Waste Not

We all know there are creative people living in this city,  but swing by the shop at Remaker sustainability hub (pictured above) and you may well be bowled over by just how ingenious the locally made products actually are.

Making covetable accessories from waste destined for landfill and replacing waste-causing items with eco alternatives that are a pleasure to use, the local talent at Remaker and beyond has inspired this issue’s theme: ‘reduce, reuse, recycle’.

Here we speak to wāhine behind some of the Bay’s smartest sustainable products — things that you can feel truly good about buying.

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EIN MALIG

Want to know what retired billboards and old car seat belts have to do with stylish accessories?
Well, please read on...

The glossy, vibrantly coloured, capacious bags from Ein Malig are the ideal beach bag for long days on our beautiful beaches, and they offer the added bonus of being waterproof and durable.

“It really started from those plastic bins you see people taking to the beach,” says Ruth Love, the Swiss-born founder of Ein Malig, which means ‘unique’ in German. “You need two hands to carry them, and I was fed up with the handles breaking all the time. With my bag, I can fit everything I need for the beach, they will last, I only need one hand, and I can even use it to wash out my wetsuit.”

And here’s the kicker — the bag, which also comes in a ‘shopping’ size, is made from a retired billboard, so it’s diverting plastic waste from landfill.

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Billboards are made from high-quality PVC, and usually have a short life span. At first, Ruth had trouble sourcing them, but when she started working at Remaker sustainability hub, she was able
to secure a contract with Trustpower to use their old billboards.

Ruth’s stylish, imaginative products extend beyond just billboard beach bags. The same PVC is
used in her bold backpacks. “These colourful backpacks have been fashionable in Switzerland
for the last 30 years, but they’ve been a bit slow catching on in New Zealand,” says Ruth. “They’re often marked and scratched, and New Zealanders still really struggle with the concept of buying something — maybe for a lot of money — that doesn’t look perfect. I feel we’re trying to get over
that hurdle — that’s why I’m grateful to Remaker, as we’re trying to make a change.”

Trustpower recently commissioned Ruth to create a range of bags, with straps made from seatbelts, that can be worn as a satchel or backpack. For each one sold at Remaker, it donated one to a child
in need. Another new product for Ruth is a mod laptop bag made from truck curtain offcuts (which are harder to source), also with recycled seatbelt straps; she has bins made from the same offcuts with old bike tubing around the top. She even makes cool doggy treat bags that have an inner-tube handle and a snap-shut closing system made from broken metal measuring tape. She’s working on
a shoe bag with the same idea.

You’d assume waste products are pretty easy to source, but it’s often not the case. Ruth’s constantly on the hunt for regular suppliers of materials she can upcycle. “If a car has an accident, the seatbelt will be cut out and replaced. A lot get wasted but actually getting my hands on a seatbelt is hard,” she says. My local garage now calls me when they take out seatbelts, and my neighbour, who collects things, puts seatbelts in my letterbox.”

It even took Ruth a while to source cherry pips, something which she’s now able to buy for her cherry pip heat pillows (the Swiss alternative to our wheat bags), which smell good and are washable.

Ruth uses Remaker’s space and sewing machines and only sells through its shop and site. Having
the shop in the CBD allows her to do prototypes and small runs of products to gauge interest before ploughing ahead in production, which also reduces waste. “I don’t have time to do Instagram or a website. This way I can stay on a small scale and still sell my products, and reach a wide audience. For me, Remaker is my marketing outlet.”

Available in store at Remaker, 27 Spring St, Tauranga CBD and remaker.co.nz

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One Small Change

Stephanie Brooke was working at Bin Inn Pāpāmoa in 2020 when she noticed it was selling expensive, imported bin liners. “I realised I could get the material locally, so I went to the bosses and pitched the idea of making them myself,” she says. Her One Small Change reusable bin liners are still for sale there today (as well as FreshChoice Pāpāmoa), along with stockists around the country.

