Hannah Blumhardt
Hannah is part of New Zealand's zero waste movement. Her work spans the full range from grassroots to government and focuses on reaching a waste-free world.
An independent researcher with a background in law, policy, history and international relations, and professional experience working in all branches of government, as well as social justice NGOs and academia. Hannah's current research is focused on zero waste policy and practice. In 2015, she and her partner, Liam Prince, started living without a rubbish bin. Together, they founded The Rubbish Trip, through which they travelled New Zealand fulltime for almost 3 years, giving talks about zero waste living. Here they are on the Sunday programme.
Contact details
Email: hannah.blumhardt@vuw.ac.nz
Phone: +64 21 027 969 30
Facebook/Instagram: @TheRubbishTrip
Through The Rubbish Trip, Hannah continues to support individuals, communities and small businesses to adopt zero waste practices. She is committed to ensuring individual and community expertise in the area of environmental behaviour change is better valued in the policy-making process and within institutions.
Hannah is also Coordinator of the New Zealand Product Stewardship Council, Co-founder and Policy Spokesperson for Takeaway Throwaways. She has been part of advisory groups for the Ministry for the Environment, including the update of the New Zealand Waste Strategy and the design of a beverage container return scheme for New Zealand. Her research interests include product stewardship, New Zealand waste policy and the Waste Minimisation Act, reusable packaging systems, decentralised community-scale composting, environmental justice and inclusion in the zero waste movement, and the relationship between zero waste policy and climate change mitigation strategies.
Hannah has published on New Zealand waste policy, and reusable and refillable packaging systems, including for beverages. She has previously published in the area of social work practice and poverty, in Europe and New Zealand.