By Deirdre Robert
Posted on Aug. 11, 2010. Listed in:
In 2008, Matthew Luxon and partner Waveney Warth challenged themselves to live without creating
landfill waste from their home in Christchurch. By the end of the year they had
collected just 2kg of landfill waste, compared to the 1.5 tons the average
couple throws away in New Zealand.
Now living in Auckland, the
couple believes it is possible to be 'rubbish free' and are eager to share the
knowledge they've gained from their experiences to inspire others to make
changes in their own lives.
The result is www.rubbishfree.co.nz, a website dedicated to
educating people on how to avoid all things rubbish. Matthew offers our readers some valuable insights and advice on sustainability and how it can become a
mainstream workplace practice.
Tell us a little more about yourself...
I'm a retailer and educator helping people be rubbish free... or depending on who you talk to - Rubbish Obsessed Green Freak?
What's the coolest part about practicing sustainability at work?
The normalising effect it can have. For example, we might be chronic recyclers and composters at home, and that can sometimes leave us feeling like we're on the fringe. But if your workplace gets a bokashi composting system for the lunchroom it can shift people's frame of reference towards thinking, 'Because the workplace is an ordinary, mainstream kind of a place, and they compost, then therefore composting must be an ordinary thing to do.' This supports employee's own efforts at home and reinforces that such practices are not just a fringe activity, but rather a mainstream necessity.
And the worst?
When an unsustainable option would be quick, easy and painless but that persistent, quiet internal voice still doesn't let run with it!
What's the strongest motivation to invest in sustainability in your workplace?
I have nightmares about being accused of green washing, so maybe it is fear! But seriously, investing in sustainability just makes sense, it is the right thing to do. It's good for our children, good for us, good for our planet...what else can I say?
Dear John Key, can you please...
Reconsider what appears to be rather extreme bias in favour of building more roads and motorways by your government? Lets try something different for a change and give other transport options a fair go!
If I didn't need to work I'd be…
More then slightly overwhelmed with all that free time and without any decent excuse to avoid going blue water sailing, which scares and attracts in equal measure! Maybe we could go and find the great Pacific garbage patch!
My dirty eco-sin is that I...
Actually really enjoy driving...dammit! Not only that but the bigger the better! But so far the sin is well in check as we share one, economical, dull Nissan between us and jump on the bikes or bus as much as we can.
My pearl of wisdom to pioneers in the sustainability space is...
Go hard on advocating for the issues but remember people generally have a better response to enthusiastic encouragement then hell fire and brimstone.
In ten years’ time I want to be...
Unable to even find a landfill! With the combination of clever packaging design by manufacturers, a public that reduces, reuses and recycles, and innovative resource recovery solutions, hopefully landfills will be extinct.
Watch the Campbell Live piece on Matthew and Waveney below.
A great young couple really making a difference! Awesome effort with the Rubbish Free Year Challenge.
Written in August 2010