Junk Run founder Fionna Gotts is a ‘green-blooded’, passionate waste minimisation advocate. Back in 2010, Fionna saw a gap in the waste industry in Auckland and started building relationships with charitable and other community partners.
Early on her focus was on measuring how much waste was collected and where it was disposed. Junk Run quickly gained credibility with Auckland Council, and the council has since supported them with two waste minimisation and innovation fund grants. Junk Run is changing the way waste is managed. They have been recognised as an industry leader, having been a finalist at Ministry of the Environment awards as well as a winner and finalist at the NZI Sustainable Business Network Awards.
Today Junk Run is known for their strong social partnerships through their work with a number of well-known national charities, disabled adult workshops, community groups and recycling facilities. They are also currently New Zealand’s only waste management company that is externally audited and certified with an ECO warranty.
Junk Run founder Fionna Gotts
What problem is Junk Run trying to solve?
Junk Run exists to send waste to a better place through innovation, sector collaboration, and smart business processes. They work with their clients to create measurable waste management systems by finding sustainable waste disposal and redistribution opportunities.
They are working to change the way businesses and individuals think about waste and helping them find alternatives to dumping items into skips, flexibags and landfills. This is all about encouraging businesses to embrace a circular economy, one where products and materials are recovered and reused or regenerated –moving the focus away from recycling alone.
Junk Run are focussed on running a commercially sustainable business with a strong environmental philosophy. Their overall aim is to make New Zealand a cleaner more ‘waste-responsible’ place and to reduce the waste being created.
What impact is Junk Run making?
Junk Run works to reduce the amount of waste going to landfill through innovation and sector collaboration. More than 70% of the waste they collect (measured in metres cubed) diverted from landfill through redistribution, reuse and recycling through charitable partners and community groups in support of a circular economy.
Junk Run is challenging the way Aucklanders and businesses think about and deal with their waste, to encourage encouraging people to adopt a more responsible attitude towards procurement of items like office furniture, retail fixtures and fittings and construction materials.
Currently, 70% of construction waste, 80% of commercial items and 86% of the residential rubbish collected by Junk Run is diverted from landfill. Junk Run tracks and monitors these figures daily on a job by job basis and are always working to find ways to improve these results.
What is Junk Run’s business model?
Junk Run’s core business is to collect waste materials from its customers, who are charged for producing the waste. They then transform that waste into resources by redistributing what they collect for reuse or recycling. They maximise redistribution by helping to build resource recovery networks and by supporting charities and community organisations, collectors, and artisans.
Where to from here?
Junk Run is always looking to improve their waste recovery resource networks. They are leading the way with transparent reporting, and getting a clear grasp on the waste Aucklanders are creating. Through providing waste management consultation and advice, they have become actively involved in council and industry work groups. Fionna is regularly called upon as an industry commentator – just another way Junk Run are continuing to influence how we think about and manage waste.