Mya Averill’s Sustainability Party

Mangere Bridge local Mya Averill turned eight in October and decided to do something a bit different for her party this year.  After learning about some of the issues facing planet Earth at school this term, she thought it would be a good idea to throw a “sustainability” party and set to work thinking of games, activities, decorations and food that would celebrate this theme.

She started by making some recycled paper party invitations with plant seeds embedded in them and sent these out to her friends, asking them to wrap any presents they brought in newspaper, rather than buying wrapping paper. The party space was decorated with newspaper paper chains, instead of bought decorations.

At the party, her guests got to plant some seedlings in pots and make trash to fashion costumes.  She organised a “treasure” hunt from items of rubbish hidden around the garden, which had to be placed in the correct bin at the end (recycling, compost and landfill).  When her homemade piñata (made from reused cardboard) was bashed open, native plant seeds came flying out! To create less rubbish, food was served and eaten using real crockery and cutlery instead of disposable options. At the end of the party, guests took home the potted plant they’d made, instead of the usual lolly-filled loot bag.

Her friends had fun at the party and their parents got into the spirit of it too, carpooling amongst themselves in keeping with the theme.  Mya’s parents said they “saved a lot of money”, with the food, seeds and seedlings being the only cost. Very little rubbish was generated at the party and Mya felt that she had done something “good for the Earth”. 

If anyone else is considering organizing a sustainability party, Mya suggests that you have three bins on site- one for recycling, one for food scraps and one for general landfill rubbish.  You could use any of her ideas for party activities or think of others, such as getting people to make worm farms and sending them home with worms!  Her general recommendation is for you to reduce, reuse and recycle, a message that could apply to any kind of party or gathering, especially in the lead up to Christmas. 

“Mya keeps us thinking about how we can do things more sustainably. I think

we can do a lot more but we’re making some changes and are much more

conscious about our decisions when it comes to waste and the energy we

consume”, says Mya’s Mum Jen. Thanks Mya for sharing your inspiring story with us.  You are a Mangere Bridge waste champion and a certificate is coming your way soon!  

A Couple of Odd Bits

Local crafty upcyclers Denise Arnst and Dawn Wood have repurposing in their blood.  Denise’s mother came from a family of 20 and always “made do”, once carpeting a five bedroom house from scraps of carpet.  Dawn’s father worked at a fabric importing warehouse and as a child her mother made all of her dresses from fabric samples. She remembers having one colour for the front, one for the back and the pockets from another.  The two friends are carrying on their family traditions with their business, Oddbits, which counts the Mangere Bridge Village Boutique Market as home. 

The inspiration for Oddbits came during Denise’s stint in the cutting room of several top New Zealand fashion labels, where she saw four-five mini skips of fabric offcuts sent to landfill every week.  Unable to live with the wastage, Denise began lugging bags of offcuts home on the train, which she passed on to schools to be repurposed.  When illness forced her to leave her job, Denise was looking for something to do and decided to start sewing.

The Oddbits range is a beautiful, quirky mix of handmade children’s clothing, toys and homewares, all made from upcycled fabric and bric-a-brac.  Tablecloths, blankets and lace doilies are transformed into aprons, coats, soft toys and placemats.  Denise makes most of the clothing and Dawn uses the left over material to make hair accessories and brooches.  The monsters are her favourite to make and she can get eight of these from one dressing gown, each with its own personality. Denise also does requests, repurposing treasured family fabrics and tired clothing into whatever your heart desires. 

One of our local waste champions, Oddbits is happy to receive material and bric-a-brac that you no longer want but would like to find a home for.  Denise confesses to not being able to say no to anything, and will endeavour to find other outlets for things she can’t use herself.   “I’m just the middleman”, she says.  At present, she’s working on finding a cost-effective way to ship unwanted clothing and fabric to Rarotonga, where her sister can distribute it to those in need. 

Denise and Dawn are also part of our local Friends of the Farm group and have made a significant contribution to our community as the faithful collection point for soft plastics.  Don’t forget to bring your clean stretchy plastic bags and gladwrap to their market stall on Sundays.

Walking around the Oddbits home-base, it’s obvious that reducing waste is at the heart of everything they do.  From the upcycled pallet chicken coop in the garden, to the vintage couches, gleaned from the inorganic collection, in the lounge.  “I love the challenge of finding things and putting them to another use”, Denise says.  “There’s a finite amount of space and product.  We can’t keep producing the amount that we are and expect it to disappear at the other end of its life.  Everything should be in a cycle.  If you don’t need something you should pass it on to someone else who does”.

Oddbits is part of a growing community of upcycling businesses in Auckland.  Known as “Upcycle Auckland”, the collective is hosting a series of three market days at Silo Park over the summer.  Denise hopes to inspire others by what they’re doing and encourage them to join the movement.  “There’s room for everybody”, she says.

