Reducing waste for world health
Hannah Blumhardt and Liam Prince are travelling the country, talking trash.
The pair, known as the Nowaste Nomads, plan to spend the next year travelling the country spreading the no-waste lifestyle message, beginning The Rubbish Trip tour at Massey University in Palmerston North yesterday.
Brought up in Palmerston North, Prince spent the first 19 years of his life in the city, attending Awatapu College before heading to Wellington to study jazz drumming.
The pair got together there, before spending time overseas and returning to New Zealand with the idea of ‘‘cutting out the crap’’.
Two-and-a-half years ago, Blumhardt said she had an epiphany about living waste-free, googled it, and found out about others, singling out Lauren Singer, Bea Johnson, Matthew Luxon and Waverley Warth, who were already successfully living that kind of lifestyle.
‘‘We came back with the idea of having a fresh start and living plastic-free. After two weeks, we had started learning about problems [that waste causes] and decided to go zero waste.’’
According to World Bank figures, in 2012, the world produced 1.3 billion tonnes of trash. The yearly volume was expected to increase to about 2.2 billion tonnes by 2025, with peak waste expected in 2100.
By then, the world will have choked on its own refuse, with calamitous consequences for life on earth.
Prince said they lived by a version of the 5-Rs of sustainability Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle and Rot.
Recycling, touted as an ‘‘answer’’ to the world’s rubbish woes was in their version, the second-to-last resort.
In their presentation, the pair pointed out that consumption and the disposal of the things we consume, has been normalised, and that’s why ‘‘refusal’’ was the first step.
‘‘You need to start off by asking ‘do I really need this thing in my life?’. Nine times out of 10, the answer is ‘no’,’’ Prince said.
During How To Live Without A Rubbish Bin, they quickly outlined a number of sustainable life-hacks that not only reduced waste, but would save households money.
The two No-waste Nomads will deliver a free presentation in the City Library at 6pm today and in the Feilding Library next Wednesday, with a school holiday zero waste arts and crafts workshop in the City Library next Tuesday.