Grey Lynn 2030 Transition Community

The Unpackit crew will be at the Grey Lynn Market on Sunday 17th April, encouraging people to have their say in the 2011 Unpackit Packaging Awards. The crew will be performing skits from their travelling roadshow which includes chip-pack juggling, wrapper rapping and bananas on stilts who break free from their packaging.

The 16 finalists in the 2011 people’s choice awards for the best and worst packaging in New Zealand will be on display at the market. People will be able to vote for their pick of the “Best” and “Worst” finalists at the market. Votes can also be made online at www.unpackit.org. More than 4,000 votes have been received since the shortlists were announced on 29th March.

Roadshow organiser Ivy Willmott said the crew was looking to visiting one of the partner communities for the project. We’ve been really lucky with the support we’ve had from the Grey Lynn 2030 Waste Away focus group, and it will be great to catch up with them in person.”

Ms Willmott said the Unpackit roadshow had had a great reception at schools and markets.
“We’ve found at the markets that we get a crowd around us, because people are so keen to talk about packaging and to vote in the awards” she said. “That’s what this project is about, getting people talking and thinking about good packaging so they can make good choices.”

Awards organiser Sophie Ward said the 16 finalists had been narrowed down from over 100 nominations. “We were surprised to find that nearly all of the eight “Best” finalists are from small to medium-sized New Zealand businesses, with the exception of Speight’s. “For most of the Best finalists, the packaging is part of the brand they’re creating and they’ve put a lot of thought into it. “Some of the best packaging is made from recycled materials, or from a waste stream – such as Potatopak which is made from starch waste from potato chip manufacturers.” All of the “Best” finalists are fully recyclable and/or home compostable.

In contrast, all of the eight “Worst” finalists are destined to end up in the rubbish bin, because they can’t be recycled or composted. “All of the eight “Worst” finalists use more packaging than they need to, most of them are what I would call excessive,” said Ms Ward. “I don’t know whose bright idea it is to individually wrap Sunsweet’s prunes, but I haven’t met one person on the roadtrip so far who doesn’t think that it is absolutely ridiculous.”

Ms Ward said the eight “Worst” finalists had also failed to label their plastics with an identifying number in a triangle (with the exception of Cadbury Drinking Chocolate who did label their plastic lid). As a result, the plastics couldn’t be properly recycled.

Ms Ward said she encouraged everyone to come down and enjoy the roadshow. “Anyone who can’t make it, can view the finalists and vote by going to the Unpackit website www.unpackit.org.The winners of the awards will be announced May 6th.

The Unpackit Roadshow of Joy will be at the Grey Lynn Farmers Market on Sunday 17 April

In the March issue:

Creating urban bio-corridors
Neighbours Day
Grey Lynn Farmers Market
Waste Away
Grey Lynn Business Association
Green Screen 2011
Christchurch fundraising afternoon tea

To receive the newsletter directly email greylynn2030@gmail.com

Check out the news from Wanaka Wastebusters – Competition, wew website www.unpackit.org.nz and Roadshow coming to Grey Lynn

Demystifying packaging Choices – Competition Time

Its almost everywhere you look, its on almost everything you buy,
look at the packaging, we hear you cry!
Is it good? Is it bad? Is it the best you have ever had?
Does it make you smile or hang your head in disgust,
Is all this packaging something you can trust?
where does it come from, where does it go?
send it to us, we want to know!
Now’s your chance to to have your say,
get looking for packaging today!!!

The world of packaging is a crazy confusing place sometimes, over
packaging, non-recyclable packaging, packaging that says it’s
environmentally friendly but really isn’t, one hit wonder non
re-usable packaging, and then just sometimes, you stumble on something that hits the nail on the head.
We at Wanaka Wastebusters are running a fantastic competition to find out exactly what are the best and worst examples of packaging we can find in New Zealand and we need your help.
We want you to find examples of what you think is the best and the worst.
The 6 categories to keep in mind when looking at packaging are
Is it recyclable?
Is it reusable?
Does it do the job it is designed for?
How is the volume of packaging – minimal/excessive?
Is it innovative?
Is the label truthful and informative?

Check out our very exciting new website active from Feb 1st -
www.unpackit.org.nz for the competition ins and outs, ups and downs,rules and regulations, the different entries, info on the very exciting prizes and much much more……..

Entries to be sent in Tues Feb 1st – Sun March 20th

If that doesn’t wet your whistle enough, we will be travelling the length of the country with a fantastical roadshow of circus delights and packaging mischief and will be at the Grey Lynn Farmers Market on Sunday April 17th getting all you wonderful people voting for your favourite and least favourite entries.
If you are interested in our roadshow coming to your school please contact Ivy, tel  03 443 8606 (ext9) or 021 285 6969

Media Release from Wanaka Waste Busters

5 November 2010

Grey Lynn has been chosen as one of five focus towns for a project about packaging waste.

