Kaikoura couple taking waste reduction to a new level

Tuesday, 5 January 2016

Ralph Hogan, right, throws away his one bag of rubbish which has been filled over 15 months. At left is Innovative Waste Kaikoura manager Rob Roche.

If ever there was an idea which encapsulated Kaikoura's zero waste kaupapa, it would surely have to be that of Ralph Hogan, who can fit more than a year's worth of household rubbish into just one bag.

Ralph and his wife, Ali, set the lofty goal when they moved to Kaikoura in 2008, and have bettered their efforts each year.

Ali and Ralph Hogan encourage sustainlable living

The couple is now managing to go for 15 months on the same rubbish bag. In an effort to reduce that even further, they have decided to weigh and measure their offering to landfill at the end of each year.

On New Year's Eve, Ralph made the trip to Innovative Waste Kaikoura (IWK) to drop off his rubbish bag.

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*** [One year of rubbish

*](http://www.stuff.co.nz/marlborough-express/news/8957076/One-year-of-rubbish) Year's rubbish in one bag

The contents? Toothpaste tubes, tetra-paks and of course 'unmentionables'.

The key to the couple's success is very careful planning and consumption.

'We do everything we can to buy things in recyclable packaging.

'We also don't buy red meat, which comes in non-recyclable trays, and we are mostly vegetarian, so that helps.'

Ralph and Ali have been working on waste reduction for some time so are becoming experts, although it has been made far easier for them since the move to Kaikoura, where the waste system is designed around environmentally sound practices.

'Of course, I'm not perfect. We do save a space in our bag for our year's supply of our favourite corn chip packets.'

Despite the corn chips being GMO-free, free from preservatives and other nasties, the packaging itself is made from mylar, the non-recyclable shiny material most chip packets are made from.

'I did call the company which makes them, and they said while they were sympathetic to our cause, they couldn't compete in the industry if they switched packaging as [mylar] has a massively greater shelf-life.'

The couple has also made efforts to reduce their intake of rice milk because it comes in a tetra-pak, although the bag of rubbish did contain 30 tetra-paks flattened down (minus the recyclable plastic element, of course).

Innovative Waste Kaikoura (IWK) manager Rob Roche applauded the couple's efforts.

'I think it is really great to celebrate the diverse cultures we have within our community.

'We can definitely take the good from them and learn from some of these innovative ideas.'

For IWK, the couple are proof of what can be achieved; IWK has already made great headway towards zero waste, and in November celebrated an impressive diversion from landfill rate of 80.66 per cent.