Waste Education

Plastic Free July 

Each year, our community celebrates Plastic Free July, a global month-long campaign that empowers individuals, communities, and businesses to reduce their reliance on single-use plastics. The initiative encourages millions of people worldwide to adopt simple, everyday actions that lead to lasting habits and help minimise plastic waste. In 2026, UC supported this effort by offering students and staff two reusable beeswax wrap workshops, a Repair Café, and a clothing swap. These activities helped inspire our community to take practical action towards reducing waste and embracing more sustainable lifestyles.

Bin it to Win it! 

Staff and students had the opportunity to test their knowledge of the new Aotearoa New Zealand-wide kerbside recycling standards, play a waste sorting game, chat with waste experts, and go in the draw to win prizes thanks to an on-campus activation with Christchurch City Council.  Key learnings included the recent changes to the waste system, and some common myths were busted in the waste sorting game including where to place:

• Lids

• Bamboo cutlery 

• Bags marked ‘compostable’ 

• Coffee cups 

• Alternative milk/juice cartons 

• Fabric bags 

All of which now need to be placed in landfill. 

Alternative waste diversion schemes were also a very popular discussion point among staff and students, showing an enthusiasm from our community to avoid sending items to landfill when possible. 

Repair Cafe 

Our Repair Cafe event helped to support and promote the Ōtautahi Repair Revolution - a movement away from throwaway culture and promoting product stewardship through the art and practice of repair.

Over 60 UC students and staff joined us at UC Library's Te Rua Makerspace with their broken treasures, ready to breathe new life into them.

During the 2-hour workshop almost 30kg of items were repaired and diverted from landfill, and 317kg of CO₂ saved - that’s like growing 5 tree seedlings for 10 years*. The most popular items bought in for repair were shoes, bags and winter clothing.

We intend to hold a repair cafe style event each term to give more people opportunities to learn and enjoy repair skills.

*Measured with Restarters.