Wanaka Wastebusters is coordinating the Demystifying Packaging Choices project, which was launched in Wellington today. Colinda van der Sluis said that the Grey Lynn 2030 Waste Away focus group was excited about the opportunity to be part of the project.

“This project fits in well with goals of our group, which are to educate and to work with the local community to help reduce, reuse, recycle waste”

At the launch,Wanaka Wastebusters campaigner Angus Ho released a poll showing that a large majority (86%) of New Zealanders are concerned by the amount of packaging waste they have to deal with.

Mr Ho said the results clearly show that people are sick of over-packaging and want minimal packaging that they can reuse and recycle. Nearly all the people surveyed (94%) said they want to choose packaging they can reuse or recycle.

“This poll shows New Zealanders really care about the impact that packaging waste has on the environment. The vast majority recycle and reuse packaging when they get home.

Mr Ho said unfortunately a lot of packaging waste can’t be reused or recycled, so there is no alternative but to send it to the dump. “As the Government is not implementing mandatory product stewardship schemes, the burden of packaging waste is left with the end consumer.”

“You have to ask yourself why in this age companies are still using out-dated packaging which is going to end up in the landfill. There is no excuse, and there is no consumer support for that kind of packaging.”

Many people seized on the chance to talk about the packaging that annoys them,” said Mr Ho. The issue which raised most concern was over-packaging (78%), followed by green-wash claims (73%), no reusable or recyclable option (70%) and poor labeling (63%).

The next step will be to raise interest in town around packaging waste. Wanaka Wastebusters are putting together a travelling roadshow which will arrive in town in April 2011.

Wanaka Wastebusters roadshow organiser Ivy Wilmott and fellow staff-member Leanne Parkinson will be training at a circus workshop late this year to prepare for the roadshow.

“We want to entertain and inspire people about packaging choices” said Ivy Wilmott. “The more fun and colourful our roadshow, the more information people are going to take on board.”

There will also be a “best” and “worst” packaging competition to be nominated and chosen by the public through an online vote.

The website which will host the competition will also provide in depth information about good and bad packaging to help inform consumers.

Mr Ho said an interesting finding from the survey was that only 10 percent or respondents always checked whether packaging can be recycled before they buy it, even though more than 80 percent always recycled at home.

“All products should have minimal, recyclable packaging. That should be the producers’ job. The responsibility clearly lies with the producers.

“The consumers’ job is simple – to recycle and reuse when they get home. Our survey showed that the consumers are holding up their end, but there are a lot of producers who are letting everyone down with over-packaging, green-wash claims about packaging and non-recyclable packaging.

“We are going to send this survey report to the Government, the Packaging Council and major producers and we’re looking forward to their response.”

ENDS

Gina Dempster (comms): 443 8606 x 9, 027 443 7116, (03) 443 7116 (hm)

gina@wanakawastebuters.co.nz

Colinda van der Sluis: 021 582 600

colindasluis7@gmail.com

*Wanaka Wastebusters conducted the poll with a sample size of 1,000. A full report is available from Angus Ho.

Wanaka Wastebusters is a community enterprise set up by the Wanaka community ten years ago. Our work includes recycling, reuse and education for sustainability services. All surpluses are put back into our services with the vision of achieving a 70 percent resource recovery target for our community by 2014.

The Demystifying Packaging Choices project has received financial support from the Waste Minimisation Fund, which is administered by the Ministry for the Environment.

S#!T happens – deal with it!

This month the Waste Away group present an informative and entertaining meeting of ideas, tips and practical advice on dealing with waste.

Guest Presenters
Sunshine Yates “Household Waste & Recycling in Auckland City”
Dorte Wray “Towards Zero Waste – Food Waste”

With updates from the Wasters on a range of exciting new initiatives.

Be in to win the Waste Away raffle with a fabulous range of goodies including Bokashi Bucket and Zing donated by the Waste Away group; Solar Monkey – portable solar charger for sml digital devices donated by PLANIT EcoStore; String bags and produce bags donated by ReThinkNZ; NiMH fast charger + rechargable batteries donated by EcoBatteries; KeepCup & Jute Bag donated by Ripe Deli.

