At Wastebusters, we believe change starts with a good idea and a lot of community energy. That’s exactly how the Unpackit Awards were born. A bold, fun and thought-provoking campaign that let everyday New Zealanders have their say on the best and worst packaging in the country.
Wastebusters launched the Unpackit Awards in 2010 from Wānaka, with some big goals:
Why packaging? Because it’s everywhere. And often, it’s completely unnecessary, hard to recycle, or destined for the landfill. We wanted companies to rethink their packaging decisions, and guess what, it worked.
Each day, Kiwis send a staggering amount of single-use packaging waste to landfills, which could be reduced, reused, or avoided altogether through smarter packaging solutions. Unfortunately, packaging waste doesn’t vanish – it piles up in landfills, pollutes our environment and affects our communities. The Unpackit Awards were designed to help Kiwis see the problem and take action, one vote (and one shopping choice) at a time.
The Unpackit Awards ran from 2010-2013, and was proudly powered by the people. Wastebusters didn’t pick the winners, they were decided through public votes. In 2013 alone, over 15,500 people cast their votes for the best and worst packaging in New Zealand. That year, a Countdown product earned a third of all votes for Worst Packaging – proof that the public was paying attention.
Thanks to the Waste Minimisation Fund’s support in 2012 and 2013, the Unpackit Awards were able to grow from a local spark into a national movement. That support was crucial in building momentum around what was then a low-priority issue and is now a common conversation that many of us are having.
The awards didn’t just call out the worst offenders. They also celebrated the best packaging solutions, giving sustainable innovators a platform and a voice. Take Potatopak, our inaugural Best Packaging Award winner in 2012. Made from waste potato starch, these home-compostable takeaway containers are a smart, scalable alternative to polystyrene trays.
Looking back, the Unpackit Awards were a bold and people-powered push to get packaging waste on the national agenda. We hope the campaign not only helped shift public perceptions, but also contributed to influencing how producers and the government approach packaging choices toay and what it looks like in the future.
Thanks to the Waste Minimisation Fund’s support in 2012 and 2013, the Unpackit Awards were able to grow from a local spark into a national movement. That support was crucial in building momentum around what was then a low-priority issue and is now a common conversation that many of us are having.
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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