Poppy Wortman caught up with a team doing their bit to recycle waste recently…
Waipa District Council’s Katie Wine, Asha Ryan, Issac van der Valk, Taylor McCullough, Sam Cunningham, Molly Harvey, Isla Newlands, Nate Newlands, and Rob May brand ambassadorand NZ rower Lucy Spoors.
It was seeing the amount of waste leaving their building sites that inspired Jono McCullough.
“I thought, ‘We really need to rectify this,” the Rob May Builders director said. “I started to do a bit of research into what we could do and how we could work better with existing organisations.”
Teaming up with Leanne from Cambridge Bins, the two spent three hours looking at systems already in place and where there were gaps.
“That’s where the challenges came in, to plug the holes that weren’t covered,” Jono said. “I approached Carters to look at what they do to manage things as a corporate and that’s when I had the idea of an up cycle.
“I thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be cool to do something with this instead of putting it in a bin or in storage to use later down the line?’. I talked to other businesses related to our trade and told them what I was thinking, and the buy-in from all was amazing.”
Scheduled for Sunday, October 28, The Great DIY Garage Sale Event is organised by Rob May Builders in partnership with the Waipa District Council and Cambridge East Primary School. The purpose of the event is to avoid DIY products going into landfill, selling the building, renovation and landscaping materials at a discounted price with all proceeds going to Cambridge East Primary School.
Waste Minimisation Officer Sally Fraser said it “really excites” the council to see the leadership and ingenuity from the construction industry.
“We are happy to support The Great DIY Garage Sale as it is allowing high quality building products to be used at home, keeping the resources in the community and out of landfill,” she said. “All the suppliers are dedicating their time to collect all their end of line and spare stock to bring it along.
“This time and effort is really admirable and we are looking forward to getting all those products into the hands of keen DIYers in Cambridge.”
Jono said it’s all about awareness.
“What we are hoping to achieve is an awareness to make a change, even if it is only small to start with,” he said. “And bringing in Cambridge East Primary School with their outstanding PTA who have picked up the concept and run with it has been great; educating the kids, raising funds for the school and being a great win-win for all.”
