Wa$ted! season 1

The Petelos produce twice as much rubbish as most families, half of which comes from the youngest member of the family. They waste power and money on their dryer and Patrick spends three hours a day burning through precious petrol in a traffic gridlock. With the help from the WA$TED! team, the Petelos will save $1250 in household bills every year and reduce their household footprint from 33 to 22 times the size of their section - a reduction of a third. Even though Patrick only went by train two days out of five, if everyone made a reduction like him we would reduce our country's total carbon emissions by 15%.

Englishman Mike and air hostess Maxine recently relocated to the countryside for a clean, green life. However the WA$TED! team quickly discovers their lifestyle is anything but that: they throw out 97 bags of rubbish every six months, Mike commutes three hours each day to work and their beautiful villa holds some closet eco-crimes. With the help from the WA$TED! team, the Parrys will save $1200 in household bills every year (and another $280 once the solar kicks in) and reduce their household footprint from 130 to 87 times the size of their house. Although their footprint still sounds high, daily commuting from the country means their extra fuel usage will always have an increased impact on the environment.

It’s the small things adding up to a big eco problem in the Wea family. Over six months the WA$TED team found almost 200 school lunches, 2,600 cigarettes, 216 packets of chewing gum and 180 metres of plastic wrap in the Wea’s trash. With the help from the WA$TED! team, the Weas will save $850 in household bills every year and reduce their household footprint from 21 to 15 times the size of their section.

The WA$TED team has just three weeks to stop home business owners Matt Simpson and Pippa Jinks from suffocating the planet with plastic packaging and toxic electronic waste, not to mention their excessive three baths a day and power use which is twice the national average. With the help from the WA$TED! team, the Jinks will save $1640 in household bills every year and reduce their household footprint from 33 to 20 times the size of their section.

The WA$TED team takes on a solo mum and her two boys who are wasting 24,000 litres of water every month, killing untold local plant and marine life and contributing to the 1.5 billion litres of waste water New Zealand is discharging into the environment every day. With the help of the WA$TED! team, Jocelyn and the boys will save $1050 in household bills every year and reduce their household footprint from 11 to 7 times the size of their section.

Its back to school, as the WA$TED! team greens up a group of six university students who are creating almost a tonne of rubbish every six months, 90% of which could have avoided hitting the landfill. With the help from the WA$TED! team, the students will save $2200 in household bills every year and reduce their household footprint from 85 to 60 times the size of their section.

Barry Crump’s son, Martin and his family are in the environmental hot spot this week, exposed for not being at one with nature. They are illegally dumping rubbish, heating up the planet by buying food shipped from across the globe, and spending over $7,000 in power and gas bills every year. With help from the WA$TED! team, the Crumps will save $1325 in household bills every year and reduce their household footprint from 39 to 24 times the size of their section. A huge reduction which was mostly due to switching to a highly efficient heat source, but it could have been bigger had they put more effort into reducing their food miles.

The WA$TED team takes on four generations of farming traditions to make this dairy farm and its occupants more environmentally friendly. By burning their waste, Ritchie and Abbie are sending dangerous dioxins into air which is returning to their land and poisoning the soil they rely on for their livelihood. With help from the WA$TED! team, the farmers will save $1500 in household bills every year and reduce their household footprint from 154 to 101 times the size of their house.

Material girls Patrina, Marjka and Kristy are blissfully unaware they are fast destroying their own material world. Not only do they turf out tonnes of takeaway trash and cosmetics packaging, but they are also living in a luxury, energy-zapping home - which is costing them $700 a month in power alone. With help from the WA$TED! team, the girls will save $1650 in household bills every year and reduce their household footprint from 92 to 58 times the size of their section.

The WA$TED team discovers the rubbishy Radichs recycling wrongs, food faults and nappy nightmare means they are creating 85% more rubbish than they should. This single income family is losing half their heating through the ceilings and floors leaving their teenage daughter’s room below ‘World Health Organisation’ recommended temperatures. With the help from the WA$TED! team, the Radich's will save $1500 in household bills every year and reduce their household footprint from 12 to 7 times the size of their section.