A unique community workshop space that takes items otherwise destined for landfill and turns them into items destined for new homes, opens with a special public market on Saturday.
The Re-New NZ Sustainable HB Market is on 10am-2pm, this Saturday, 8th April at the brand new Re-New Community Workshop and Store at 113 King St North, Hastings ( In the old locksmith shop, diagonally opposite Countdown.)
Re-New was founded by Julie Cronin in 2021 after she lost her job during the first Covid-19 lockdown.
“Re-New NZ is about second chances,” says Julie. “It is about taking old and making it new again.
“We also give people a new start – people like me who may have lost jobs through the global health crisis, retirees, those wanting to create something new from an old dream, or people who like to just potter around.”
Initially Re-New was set up as a community of like-minded people with a focus on sustainability: repairing and upcycling materials salvaged from skip bins, building site waste, scrap yards, bonfire piles and beaches – turning them into new, unique, pieces of furniture, artworks, jewellery, fashionable clothing, and household goods.
Pop-up markets were held, but the newly-leased community workshop space is a big step forward for Re-New and has been made possible with funding from Hastings District Council’s Large Waste Minimisation Fund.
Hastings District Council senior waste minimisation officer Sam Gibbons says, “It’s initiatives like these that bring us closer to building a community that values our resources, that re-uses, re-purposes and recycles.”
Cronin says people can come to the workshop and create, recreate, upcycle and recycle, with space and equipment, to express their talents and skills and sell their crafts.
The workshop space is membership-based (either for one-off or longer periods), and members will be able to use the workshop, materials, tools, equipment and facilities to create or re-create whatever they like. They’ll then be able to sell anything they make in the on-site store.
“We are happy to provide stall space for everything from seedlings to large furniture, and more. Or to help you connect with someone who does, or has, what you are looking for.
“We are home hobbyists, jewellers, artists, sculptors, up-cyclers and re-cyclers, creators and re-creators, builders, growers, crafters, sew-ers, waste managers and scrappers, furniture makers and repairers, funeral directors and coffin makers, educators and learners, professionals and amateurs, and more.
If you would like to sell your products, or display your services at one of Re-New Sustainable Markets, visit to buy something or just find out more about Re-New see: www.re-new.nz
Public Interest Journalism funded through NZ On Air