Waste-minimisation advocate Kate Meads brought her Waste-Free parenting workshop back to Dunedin on Saturday. It was attended by about 80 families.
The city was one of the last stops on her tour around the country, at the invitation of 47 separate councils. Families received a complimentary package of cloth nappies, reusable food wrap, and sustainable sanitary products.
As well as talking about using more sustainable nappies and food packaging, parents were also taught how to recycle properly, including properly washing recyclable waste.
"Every single council is quite different," Ms Meads, who has been holding the workshops for the past 10 years, said.
It was possible to save about $4500 by using cloth nappies for each child.
"The savings are quite huge," Ms Meads said.
If every parent used one cloth nappy a day for their child, it would save about a million nappies going to landfill each week.
"Fifty percent of waste going to landfill is avoidable," Ms Meads said.
"My goal is to send people away a lot more aware of what they are using."
Another big issue for parents was flushing non-flushable waste, such as baby wipes, down the toilet. The only thing that should be flushed down was toilet paper, Ms Meads said.
Most of her workshops for parents this year had sold out in advance, and Dunedin was towards the end of her itinerary.
There were still workshops to be held in Queenstown, Wanaka, and Tauranga. Dunedin mother Nic Dorward said the complimentary package was "fabulous".
"I’m hoping to learn ways to be more sustainable at home, and save some money as well."
