The Rubbish Trip

Hannah Blumhardt and Liam Prince are the No-Waste Nomads behind The Rubbish Trip - a roaming zero waste roadshow focused on the hows and whys of reducing household rubbish, kicking off in Plastic Free July 2017!

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, please consider chipping in to help us continue this mahi!

BACKGROUND

At the beginning of 2015, we started living zero waste, spurred by concern about the sheer amount of plastics in the oceans; the staggering levels of energy and inefficiency associated with producing and managing disposable products; and how our throwaway, high-consumption culture is shaping community mindsets and living spaces.

Motivated to spread awareness, in Plastic Free July 2016 we began running workshops and presentations for community groups, schools, businesses and households about how to reduce rubbish, and why it is important. So far, we have mostly delivered our talks around Wellington (in our free time when we are not at our day jobs!) However, after countless people told us that we had inspired them to reduce their waste footprint, we felt we could make a real difference by stepping things up a notch...

So, we have decided to go full-time and take our zero waste presentations on the road! From July 2017 we start The Rubbish Trip - travelling around New Zealand, to communities far and wide, talking about rubbish.

WE NEED YOU!

We are asking for your donations to help us keep these talks FREE, so that as many people as possible can be inspired to reduce their waste footprint. While we do not want to charge people to attend, the talks do entail costs for us. We like to demonstrate what is possible on a zero waste lifestyle by offering zero waste kai to our attendees, and bringing along materials for workshops (such as ingredients for making zero waste household products, toiletries, arts and crafts etc.). We also need funds for transport (though we will mostly cycle, we will drive between main centres). Finally, we require a bit of money to sustain us each day (i.e. food!) so that we can focus on presentations rather than survival! We intend to keep our costs low by cycling, and staying with kind hosts along the way.

We have done the calculations and reckon we can cover the costs of this project, and our own daily needs, with a budget of roughly $10 each a day. For the both of us, that's $140-150 a week. Our crowdfunding target is based on this calculation for a time period of 6 months.

We welcome donations in excess of this target, as this will help us keep the roadshow going longer. We also want to support *Para Kore* (http://parakore.maori.nz/), an amazing, trail-blazing organisation supporting marae across the country to transition towards zero waste. So, 50% of any funds received in excess of our stated target will be given straight to Para Kore, who will put these funds towards compost bins and worm farms for marae. (Please note that we are not affiliated with Para Kore).

_________________________________________