waste while improving efficiencies and their bottom line in the process.
Our workshops and guides help businesses move up the waste hierarchy, taking stock of their waste streams and looking at how they can reduce it.
Organisations know that changes are essential for a zero waste and zero carbon future and the message is clear: they need our support.
We have run business workshops with the Wānaka Chamber of Commerce, Destination Queenstown, Lake Wānaka Tourism and Wao Aotearoa to accelerate the region’s journey towards waste minimisation and a circular economy.
Many of our business events and resources are proudly supported by Queenstown Lakes District Council Zero Waste District Programme
These workshops have brought about real and meaningful change within the region. Organisations are now collaborating on ways to reduce their industry’s waste and engage with their suppliers to realise this. We’re here to get the conversations started, offer up our expertise and experience and help businesses take ownership of their waste minimisation strategies.
We have written industry-specific resource guides for the Queenstown Lakes District Council. These offer readily available, practical and attainable solutions to reducing waste in the key industries in the region. Getting started can often be the hardest part; we’re here to help you get over this first hurdle and see you on your way!
Environmental sustainability is now a key part of doing business. By minimising your waste, you can cut your disposal costs, reduce your carbon footprint, and build your brand’s reputation with staff and customers alike. Our general business waste minimisation guide will help you reduce your workplace waste.
From the office and reception to guest rooms and restaurants, local accommodation providers are finding practical and creative ways to reduce their waste and engage with their guests. Reviewing your suppliers, finding opportunities to go paperless and moving to refillable containers can make a world of difference.
It’s a known fact that people on holiday don’t always commit to waste minimisation as they would at home. This is your opportunity to help them! By providing reusable containers and cups, ensuring that they understand the region’s recycling and by including your waste minimisation strategies into your house comms, you might encourage your guests not only to reconsider how they travel but also how they tackle waste once they’re home.
Exciting things are happening in the hair and beauty industry, with businesses looking for opportunities to reduce their waste. Whether it’s using and selling products in reusable and refillable containers, moving away from single use items in the salon or connecting with recycling providers who can take specialist items, there are a number of changes you can make to reduce your salon’s waste.
Hospitality businesses can generate a lot of waste, in particular from single use items and food waste. Making a few changes to your systems and how you manage your waste can make a world of difference. With an increasing number of hospitality businesses in the region taking action, there’s a lot of support to be found and a lot of good ideas!
When it comes to reducing waste in the landscaping industry, a lot can be achieved by understanding industry recycling schemes, ensuring you’re using the region’s green waste facilities correctly and by composting wherever possible. Minimising your waste can create opportunities for creativity and for collaboration both within your industry but also within the broader community.
Statistics around office waste are mind-boggling. In this digital age, there are plenty of opportunities to go paperless while small changes like improving your recycling signage and removing waste bins can make a hugely positive impact to your business. Waste minimisation strategies are a great way to engage and collaborate with your team, encouraging their ideas while highlighting your business’ commitment to waste reduction.
Effective stock management, engaging with your suppliers to reduce their packaging and digitalising invoices and receipts are just some of the steps that retailers can take to reduce their waste and cut back their landfill costs. Within the region there are schemes to recycle surplus textiles and upcycle out-of-date uniforms and there are industry leaders whose waste minimisation initiatives offer great ideas and inspiration.
Research constantly shows that travellers are keen for sustainable options and making waste minimisation a part of your business makes for a great story and selling point. Communicating your zero waste initiatives and values to your guests from the outset will prepare them for their visit and immediately sow the seed of waste reduction in their mind.
You can’t take action without understanding the issue. This was the key takeaway from our Wānaka business workshop with Lake Wānaka Tourism, where local businesses shared their journeys towards waste minimisation. In smaller groups, attendees discussed their waste challenges and possible solutions. The message was clear: small changes can have big impacts, but collaboration is key. The energy for change was palpable!
With support from Destination Queenstown, we were thrilled to meet the Whakatipu business community and help them on their zero waste journey. Inspired by stories from local zero waste champions, attendees collaborated on solutions to reduce business waste. Despite varied challenges—ranging from ski fields to cafés—the vision was clear: running businesses with zero or near-zero waste. With shared ideas and our support, exciting changes are on the horizon!
Reducing waste is one of the easiest and most impactful ways for businesses to cut their carbon footprint. At the 2023 Wao Summit, we hosted a sold-out workshop during the Regenerative Tourism hui to drive this message home. Businesses joined working groups on topics like zero waste storytelling, recycling, food waste solutions, and supply chain waste. Each group discussed challenges and shared stories before creating realistic action plans for their businesses, reinforcing the power of collaboration and collective action.
With funding from the Queenstown Lakes District Council Zero Waste District Programme, we conducted eight waste audits with Wānaka and Queenstown businesses. From these audits, we produced some case studies and videos to inspire and help other organisations on their own zero-waste journeys.
Want our support? View our Business Consultancy page for more information on how we can help your business on your waste reduction journey.
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. 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 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.
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
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