The Maggs Family Story: ‘Rubbish Spoiling Nature’

As told to by Sarah Maggs to Justine Skilling, the Mangere Bridge WasteWise Story Writer 

Our children are always keen to pick up rubbish, possibly as a result of spending their early years at Keas under the leadership and influence of Janine Nillesen (WasteWise member and Ambury Farm Park Ranger), as well as their involvement in Kiwi Conservation Club (www.kcc.org.nz) and Forest and Bird (www.forestandbird.org.nz).  We have participated in lots of the foreshore tidy ups that Janine has organised, and have tried to instil awareness about recycling in our children, as this is an important family philosophy.  We often carry gloves on our walks around the farm in case we find rubbish.  Our son William has enjoyed creating new things out of the rubbish that we find.

On a recent walk out to Puketutu Island with some relatives from Wales, we were disturbed and embarrassed by the amount of rubbish we found lying around.  We’d taken our family out to show them a beautiful spot in our community and were hoping to catch a glimpse of a seal that we’ve seen in the area before.  Our visitors were so enthusiastic about the idea of picking up rubbish that we spent a couple of hours walking around the foreshore and gathering up what we could.  We felt that the rubbish was tainting the landscape and we wanted it to look beautiful again.  William is particularly concerned about rubbish such as fishing line that might be harmful to birds and this was a motivating factor for him in joining in the impromptu clean up.

The rubbish turned out to be mostly recyclable and some of it we were able to reuse ourselves.  The area immediately looked better after we’d finished, but we still felt disappointed that people had dumped this waste in the first place. I wondered why people are not ‘finishing off’ their acts of consumption (ie. they buy and consume but don’t dispose of the waste generated by products).  I also wondered why other people hadn’t thought to pick up the rubbish and what message it sends to children when we pass by rubbish and don’t take responsibility for keeping our beautiful spaces clean.  There seem to be some gaps here.

After the clean up, we took photos of the rubbish we’d collected and entered one of the photos in the Manukau Harbour Seaweek Photo Competition, to show people that all is not beautiful in our harbour.  Our family will continue to pick up rubbish in the area, as it isn’t hard.  We feel that Mangere Bridge is a special, cohesive community and that there is considerable interest in keeping it beautiful and developing it, and our actions are contributing to this.

WasteWise Team: Reflection and Planning

Last week the WasteWise team, including members of the Friends of the Farm and Foreshore and Carol-Anne Armitage of the Mangere Bridge Progressive Business Association, met with Jenny Chilcott (Auckland Council) to reflect on our journey to date and to plan for the future of our initiative.

We reflected on what’s been of value to us, and members of the group spoke of being on a learning curve, having a heightened awareness of waste issues and being able to pass on this learning to others in the community.  The evolving leadership of our group and the valuing of everyone’s unique contribution were also noted.  The group felt a sense of shared purpose and of working together as a team, which has made this a fun experience as well.  Significantly, the positive response of the community at large was also identified. There’s a great openness among local residents and others towards becoming a WasteWise community.

The most significant changes our group noticed as a result of participating in this initiative ranged from personal experiences of increased knowledge and understanding of waste issues and potential solutions, to excitement about linking with other groups in the wider Auckland area who are involved in this work.  We’re inspired by others and have been an inspiration to others!  There’s a sense that Mangere Bridge could become a “trailblazing community”, through our connections with each other, with business and with Council, as a result of the WasteWise initiative.

As a group, we compared our initial plan with what we’ve achieved so far and found that we’ve done a large part of what we set out to do!  We’ve created a core team and an action plan for the initiative.  We’ve built community awareness about our project through the local newsletter, community noticeboard and through making a dramatic appearance at the local Santa Parade.  We’ve upskilled ourselves on waste issues through attendance on an Extreme Waste Tour, ACZWA Zero Waste training and Skill Share Waiheke.  We’ve held three public waste demonstrations at local events (the market, Ambury Farm Day and the Mangere Bridge School car boot sale).  We’ve done preparatory work for the planned community hui by building relationships with our local Te Puea Marae, schools and other groups. And we’ve begun to create a user-friendly database of these contacts.  We’ve also recorded the unfolding journey of our project through our Mangere Bridge WasteWise blog, which helps us to reflect on and learn from what we’re doing

With assistance from Sunshine Yates (Waste Not Consulting), Carol-Anne has been hard at work in our ‘village’, raising awareness among café owners and gaining their interest and buy-in to working together to divert food waste and leftovers away from landfill through a practical solution.