The bin liners are made from PUL, which is guaranteed to be able to be washed in excess of 300 times (Stephanie reckons it’s more like 1000 times), before needing to be replaced.

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She makes freezer bags from the same durable material. They’re soft, waterproof and food safe
and you can store any solid food, such as meat, chopped fruit for smoothies and sourdough. Just pop the food in and fold over (or clip) the top. “Take them along to your butcher or deli to avoid single-use plastic bags,” says Stephanie. “The bags will store your steaks, sausages or deli meats safely in the fridge or freezer. Just do a hot wash between uses and sun dry.”

Currently the bags are waste prevention products made from virgin plastic, but Stephanie is focused on constantly improving her environmental footprint and is hopeful to eventually use 100 percent
PET PUL (made from recycled plastic bottles).

Available at onesmallchange.co.nz (also lists stockists) and remaker.co.nz and in store at Remaker  @onesmallchange_nz

Brook

Stephanie is also behind the bag company Brooke, which uses rescued window blind fabric to
make smart bags.

“My big aim is to create a bag that people don’t realise is waste,” she says. “It’s easy to sell a green product to a green person; it’s hard to sell to someone that doesn’t care. I want to be able to sell
to a broader audience who might not care about the cause but appreciate style and beauty.”

She cites her in-laws as her test case. “They don’t really care about these issues, they don’t believe
in climate change. I want to create a product that they will invest their money in, because it’s stylish. And that means their money is going somewhere good.”

There are smart roomy tote bags that Stephanie, as a mother of two, created with beach trips in mind. They can fit towels, lunches, drink bottles and wetsuits, as well as being strong enough to
be filled to the brim at the market.

Her satchels are a slim-line bag plus she has lovely baskets and pot plant covers in the same fabric. “The plant covers are very affordable and people have bought them as a gift hamper to fill with goodies — they can then be used for plants afterwards.”

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Stephanie discovered the fabric when Tauranga company Caleys Blinds brought in offcuts to Remaker (where she works as the store and space manager) to see if the material could be upcycled, as it was going to landfill. She was inspired: “When I saw it, I knew exactly what it could be! I knew it would suit me and my family and my style.” And so Brooke was born and Caleys has kept supplying offcuts to Stephanie, who has now converted her garage into a sewing studio.

Stephanie gives 5 percent of every sale to charity, offer free repairs on her products and only releases bags on the 10th of the month, to encourage conscious consumption and give people time to consider their purchase.  

Available at brooke.earth and remaker.co.nz and in store at Remaker. @brooke_thelabel

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Crafty Gatherer

Tess and Marco Partridge are well-known locally for their approach to sustainability and organic gardening. They share their knowledge through workshops and generally empower people to make choices that’ll help regenerate the planet.

On their property, they grow their own food, and live simply and locally, and it’s here they also design and build their Crafty Gatherer eco products for home and garden. “We are a slow made brand, meaning everything is handmade in New Zealand in small batches,” says Tess. “We collaborate with other clever artisans, and also skilled local people to help with parts of the process, so we can have less impact through miles and less waste.”

If you’re a keen organic gardener, you may already have one of their hefty steel Forkstas, a product that’s designed to aerate the soil before planting, without turning it over and damaging the delicate life below. But Crafty Gatherer also offers a range of smaller home products, many of which are made from recycled materials.

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“We use local companies for materials, and we’re always being asked if we want materials from people, whether it’s an old rimu door or offcuts from projects, and we still use salvaged materials where we can,” says Tess.

Their handy Sauerkraut Muddlers and Garden Dibbers are all made from recycled timbers, and are great pressies for those makers and growers in your life. You can avoid toxic (and, it has to be said, often useless!) fly sprays by using the most natty handcrafted swat you’ve ever seen. It has a recycled tōtara handle (salvaged from a building site) that’s oiled with raw linseed oil, a leather head (made by a local), and it’s finished with brass bolts.

