RecycleKiwi helps bring South Alive’s community recycling hub back to life
South Alive is a community-led organisation in South Invercargill bringing local people together to make their neighbourhood a better place to live. At the heart of its work is a simple idea – local people can work together to create positive change in their own community.
Established in 2012, South Alive supports a wide range of projects focused on community connection, sustainability, food security, youth and improving public spaces. This includes community gardens, events, food initiatives, recycling and waste-reduction projects, with volunteers playing a big part in bringing it all to life.
One example is the community’s recycling hub at 262 Ness Street in Appleby, Invercargill, where South Alive has been working to make recycling easier.
The external recycling station was offered to South Alive after the Invercargill Environment Centre closed in 2017 and has been well used ever since. But after several years of use, it was starting to look tired. The signage had faded and more rubbish was ending up in the wrong recycling bays.
Wendy Bailey from South Alive wanted to give the station a much-needed refresh, so she reached out to CrestClean to see if RecycleKiwi® resources could help.
“The external recycling station has four bays which had faded stickers. The result that there was a lot of contamination.”
Wendy and the team used the RecycleKiwi stickers to replace the faded signage, and at first, they worked well. There was just one catch – the stickers were designed for indoor use, so within a few weeks, they had started to fade too.
The team went back to CrestClean, who were happy to provide the files free of charge so a local signwriting business could create more durable vinyl versions.
That led to the next stage of the project. The recycling station already had provision for an information board, and Creation Signs came up with a great design incorporating the RecycleKiwi stickers and posters.
The result was a fresh, easy-to-understand recycling station that was designed to make it clearer for people to put their rubbish in the right place.
The Pod at South Alive also has an internal recycling station, which can be accessed during opening hours. This area was given a refresh too, using the RecycleKiwi stickers and posters.
The changes made a noticeable difference, with a big reduction in cross-contamination after the original stickers were installed. The new vinyl signage and information board have helped keep that improvement going.
“The unit looks smart and the information offered on the posters educates users,” says Wendy.
Wendy hopes other communities around New Zealand will also take advantage of the RecycleKiwi resources to improve their recycling and reduce cross-contamination. She says improving recycling is only part of the bigger picture. She believes there also needs to be more pressure on manufacturers to take responsibility for the materials and packaging they use, helping to reduce the amount going to landfill.
“It may feel that communities don’t have a voice but collectively we can make a difference. Small steps, big difference!”
What started as a search for some simple recycling information turned into a wider community project.
“We wish to thank CrestClean and Creation Signs, Invercargill, for making our project a success.”