Denise is very happy with the way things have unfolded with Oddbits over the past year.  Returning to work may change things a little, but the pair has lots of ideas for future projects, including getting young people more involved in sewing.  With many adults now lacking even basic skills like sewing on buttons, they feel it’s crucial to pass these skills on to the next generation. 

Oddbits can be found at the Mangere Bridge Village Boutique Market every Sunday from 9.00-1.00 pm. If you’re wanting to reduce waste this Christmas, check out their beautiful range for gift ideas that are locally handcrafted, unpackaged and made entirely from recycled materials.

Kiwi Esplanade Foreshore Clean Up

The foreshore area around the playground on Kiwi Esplanade is now sparkling after our clean up on the weekend.  Over forty locals, including lots of children, combed the area for rubbish over a couple of hours.  Karl and Alison, recent arrivals in Mangere Bridge, were pleased to have an opportunity to help out in a community they’ve found to be a “friendly place”.  Maja (10) and Jarvis (7) were keen to clean up the area to “help all the animals that are eating the rubbish”.  Mitchell (10), Ayden and Keegan (12) came because they see themselves as “part of a community”.  They enjoyed being out in the sunshine, getting muddy and hanging out with friends. 

Many people were surprised at the amount of rubbish, which they hadn’t noticed before.  “This is where kids play and there’s glass all over it.  It’s upsetting”, said Mangere Bridge resident Coreena Kearns.  All sorts of rubbish was collected during the clean up, including broken glass, beer cans, fishing equipment, clothing and nappies.  Friends of the Farm who organised the event also sorted and weighed the rubbish. We collected 111kg of rubbish, of which 20 kg was able to be recycled.

Clean up participants would love the beach area to stay clean and tidy so that it can be a place where people can swim safely without fear of what’s under the water or what they might step on.  Some were so inspired they’d like to make this a monthly event!  If anyone feels the urge to pick up rubbish in future and would like others to join them, let us know and we can share it on our Facebook page and on the Neighbourly website and rally others to join in.  A big thank you to everyone who helped make our community a safer and more beautiful place!   

Food for Tomorrow’s Children

A Mangere Bridge local of 40 years, Yvonne Thomas is clearly one of our community’s “waste champions”.  She says her head “bubbles” at night with ideas for the Auckland Teaching Garden, which she runs with Mona Nimmo behind the old school house on Kirkbride Rd, Mangere.  The pair have been involved with the garden for the past five years, turning it from weed-ridden Council wasteland into a highly productive and fertile area, producing food for dozens of gardeners and their families.  The gardens are open to the general public and plots are currently available over the summer period for people wanting to try out gardening for themselves, with support and mentoring from Yvonne and Mona.  The longer-term plots now have a waitlist, which shows how popular the gardens are with the current batch of growers, many of whom travel across Auckland to garden there.

An inspiration for how to bring new life to ‘rubbish’, the garden is full of re-loved, re-purposed and up-cycled materials.  Old tyres have been turned into raised garden beds.  Fencing has become support for beans.  Old power poles have been used to construct garden edging.  The garden receives deliveries of old, unwanted potted seedlings from Zealandia, buckets from the airport, and waste tofu, for the gardeners to use.  Almost no money has changed hands in the development of the gardens.  “Don’t just look at something - see it,” says Yvonne of her approach to making use of waste. 

Yvonne hopes people’s experience with the gardens will help them to assimilate old-fashioned values of patience and respect, “for self, parents, the land and what we have in New Zealand”.  She sees the gardens as a resource for the future and the children of today, where people can “learn from someone who does it”. There are huge benefits for people who spend time in gardens, with improvements in mental and physical health and social wellbeing.  She believes the garden is a safe, therapeutic place for people who come there. 

As productive as the garden is already, Yvonne still has big plans!  She would love to see a food forest developed at the site, providing an opportunity for children to see how fruit is grown and to learn when to pick it.  She wants to see the outdoor kitchen used for cooking workshops and a pizza oven to be constructed on the site.  Yvonne would like to set up an area to encourage people to use a Bokashi composting system at home.  The gardens would be an ideal site for people to drop off their Bokashi product if they don’t have space at home to put it.

It’s incredible to see what Yvonne and Mona have achieved in such a short space of time, with very limited resources.  Their story is truly inspirational and a perfect example of what it means to be WasteWise and caring.   Their work provides a model for reducing waste in our community, through growing our own food and re-using and adding value to the resources that are already around us, rather than buying new each time something is needed.

To apply for a plot over the summer, to offer a resource that the gardens may be able to use, or to volunteer your time, please contact Yvonne on 0274997006.