Keeping The Rubbish Trip on the Road

Hannah Blumhardt and Liam Prince are the No-Waste Nomads behind The Rubbish Trip - a roaming zero waste roadshow delivering FREE talks to schools and communities about the hows and whys of reducing household rubbish. Our talks are based on our own experience of living, since the beginning of 2015, with no rubbish bin.

We have been on the road running The Rubbish Trip full time since July 2017. In the last year we have spoken to over 10,000 people in over 200 talks and workshops in almost every region of New Zealand. We managed this off funds gathered from two previous crowdfunds that totalled almost $10,000. One way to look at it is that for each dollar donated, we reached at least one person ;-)

The Rubbish Trip was only ever supposed to last a year. However, in the last couple of months before we were about to finish, interest in waste reduction has skyrocketed in New Zealand. Requests for us to come and speak have increased exponentially. We are extremely passionate about waste reduction and are so grateful that so many individuals, schools and businesses want to hear what we have to say. We believe we still have more to offer and to share, and the issues of waste are, unfortunately, looming as large as ever.

And so, we decided that now is not the right time to stop the tour. We've decided to keep going.

However, the funds we raised from previous crowdfunds have run out.

We are still totally committed to our talks in schools and communities being FREE. We also remain committed to keeping our operating costs as low as possible (i.e. sticking to our $20 a day budget) by cycling as much as possible rather than driving, couchsurfing for accommodation, and receiving support from venues to use their spaces for free. To improve the project's financial sustainability we are now charging a small fee for talks at businesses and in workplaces. However, the overwhelming majority of our talks are for schools and community groups, which we don't want to charge for.

For us, crowdfunding is the simplest, most transparent, and most effective way to raise our $20 a day budget. It also allows those who wish to support us to do so in a no-fuss way. For this reason, we have decided to run another crowdfund to see us through the next 6 months.

If you are passionate about waste reduction and believe in spreading awareness and education about how and why New Zealanders can reduce their waste footprint, or if you have attended one of our talks and feel that they would be of benefit for others around the country to attend too, please consider chipping in to help us continue this mahi and to help keep our school and community workshops and presentations free.

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