“When I first saw the email, I was quite convinced it must be some kind of scam.”
But it didn’t take Jemima Jones, brainchild of a community-powered recycling movement which diverts tonnes of potentially valuable items from landfill, long to verify that the email informing her she’s up for a prestigious New Zealand award wasn’t rubbish.
For her Grassroots Recycling mahi (work), she’s been named a semi-finalist for the New Zealand Sustainability Leader of the Year, which salutes people restoring and protecting the natural world, creating a greener Aotearoa.
Her citation reads that she has re-imagined what community-led sustainability can look like by turning household waste into resources, raising awareness, nurturing community, and creating a model of grassroots climate action.
“I have no idea who nominated me… it’s exciting to be on [the award shortlist] with all these other amazing people who are doing incredible stuff,” Jemima says humbly.
“I am quite proud of this beautiful community that I’ve created, and the volumes are just growing all the time with a minimum of 20 volunteers who are absolute legends.
“I absolutely wouldn’t be where I am now without any of them; if I were trying to do this on my own, it would be an absolute lost cause.”
Starting small with bottle tops and bread tags, Jemima expanded into collecting food and beverage cartons, which are then manufactured by saveBoard into building materials, along with plastic lids which become fence posts, and metal lids, which are recycled by Sims Metal. Aluminum wine bottle tops that her organisation collect are donated to Kidney Kids.
“I feel like I’m connecting the dots between the people who want to do the right thing and make less impact and the people who will take the product and do something with it… there was nobody doing that before me in Nelson,” she says.
Jemima has established 13 community collection points in Nelson Tasman and has mobilised volunteers, cafes, and families to repurpose hard-to-recycle materials. Finalists will be revealed on 26 February.
