Spotlight: The Tip Shop - Wellington’s treasure trove of preloved goods
Earlier this year, Nonstop COO Sophie visited the Tip Shop at the Southern Landfill in Wellington and met tip shop and recycling facility manager Shelali.
Shelali - thankyou for talking to us! First off, could you explain to us how you got into this role - is this an industry you ever saw yourself in?
Shelali and some of the recycling centre team at Wellington’s Southern Landfill
“I have done my masters in Urban Planning and Waste Management in Sydney. When I came back home, I worked in the public sector managing electrical waste, from where I got an opportunity to move to New Zealand. I wanted to continue in the line of waste management, minimisation and diversion primarily because I feel like it gives me the opportunity to connect with the local community and work in an environment with people who share the same vision.” Shelali became a team lead for the recycling facility and Tip Shop and went on to be a manager, her role for the past 3 years.
Can you give us a rundown of the services the Recycling Centre provides?
“There are two sides of it - the recycling centre and the tip shop. For the recycling centre - this is the council providing a free service for customers to get domestic recycling, cardboard, glass, cans and plastic, to be recycled. People can drive in, drop their recycling here and leave.”
This year the Tip Shop, Wellington’s treasure trove of preloved goods, celebrates 25 years.
“Under the tip shop umbrella we have my shop staff, transfer station staff and our Trade Me team.”
Over the last 25 years they have taken all sorts of reusable items recovered from landfill or donated to the tip shop to be given a new lease on life. “Everything you see in your house, you can come in and donate to us for free - including electrical and electronic items!” The only items they charge for are TVs and monitors.
There are many facets of Shelali and her teams’ work - recently they also started collecting metal lids, plastic bottle caps, bread tags and silicone - all to be recycled in specialised streams.
2022 also saw the beginning of a fantastic collaboration - between the Tip Shop and Wellington refillery Hopper.
How do you ensure that reusable items coming in from the truck headed to landfill are being diverted?
Wellington’s Tip Shop
I have a staff member based at the transfer station who diverts things from the truck, engages with customers, and makes sure there is someone at the last barrier going hey - don’t put that in the landfill!
The morning we spoke to Shelali - the truck had been emptied and 1 tonne of reusable items including a large amount of paint were diverted.
Let’s jump back to recycling - where does this go after it’s been dropped off? And what is the feedback around contamination?
OJI Fibre Solutions take it and hand sort it. Glass recycling is a fantastic example as there is no contamination and it goes to Auckland, so there is a circular system happening there. Cardboard and paper also have a low contamination as per feedback we receive. Plastic is the tricky one - we do our best to educate customers as to what plastic can be recycled through kerbside. My team does a site check every morning and removes contamination. Polystyrene and soft plastics are often the biggest contaminators - it’s important for people to know that soft plastic is collected via a different stream - via collections at eg. Supermarkets.
For more info - Sorting and preparing your rubbish and recycling - Where your recycling goes - Wellington City Council
So your Trade Me team… what is this?
“There is a separate process for selling items online - this is primarily electrical items. We test the functioning of the item and are transparent around what is working or if we are selling for parts - there is a good market online for the Tip Shop and our vision is to reach out to the wider audience of Aotearoa.
Shelali, what is your vision for the future here?
“Our vision is to be leaders for a waste free future, and we can only do this by putting ourselves out there ,being confident in our mahi and offering services city wide.If i am able to do that and collaborate with like minded organisations and work collectively then there is nothing like it.
One of our focuses right now is educating people about what we do. Even though we have been here for 25 years, many people still don’t know who we are at the Tip Shop so that is a primary focus along with measuring our diversion.
WCC has been looking at more collaboration including expanding resource recovery networks. Looking at the diversion of organic material at an industrial scale and having a sorting facility for that. Another one is construction and building materials - having a sorting facility for that.
One of my favourites is the potential of an education centre where people with a common vision on circular economy can come and discuss and see what kind of a future can we build together.
““Our vision is to be leaders for a waste free future””
What is a win for the Tip Shop this year?
We now test and tag electrical items. In the past the plugs were always just chopped off and sold for parts - however now we do all of the testing too.
What is something people would be surprised to know?
People often think we are dependent on ratepayers to operate - we aren’t! And that we take electrical items for free. Many people aren’t even aware that we take reusables up here and think we are just a recycling centre.
What is the most interesting thing you’ve received?
At the shop - a coffin! We would look at it every day wondering whether a customer would try it out - eventually it was sold!
At the landfill -A few years ago we also received a massive piece of plywood. It had Helen Clark’s photo on the back. A family bid on it and flew down from Auckland to collect it and all the proceeds went to the Women’ Refuge at the request of the prime minister ( Massive Helen Clark portrait found at Wellington dump | Stuff.co.nz)
Sold on trade me - A pair of antique glasses were listed on trade me and it was bought for a value that we did not expect but we also donated some of the proceeds to a couple of different social organisations ( Rare antique glasses saved from Wellington's tip | RNZ)
What are some interesting projects you’ve collaborated on?
We collaborate with Island Bay School every year who take chipped crockery for a project. The Tip Shop is a great place to collect metals for art projects or things that can be turned into something else!
A kayak ready to be rehomed!
We also provided Kaicycle with 80-90 t-shirts at their request, which they got printed for their team. They’re not perfect - but they are being reused!
We also work closely with few other social organisations and help set up homes for refugee families.
We (at the Tip Shop) got an Opportunity to work with WCC CityHousing team and collaborate with Sustainability Trust. And we did a Granville Flats' Spring Clean! This was purely run by WCC and tenant volunteers. The primary focus was to bring the community together and see how we repair, swap and divert reusables which have no place in the landfill. “ I must proudly say my team from the Tip Shop were able to take away nearly a ton (800kg!) of items which were able to housed in no time.”
What are the key differences between an op shop and the tip shop?
We are typically cheaper than an op shop - and we are more likely to get people coming through who will take broken items to use for art or to fix up so we can sell these. Anything that doesn’t sell in a weeks’ time, the price will be reduced and will continue to be reduced until it becomes free. After a certain time it will eventually go to landfill but efforts are made to save everything first!
There is also an awesome sense of community here. People will stand around talking for hours and some visit the shop three times in a day and they may not buy a thing - but maybe it gives them a sense of belonging.
Thanks so much Shelali - where can we find you?
You can find The Tip Shop at the Southern Landfill - located at the end of Landfill Road, off Happy Valley Road between Brooklyn and Owhiro Bay in Wellington. The Tip Shop and Recycle Centre is on the right hand side of the road, with the turn off just before the landfill weigh bridge.