There are two other products (also available from Remaker shop) that will help you avoid inferior mass-produced items involving plastic. The BBQ Grill & Hot Plate Cleaner is handcrafted from locally sourced macrocarpa. One end is a flat scraper, and the other cleans your grill by burning into the shape of your specific barbecue (on its first use, you burn the grill marks into the wood). No more nasty metal fillings on the grill! And the Bamboo Bread Knife is made from a sustainable fast-growing timber that’s hardy and durable, and grown without chemicals and irrigation.

Check out the range of other handy, sustainable products online. craftygatherer.co.nz @craftygatherer

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VETO

Living in a grubby student flat was Charlotte Greer’s inspiration for starting her cleaning product company, Veto. At the time, she was studying a degree in economics and management focusing
on sustainable development and circularity, so making it zero-waste and affordable was a given.

“I saw that what I was studying and what was happening in practice was very different — sustainable products often had a high price point and many were not available in New Zealand as we’re so small,” she says.

“I started looking at it as a poor uni student, thinking, what products are feasible to create, and
what makes sense for my life? For example, I don’t need a metal straw, that’s not an essential.”

Charlotte set about identifying and creating products that would be affordable, and effective for
both cleaning and reducing the impact on the earth. Veto Washing Powder kicked it all off
— a laundry detergent and dishwashing powder in one, packaged in a compostable paper bag.

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“I started out making multipurpose products from the jump, so you can address the issue of toxins and plastic use all in one go,” she says. “From that point, it was quite a natural progression — more
or less me figuring out what I could use in my own house and then trying to make it!”

Veto’s range now also includes the Soap Slab, Oxygen Bleach, Porcelain Powder and Wonder Bar
for clothing. All multipurpose, handmade, vegan and plastic free. Charlotte also offers a range of sustainable tools that complement the products, such as a wooden scrubbing brush.  

First Veto product people should try? “That’s like asking if you have a favourite child!” she laughs.
“But if you’re looking to reduce plastic, it would probably be the Soap Slab. It cleans at least five areas of your home, like your oven door, glass shower door and kitchen floor.” She says the size
of the soap is perfect when space is at a premium, and it’s designed to replace up to five plastic bottles of liquid detergent and lasts at least six months.

Charlotte, who’s also the project developer and social media manager at Remaker, has great social content that shows how to best use Veto products.

Available from vetozerowaste.online (also lists stockists), remaker.co.nz and in store at Remaker @veto.zerowaste

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Salt Bags

Melissa Woods is from a family of surfers and all-round ocean lovers, and the importance of protecting the ocean from plastic is one the main drivers behind Salt Bags, the company she founded with husband Reuben.

Melissa says people’s focus is nearly always on the way plastic affects sea life, but she points out that’s not the sole reason to look after the ocean. “There’s the deeper, scientific side to how the ocean affects human health — it’s essential to our wellbeing. It’s a place of healing, it calms your brain and mind, it’s good to look at it, good to be in it...”

The Woods take their innovations created for the corporate sector (under the company Salt of
the Earth) and make it available to consumers in smaller quantities through their Mt Maunganui-based company, Salt Bags. “We say ‘own your impact’ and we want to try to create behavioural change,” says Melissa. “It may not seem you are making much of a difference but even the
smallest decision helps.”

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Their most innovative product thus far is the Misty Lady Vacuum Seal Bags — ideal for when a successful fishing trip means you need to vacuum-pack and store your extra catch in the freezer. “Regular vacuum seal bags are made from multiple layers of different types of plastic, so are not recyclable — they have a one-way path to landfill,” says Melissa. “Misty Lady is a biofilm bag that’s home compostable and worm safe.”

Misty Lady has been recognised in various global awards for sustainable packaging design and sustainable product design, and the product is making a larger scale impact as it’s used around the world by the likes of seafood companies, as ice packs and a recent potential customer is eyeing it
up for pizza.

Salt Bags also offers worm-friendly cotton bags, including mesh market bags, large carry-all canvas bags, and pretty furoshiki cloth to wrap, carry or hold your things.

saltbags.nz @salt_bags @mistyladynz

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