Wednesday 12th May
7.30pm – 9.30pm
Grey Lynn Community Centre

Why not bring a long a friend to the meeting? All welcome

We have received overwhelming feedback that the inaugural Street Party & Twilight Market was a big success and a whole lot of fun.  We really enjoyed decorating West Lynn to create a traffic calming people – space for the evening which provided the opportunity to have a great time at our local shopping area with neighbours and friends.  The event was made possible with the enthusiastic support of local businesses, community groups and individuals who are all keen to see it happen again.

Our thanks go to:

Paul & Mira from Montery Coffee Lounge  who provided groovy tunes by DJ Andy with cocktails by Hakanoa Handmade (a locally made ginger beer available at Monterey)

Susan Duckworth & team at Vanilla Ink

Mr H who was kept busy serving up his gourmet sausages from the West Lynn Organic Butcher

Dear Reader bookshop  sponsors of the Phineas Phrog story telling

Malt Bar with DJ Ria from Base FM

SBF Hair Artists

Richmond Road Pharmacy

Richmond Road Medical Practice

Savour & Devour who were very generous with their free coffee and dessert samples

Raw Essentials who provided free samples for  lucky pets

Monique & Jules at Dalston showed off their new winter range on the night with nibbles and wine (our beautiful bunting is also made with donated Dalston fabric)

The Wine Vault for the free wine tasting

Gypsy Tea Room

Caravan Clothing the newest boutique in West Lynn

Nature Baby

The team at  Moa with a special mention to Julie for being one of the first West Lynners to support the idea of a street party

Havest Wholefoods and their suppliers Nature’s Gold chocolate , Pacific Harvest seaweeds, Kohu Road ice-cream, Nutz roasted nuts that were offering samples and tastings. Also Ceres Organics who provided free crackers and Revive  free Frooze balls plus thanks to Amber for creating the Park(ing) picnic zone.

West Lynn Superette – their homemade samosas are available from the freezer

428 Richmond Road – mens clothing

Delicious

The Little Grocer who brought their bbq along

B.E.E cleaning products

Hayjay’s Superette

Rosanna, Mind Body Institute, Zee Sharif Return to Form and all those operating from the villa at 412 Richmond Road

Neal’s superette

Tom’s Roast

Mamata Bakery

City Liquor Centre

Wellpark College

Gareth Chitty

Plus thanks to the community groups who supported the event:

Grey Lynn Neighbourhood Law Centre & Litaracy Aotearoa who held a bbq and raffle with proceeds going to the Child Cancer Foundation. Congratulations to Maxine Wooldridge who won the raffle and thanks to our local Countdown (Richmond Rd) for contributing the eggs for the kids Easter Egg hunt.

Living Streets Aotearoa thanks to Vinnie for organising the film of the party

Green Party with a stop mining petition

Wilton Street Community Garden was decorated for the evening with the Gardeners holding a picnic

Oxfam Wellpark Walkers who raised $256 at the Street Party

Grey Lynn RSC who are keen for new members

Grey Lynn Community Centre - thank you to the Manager Tania Miller who made the tables available for the street stalls

Thanks to the Grey Lynn 2030 Waste Away team who ensured that there were plenty of recycling bins available on the street for party goers to dispose of their glass, plastic, paper and cans.  They also had a bokashi bin available for food waste – although they found most people enjoyed the fabulous food on offer so much that there wasn’t much in the way of scraps!

The Street Stalls you can also find at the Grey Lynn Farmers Market each Sunday:

• Silwoods’s market veges & herbs
• Ooooby
• Heirloom Organix
• Grey Lynn Honey & Bokashi Bins
• Blackwoods Gourmet Breads
• Muleez smoked fish
• Colchis cheese

A big thank you to Paul Dalton, GLFM Manager for coordinating the Twilight Market and single-handedly returning all the tables to the GL Community Centre.

You can check out a vid of Sam Benge who plays with the Longdrops and coordinated the music here. Thanks to Sam and the musicians who performed:

The Longdrops

French Toast

The Ukeladies.

Thanks to all the volunteers who showed up to decorate West Lynn and help with cleaning up: Katie, Caroline, Barbara, Sharon, Dani, Sam, Olwyn, Amber, Neha, Paul S, Peter Claire,  Paul D and the Grey Lynn 2030 Wasters

Diya Welland for taking so many fab photos. More can be seen here

Pascal for his vid of the Street Party

Cat Charm designer of the poster for both the Street Party and the Grey Lynn 2030 Week

Martin Leach from Ponsonby News who supported the event by publishing the Street Party poster for free

Hopefully that’s covers everyone from our lovely commmunity who helped make the West Lynn Street Party & Twilight Market happen but let me know if I’ve missed anyone.

Pippa Coom, Street Party organiser for the Grey Lynn 2030 Steering Committee