Reduce, Re-use, Recycle

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Greetings from the big city of Auckland! Well ok, we're back home in SoCal at this point, but with the jet lag, we still feel like we're there.

One of the things that Barb and I both noticed throughout the country is how much smaller of an imprint they leave on the environment. From minimal packaging to very few paper products to on/off switches for each electrical plug, the contrast with how much "stuff" we use on a daily basis is huge. At no time was this more apparent than on trash collection day. Whether it was a small village or "big" city, one thing was consistent - on trash day, there was one impossibly small waste container and one impossibly small recycle bag on the curb. I mean, these containers and bags are the size of your typical kitchen trash can. You know, the one you empty about twice a day . . . . . and this was for an entire house for a whole week! I thought at least they'd have a huge recycling bin where they dumped all the paper/plastic/glass, but no. I couldn't figure it out - they're regular sized people, several of them live in each dwelling, their lifestyle is similar to ours, and I know they drink their share of beer, so where was all the waste going? Was it UFOs, giant sinkholes, some super secret anti-trash technology? Guns are still allowed in NZ unlike they are in Australia, so I resisted the urge to sneak into a backyard in search of clues. Consequently the mystery continues, but I have developed a few theories:

1. Instead of buying Dick van Patten or Suzanne Sommers' organic, gluten free, grass fed, free range venison & risotto kiblets at $75/bag, they actually feed their pets (gasp) leftovers. You know, people food. That way they save the dog food packaging and get rid of their food waste at the same time. Their dogs seemed happy and healthy enough to me, although, come to think of it, they did bark with a funny accent.

2. Perhaps they are under mandatory composting orders? Possible, but we didn't see much evidence of this.

3. Do they burn their trash? Unlikely, since we didn't see (or smell) smoke curling up behind the houses.

4. Their packaging laws are much stricter - as in there isn't any packaging on most items. We bought several things while in the country and not once did we have to break out the jaws of life and risk slicing off a finger in order to open the industrial strength, triple sealed, bullet-proof package to liberate the $8 toy locked inside.

We couldn't be sure of the answer, but we resolved to be more like our Kiwi friends and try to be less wasteful.

Here are a few more photos from our last few days in NZ.

Cheers!

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Photos

The Country's namesake (stuffed)
They're nocturnal & you can't photograph them in the Kiwi houses where we saw them

Nelson - near Abel Tasman
Kate's favorite inn - since it was so reminiscent of Harry Potter

Waitomo caves
This one is 8.4 mi in length

Scott stalks a wild turkey
If you click on the photo to enlarge it, you can spot the turkey just to the left of the big tree about a 1/4 way up the hill

Comments

[Betty Riegel]

Sad to see it end....
This was a really revealing article guys! Thanks for all of the blogs. We've been there with you.

[ChrisMR]

Me too
Thanks. It sure was fun. Wish we could've stayed longer, but reality calls . . . .

[Roselynn Portolese]

I definitely want to be there! Once again your camera takes the best photos. It's so green and lush it doesn't look real, except for the two bodies walking on the road. Very interesting how they value being wasteful and what they do to minimize it.

[ChrisMR]

Thanks RP. The landscape over there is almost impossible to take a bad picture of.