Garbage Alternatives - Bettering Earth’s Environment”.

A new business initiative launched its website on 1st Sept 2011.

The name of the initiative is G.A.B.E.E. which stands for “Garbage Alternatives - Bettering Earth’s Environment”.

Founded by Stuart McKie in 2008 in Tawa, Wellington, the philosophy is about prolonging the life of household white ware appliances, and salvaging the still working parts of otherwise scrapped machines, to do so. It's a self-sustaining and resourceful new approach, and promotes the kiwi DIY spirit.

For the past 3 years GABEE has formed close relationships with a number of retailers who receive trade-ins, or broken machines for disposal. Stuart does regular collections free of charge from these associated outlets, and also from private residences who hear about the work that he does. Sometimes people will get a new machine before really investigating the fault or attempting to repair it. Most, if not ALL, of the machines that get scrapped, still have at least* some* working parts or panels that can be salvaged and on-sold to waiting customers looking for just the right part to fix their machine.

GABEE has been selling these spare parts on trademe for about 3 years now, and managed to build quite a customer base and turned a good trade. But the unsold parts were piling up into a mountain! Space started to become an issue, so business partner Catherine Hutchison, based in Martinborough, South Wairarapa, took the initiative, and with the help of her mother and website designer Alison Griffiths (Alirat Websites) launched a fantastic website on the 1st September 2011. The site boasts the largest collection of used spare appliance parts in New Zealand! And with thousands more still to come, the website is destined to be very impressive indeed.

We think all kiwis should know about this website, so they can be aware of what is out there, and available to them. Garbage Alternatives Website has everything from replacement fridge shelves to washing machine pumps to dishwasher basket rollers. You don't even need to be a handyman to love this website, as there are so many things you can easily replace with no electrical experience whatsoever!

Appliance repair businesses will also love this site, as it is a huge database for them to source those rare and hard to find parts. Not to mention the quintessential kiwi handyman do-it-yourselfer!

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