Dunedin City Recycling Hubs – combining history, art, and function to reduce waste to landfill.
Inner-city recycling can be tricky — tight urban spaces leave little room for kerbside collection. Recognising this, Whirika partnered with ZealSteel to design and deliver a series of innovative public recycling hubs tailored to Dunedin’s urban environment.
We began by surveying residents and found a key insight: people were willing to walk a couple of blocks to drop off recycling — if the facilities were easy to use, close by, and felt safe. With this in mind, Dunedin City Council commissioned us to create two pilot recycling hubs for the Vogel St and View St neighbourhoods.
The success of these pilots led to several more hubs, this time supporting students and residents in Moray Place, Clyde St, and Forth St. Each new facility became a visible, accessible part of the neighbourhood fabric.
Working with local artists and ZealSteel – Dunedin’s most innovative metalwork manufacturer – meant we could get creative and project manage, design and build more of these facilities.
Steel housings feature beautiful laser cut designs that reflect the city’s heritage and features. Each design is specifically created to suit its location, such as garden designs for garden sites, and designs reflecting past industry at a site. Fitted with LED lighting – they are usable 24 hours a day.
These have seen such quick success, that we are now working in partnership with ZealSteel to create and install a further facilities within the inner city and student area.