Our discussions helped us to further hone our vision for the project for the next three months and potentially beyond.  Next steps for us include planning and delivering our two community hui and putting together a new WMIF (Waste Minimisation Innovation Fund) application.  We’ll provide WasteWise consultation and hands-on assistance at upcoming local events including the Mangere Bridge Food and Wine Festival, the Waterlea Summer Festival and the Mangere Bridge School reunion.  We’ll continue to work on our branding, developing resources (including a checklist for organising zero waste community events), assisting the business community to reduce packaging, recording our stories on our blog and developing our community database.

We still have a way to go to spread awareness across the community and build a network of community volunteers willing to assist with WasteWise activities and other community events or working bees. Generally people are very receptive once they understand the issues and they welcome information on how to reduce waste to landfill as well as other practical solutions such as looking for purchases that have less packaging.

Our group was inspired to hear that Auckland Council is so excited about what we’re achieving that a member of its Waste Minimisation Team will showcase our work at an upcoming WasteWise conference in Queenstown!  Perhaps our fledgling example will encourage other communities to take collective action. Our efforts are slowly beginning to show what’s possible when we love the place where we live and can work together with a shared purpose, valuing the gifts that are already amongst us.

Goodbye Godwits Event- 1 March 2014

The Mangere Bridge WasteWise group is using any and all opportunities to raise awareness about waste. At the Goodbye Godwits event at Ambury farm held on 1 March 2014 the team was housed under our new gazebo, courtesy of our grant from Auckland Council, and using new sandwich boards custom made for us by woodwork students at Lynfield College.  We recycled educational resources from previous events, including our timeline of waste items showing the length of time taken for different types of rubbish to decompose in landfill. 

Using information and resources from the organisation Sustainable Coastlines (www.sustainablecoastlines.org.nz), our WasteWise group was able to make the connection for people between the random dumping of waste and the clogging up of our harbour, with its potentially devastating effects on birdlife and sealife.  

The event attracted around 200 people across a wide age range.  Some were locals and others travelled from other parts of Auckland for the morning.  The WasteWise educators had lots of opportunities to talk to people about the issues around waste in our community and to inspire them to take care of our local area, for the benefit of people as well as wildlife.

The evaluation forms filled in by participants on leaving the event showed that many were concerned about the amount of waste lying around our harbour.  Some stated that they intend to pick up rubbish around the area on a regular basis and others asked to be part of group clean-ups, such as the annual Spring Clean around Ambury Farm and the foreshore.

It was also good to see the farm rangers recycling materials from previous events when setting up for the event. Our group has developed a strong relationship with the rangers and we’re inspired by their role-modelling, enthusiasm and commitment.

Our presence at this event has given our WasteWise group the opportunity to connect with the Manukau Harbour Restoration Society (www.mhrs.org.nz) and the annual Seaweek celebrations, which we believe will be an important link for us in our work to educate people on waste issues in our community.  

Zero Waste Event Planning- March 2014

The Mangere Bridge WasteWise group is looking for opportunities to build on the success of our work at the Mangere Bridge School Car Boot Sale last year, where we assisted the school in significantly reducing the amount of waste going to landfill from their event. We are currently working with the Waterlea School Summer Festival planning team, to look at ways to ensure that the packaging used at this event is compostable or recyclable where possible.  We plan to supply recycle bin stations with rinsing facilities, which will be supervised by volunteers from our WasteWise group.  With our group’s growing expertise in this area, we are looking for more opportunities to assist with the planning and running of Zero Waste events in Mangere Bridge and are advertising this service through the local Mangere Bridge Village newsletter and noticeboard via the poster below.

Environmental Education- March 2014

Our environmental educators are using their skills and growing knowledge about waste to pass on key facts and helpful ideas to others in the community.  As well as using the forums that we have attended and created (Ambury Farm Day, Mangere Bridge Market Day, Mangere Bridge Car Boot Sale, Goodbye Godwits), we are also utilising our local Village Newsletter and noticeboard to get the WasteWise message across.  Our aim is to focus attention on a couple of everyday family items rather than swamping people with information.  Through posters, such as the one below, we are highlighting the impact of waste on our environment and also suggesting ways that people could change their behaviour to address this issue.

Friends of the Farm and Foreshore

Rubbish facts

New Zealand throws out 22 million

plastic bags each week.

How you can help…

•     Reuse your plastic bags when shopping

•     Collect them in one plastic bag, then take them to Countdown supermarket to be recycled

•     Collect lots and make things

•     Google Pinterest for upcycling ideas

The next step in our WasteWise education campaign is to make recycling easy for our residents, with the provision of a monthly plastic bag drop off point for our community at the Mangere Bridge Village Sunday market.