Exciting news! Three of our Wāhi Tukurua trustees attended the Hauraki Coromandel Business Awards last night, and we’re thrilled to announce that we WON the Waste Minimisation category! 🎉 This year, our efforts have centered around reducing the use of throwaway cups in Mercury Bay by building strong relationships with local cafes, running public education events, and spreading the word. It’s been hours of hard work, all driven by passionate volunteers, and to come away with this win is incredibly rewarding! Thank you to everyone who’s supported us in making our community more sustainable!
Wāhi Tukurua - Mercury Bay Resource Recovery Centre Trust
Community Services
Whitianga, Waikato 31 followers
Keeping waste out of landfill, creating jobs for locals, engaging & connecting our community - NO TIME TO WASTE
About us
Wāhi Tukurua is the face of the Mercury Bay Resource Recovery Centre Trust. We are based on the successful business model of the Seagull Centre in Thames and will be located at the new Refuse Transfer Station (RTS), which is due to start construction on Moewai Road in 2025. Our core purposes are to reduce the amount of waste going to landfill, create employment opportunities within our community, on-sell reusable items at affordable rates, and develop or support educational activities on sustainability and environmental management. We will do this by working in conjunction with Thames-Coromandel District Council to construct a drop-off site near the entrance to the new RTS site, where staff will go through what is being delivered and remove anything that can be reused or recycled before you move on to the landfill area. There will then be a shop established which will on-sell reusable items at an affordable rate. As the Centre grows we hope to create opportunities for employment and for volunteers to contribute to helping with our waste reduction and repurposing objectives. Our team comprises seven trustees and numerous volunteers, who share their time and skills and are passionate about waste minimisation. We are committed to RESPECT - for the environment, the earth, and each other; COMMUNITY INCLUSION; and INTEGRITY. We will also be working closely with local iwi Ngāti Hei, who will be assisting us in a consultancy role to ensure the project aligns with Te Ao Māori principles.
- Website
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https://xn--whitukurua-ufb.co.nz/
External link for Wāhi Tukurua - Mercury Bay Resource Recovery Centre Trust
- Industry
- Community Services
- Company size
- 1 employee
- Headquarters
- Whitianga, Waikato
- Type
- Nonprofit
- Founded
- 2020
- Specialties
- Waste Minimisation and Environmental Education
Locations
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Primary
Whitianga, Waikato, NZ
Employees at Wāhi Tukurua - Mercury Bay Resource Recovery Centre Trust
Updates
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Hey Mercury Bay - the team at Wāhi Tukurua can help get your food and beverage cartons (aka tetrapaks, UHT packs, liquid paperboard etc) to the team at saveBoard. Bring them along to us at our regular market stalls ove the coming months at the Whiti Citi Markets. Next one is 9th November!
Photo of me jumping off Carton Bales to grab your attention.... Here's a glimpse of the behind-the-scenes process of what happens to your collected food & beverage cartons when they reach us! ♻️ We receive massive bales of cartons every week, each weighing around 700kg, comprising post-consumer and post-industrial volumes. Fun fact: Each bale contains between 25,000-35,000 cartons, ranging from 250mL to 1L sizes. Each saveBOARD sheet produced incorporates a minimum of 400 cartons. Our team stacks these cartons like giant building blocks in our yard before bringing them into our factory to be made into our saveBOARD products. In Australia, the cartons reach us through container collection schemes from as far as Perth, and in New Zealand, from over 75 community collection points across both islands. 🌏 A big THANK YOU to everyone who separates, collects, and cleans these cartons—it does make a difference. And if you don't already, its pretty easy to do and if you are in Australia you are missing out on 10cents/carton if you don't take them to the return and earn stations! #CircularEconomy #GettingTooOldToJumpOffBales #AustralianMade #NewZealandMade
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Despite the mixed spring weather, over 50 volunteers joined the Wāhi Tukurua team for Whitianga Cleanup Day! Together, we collected 390kg of waste from beaches, parks, and roads. Plus a further 201kgs thanks to Mercury Bay Area School! So a total of 591kgs! The biggest surprise? 199.5kg of that came from just one stretch of State Highway 25A! Thank you to everyone who helped out, but remember—plastic is still our biggest problem. Let’s work together to reduce plastic waste and Keep Whitianga Beautiful! #WhitiangaCleanup #WorldCleanupDay #KeepWhitiangaBeautiful #wahitukurua #ReduceReuseRecycle
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Really interesting article about micro plastics - with input from Auckland University - worth a read and very timely with our clean up day tomorrow! https://lnkd.in/gaypEFJU
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Congratulations to the Wāhi Tukurua SUC Free - Single Use Cup Free - Mercury Bay team! An awesome achievement to be recognised as FINALISTS in TWO categories at the Hauraki Coromandel Business Awards. Proof that small steps and actions can make a BIG difference. Your hard work and volunteer hours have not gone unnoticed. Keep up the great work!
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Last year we collected an astounding 880 kilograms of waste from our beautiful beaches, parks, and streets. This year, we’re aiming even higher, and we need your help to make it happen! Read more in our recent blog article https://lnkd.in/gYwgicDC #wahitukurua
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The inaugural ‘Thirsty Thursday’ event kicked off this week at Nook Grocer + Refills in Whitianga. The support from locals and visitors alike shows a growing awareness of the environmental impact of single-use cups and a willingness to adopt reusable alternatives. With an estimated 250,000 Throwaway / Single-Use-Cups (SUC) going to landfill each year in Mercury Bay, the Wāhi Tukurua / Mercury Bay Resource Recovery Team and coffee selling friends are on a mission to change the way we have our coffee – reducing waste, one cup at a time! Read more about the event in this blog article .https://lnkd.in/ggUyUzJY