Wānaka Wastebusters

Wānaka Wastebusters is a community enterprise that has run the town's reuse shop and recycling centre on Ballantyne Road for around 25 years. Locals donate and buy secondhand goods at the reuse shop and yard, while the team hand-sorts recycling from local businesses and events. They also run waste education, repair and slow fashion programs, compost advice and waste audits for the Upper Clutha community.

Programs include Repair Revolution, Slow Fashion, Dr Compost, Enviroschools, Low Waste Living and Plastic Free July, plus crockery hire and e-waste recycling. It marked 25 years in September 2025, when Queenstown Lakes District Council gave a letter of intent for extra land for 'Wastebusters 2.0', a larger circular economy hub with more reuse space, maker and repair spaces, and a focus on building and food waste. In late 2025 it won three Wānaka Chamber of Commerce awards and secured funding for a commercial food scraps pilot, Compost Collect, launching in 2026. Co-founder Rachel Brown; general manager Gina Dempster.