Grassroots Recycling

27/08/2026

HUGE THANKS to Dianne for responding to our request for help getting lids to Blenheim. Here is a whole ute load of boxes of #2 and #5 plastic lids heading to futurepostnz tomorrow so they can stay out of landfill 🙏🏻 ♻️ 🌟 💖

23/08/2026

From time to time we are asked by friends and followers if we can source a particular something or other ... and we are currently in search of these specific types of plastic pottles to be re-purposed by the Nelson Soroptimists - for a very good christmassy cause. So if your whanau happen to buy these Aunty Betty single serve puddings, please consider keeping and washing the wee plastic pottles before getting them to a Grassroots Recycling collection bin near you - ... ** CLEAN and gathered in a bag please! **
Thank you so much, I know the Soroptimists will be very grateful.

22/08/2026

Time for a reminder that here at Grassroots Recycling, it's not ALL about cartons...
Yes, we may have delivered 79 banana boxes of prepared food & beverage cartons to Waste Management on Friday, but on Thursday we have ALSO delivered a whole car load of No 5 plastic lids to the Future Post factory in Blenheim. And by "we" I mean the very generous and helpful Hilde Van Santen. Hilde is a total legend who occasionally has to go to Blenheim for work - and combines that with helping our plastic lids get to where they need to be. Thank you Hilde, your help has been invaluable. 🙏💐💖

20/08/2026

16/08/2026

Love having new people come on board and discover the service that we offer, but I’m sorry to the rest of you long-standing supporters who have heard this message a million times before … thanks

12/08/2026

Time for another UPDATE to our collection locations ... there are 15 in total now ... and a couple of changes to report ...
- Because of the roadworks and issues with access, we have moved the Godzillas bin along the street - now at Sublime Coffee Roasters at Bridge Street Studios, 123-125 Bridge Street, Nelson - available 8am - 3.30pm for collecting your clean cartons
- Riverside Pool now has a collection point for your clean cartons and lids - available during the pool's opening hours and located right in the entrance to the building.

♻ Remember that food & beverage cartons need to be cut open flat and washed clean.
♻ Remember also please that it is helpful if you can drop your lids to our bins already separated/sorted into the different materials, preferably in a tied off bag/container (bread bags are ideal!)
♻ The four types of lids that we collect are:
- STEEL (jam jar lids, beer bottle caps, tops of tin cans)
- ALUMINIUM (wine bottle tops)
- No 2 PLASTIC
- No 5 PLASTIC

This means NO takeaway cups, NO plastic lids with no number, NO sushi fishies, NO soft plastics, NO medicine blister packs, NO dirty or closed cartons, NO need to colour-sort your lids

Thanks all and Happy Recycling ♻ 💚

06/08/2026

Giving the gift of rubbish !!

06/08/2026

Our Adopt-a-Cafe Crew are total rockstars!! 🤩🤩🤩

05/08/2026

Join us tonight at 7pm! 📺

We’re excited to welcome Hilary Barry and the Seven Sharp team to our Waiuku factory.

03/08/2026

🫶 We feel lucky to have a lot of amazing volunteers here at Grassroots Recycling, but one thing we have in common is that we all aim to make as little environmental impact as possible while carrying out our various tasks.
🌏 Here's what that might look like ...
♻ we combine trips whenever possible to avoid making unnecessary/special journeys to manage 'rubbish'
🚲 many of us do our 'rounds' (collecting cartons from cafes in town) on bikes - check out the pic of Hilary's cool bike trailer so she can do multi-cafe collections, whatever the weather
👣 or we might go around on foot during our lunch breaks from work
🔌 many of the bins are emptied and delivered to the Grassroots Recycling hub (aka my house!) by e-van (HUGE thanks to Kate here for so generously giving up a chunk of her Wednesday each week to collect from six central Nelson locations)
🛻 we borrow the e-van from Bike Hub Nelson to do the monthly delivery of tens of thousands of cartons to Waste Management for baling
🌏 They may each be small gestures, but together they add up to mean that our operation is as low-impact as possible
💖 I am so grateful for this community of like-minded humans all caring for the planet in our different ways ♻💐