Amanda in Waste-Free Land

Waste Free Living & Tiny House Building in New Zealand

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Guest Post: The Wonderful World of Edible Weeds

June 6, 2016
Food Foraging Food Waste Guest Posts
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Guest Post: ReMaterialise- Plastic Bags into Fantastic Bags

November 8, 2015
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Amanda

Kia Ora, I'm Amanda! I live in Auckland, New Zealand. I write about waste minimisation, and my tiny house build. I co-founded the Auckland Library of Tools and I set up NZ's first Community Fridge, a free food fridge which redistributes surplus food in Auckland's CBD.

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Seeking 18sqm of Land in Auckland!

Popular Posts

The Best Weekend Tramping Near Auckland posted on December 11, 2017
Auckland Bulk Stores posted on May 18, 2016
The Tiny House Plan posted on October 31, 2017
Tiny House External Materials (and naming the tiny!) posted on May 2, 2018
Urban Food Foraging posted on November 11, 2017

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Come and hang out with me (and the other cool volu

Come and hang out with me (and the other cool volunteers) at @aucklandlibraryoftools by becoming a member or volunteering! You get access to over 500 tools and things (we are expanding to camping and event supplies) plus lots of knowledge and fun company. Send me or @aucklandlibraryoftools a message or check out www.aucklandlibraryoftools.com

How cool are mushrooms?! This one was growing on a

How cool are mushrooms?! This one was growing on a grave outside a turf church in Iceland.
Fun Fact: my travel buddy has a collection of photos of me taking photos of mushrooms, I found some very interesting mushrooms in Iceland so how could I not?!

After nearly 3 years, the #CommunityFridgeAKL and

After nearly 3 years, the #CommunityFridgeAKL and the Griffiths Gardens have shut down, to make way for the City Rail Link construction.
I set up the Community Fridge in Auckland city in November 2016, it was originally a 3 week trial.

After a brief closure over Christmas, we managed to open the Community Fridge permanently.
At the time, the concept was not new, I had heard of solidarity fridges in Europe. I received funding from Auckland Council's Love Food Hate Waste grant, and had support from the team at @love_food_hate_waste_nz.
I had a lot of help from my friends and co-workers who volunteered their time and skills, and even covered for me at work when I was doing media interviews. The label and illustrations were designed by my friends. The compost bin was provided by @WeCompost a whole year before I ended up working for them. Everyone loved the idea and was willing to contribute in any way they could.
When we reopened the fridge in Feb 2017, people got in touch to help out and now there is a small but dedicated team of volunteers who cleaned the fridge and picked up donations daily.
The Community Fridge quickly outgrew me, I struggled to keep up with the demand, and a whole new community evolved around it. It was amazing to watch it grow and change, which is did constantly. It was open 24/7 in the city centre after all.
In the time it was open, nothing really adverse happened to the fridge. Everyone looked after it, and each other. I loved seeing online and IRL people going out of their way to contribute (food, time, supplies, maintaince) to the fridge.
There are no figures for how much food went through the fridge, as I wanted it to be as accessible as possible. The food left the fridge so quickly, and was consequently often empty during the day (surplus food was donated in the evenings). If you're interested, I have a couple of blog posts about how I set up the Community Fridge and what I learned along the way.
The fridge started conversations about food waste and food security, inspired community groups and even businesses to do something similar and has brought people together. That's pretty impressive for an inanimate object! 💚💚

I'm absolutely in love with Iceland and have taken

I'm absolutely in love with Iceland and have taken so many beautiful photos of turf houses, glaciers, waterfalls, mountains, icebergs, hot springs, endless landscapes, horses and so on. So here's a blurry phone photo of an aurora I saw while camping the other night. This photo does absolutely no justice, as It covered the entire sky and went and came back several times! Sad to be leaving in a few days, but I'll be sure to share more photos eventually.

Just wanted to share this amazing embroidery piece

Just wanted to share this amazing embroidery piece that I commissioned my bestie @tsofiah to make of my lovely fluffy kitty, Riley. Riley is currently living it up with Nana while I'm traveling and housesitting. This is my third embroidery piece of @tsofiah's, I'm looking forward to hanging them all up together in my tiny house one day! (She made me a rainbow guinea pig for my birthday last year, which is somewhere in my feed). I also got to learn a bit about screenprinting from @tsofiah during my stay with her. Hopefully we'll be able to get some more screenprinting workshops up and running at Hackland and @aucklandlibraryoftools this summer!

Freshly baked challah from the bakery in my own br

Freshly baked challah from the bakery in my own bread bags.
I packed a bread bag and cloth bags to help keep my waste down while travelling. These bags have been super handy, especially as I love baked goodies! This particular bread bag has been used for 4 years now, and was originally from @rethink_nz.
Thanks to my friends who have been helping out with my strange requests in different languages!

Loving all the water fountains in Italy! It's made

Loving all the water fountains in Italy! It's made avoiding plastic bottles fairly easy, however I keep getting caught out at restaurants where they give you a big plastic bottle of water you have to pay for! In NZ you're given tap water for free at restaurants, you only pay if you want fancy bottled water. Also, the paying for toilets thing in Europe is annoying when you gotta pee as much as much as me.... Using my plastic (BPA free) @nalgene I bought 5 years ago in the USA. Use what you have before buying new!

Outfit: all secondhand of course.

Been upping my cycle game for the Aotearoa Bike Ch

Been upping my cycle game for the Aotearoa Bike Challenge, and because my car is slowly coming to the end of her life (😭). I've been cycling tools between @aucklandlibraryoftools and my tiny house, which has been interesting as my bike doesn't have a basket or panniers. Last week I borrowed the trailer from ALoT, and today I used a detachable basket. Cons of the basket: I can't easily swing my leg over my bike (especially in a dress!), and I have to put my seat up higher than I would like to... Think I might go back to towing the trailer!

I'm planning on buying an ebike with panniers/a basket once I have saved up some moolah. Let me know your ebike reccomendations please!

The lawn at my tiny house got so ridiculously long

The lawn at my tiny house got so ridiculously long and unruly while I was away that the landlord's/neighbor's little electric mower couldn't hack it. I borrowed this mower and a weed whacker from @aucklandlibraryoftools and managed to knock it down in a few hours.
I'm not much of a lawn person, so am very keen to put some useful and native plants on my section instead. Give me your anti lawn (nz native) garden tips please!

#adulting #lawnsareawaste #tinyearnie

My "new" bike, Dotty, has been serving me well. It

My "new" bike, Dotty, has been serving me well. It's a bit harder to get up hills, but I can carry heaps of stuff! It's great for spontaneous op shop hauls, grocery shopping and transporting tools and building supplies.

Also apologies this account seems to be a tool #quaxing account now.

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