About Trash Palace

At Trash Palace, resources are diverted from being dumped at Spicer Landfill. so that the life of the landfill and the surrounding natural environment is extended.

Household items can be re-sold through the Trash Palace Shop.  Goods that are not in good condition are stripped down and sold as parts or go to scrap metal merchants.  All sales funds go towards enabling further employment and to generate business development opportunities for the community.

Trash Palace was set up to create sustainable employment opportunities for people with mental health issues through Mana Community Enterprises (the not-for-profit organisation that operates Trash Palace), and to support the Porirua City Council zero waste to landfill goal.

TheTrash Palace Education Centre, the first for the Wellington region, is run by the Sustainability Trust. Opened in February 2004 by the Minister for the Environment, the aim of the Centre is to promote sustainable urban living to households across the Wellington region. The Centre runs several environmental education and community projects and is generously supported by the Ministry for the Environment and Allbrite Recycling Industries Limited.

The locally based Permaculture NZ developed a landscape plan and built a Permaculture Garden at the North end of the Trash Palace buildings.  They worked to implement the principles of permaculture (which means ‘living in harmony with nature’) into the Trash Palace surroundings.

Volunteers from the Global Volunteer Network NZ used natural and recycled elements to complete the landscaping.  They made crazy paving from broken floor tiles and the Porirua Homeschooling Group painted the rainwater storage tank as a learning activity.

Displayed outdoors at Trash Palace are several sculptures and recycled artworks created by local artists using recycled and natural materials.

See our Photo Gallery for more photos of Trash Palace.