Soft Plastics Collection Point

This month has seen Friends of the Farm members Meredith and Sharryn bringing a long planned WasteWise initiative to fruition, with the creation of a soft plastics collection point in Mangere Bridge.  Having sourced a collection bag from Enviroreel and a frame from Steve Rickerby (We Compost) earlier in the year, the problem of finding a suitable place to locate it was solved with the help of recent Friends of the Farm recruits Dawn and Denise of Oddbits, a local crafty upcycling operation with a stall at the Mangere Bridge Village Market. 

Not only did Dawn and Denise offer to keep the bag at their stall permanently, they also made a connection with fellow stallholders Rematerialise and arranged for the contents to be taken away by them and used as raw material for their own durable upcycled bags.  Just goes to show what can happen when we put our heads, contacts and skills together and work towards a common goal!  Rematerialise will deliver any surplus soft plastics to Enviroreel, a Penrose company that recycles these into garden edging and cable reels.

To start the ball rolling and to ensure that people were educated about what could be recycled through the collection bag, Meredith and Sharryn created signage and a display, as well as attending the first three market days to engage with passers-by.  Prior to the first market, an email was sent through our WasteWise email tree and other community networks letting people know about the new collection point.

Sharryn reported that over the three days a total of 65 people approached the stall to discuss the new collection point, mostly curious market-goers rather than prior contacts.  Some of these people returned to drop off their soft plastics, and the bins were overflowing on all three days, despite the inclement weather!  A keen community supporter, Natasha, baked lovely loaves for our team to enjoy while hosting the collection point.

Our hope is that this initiative will raise awareness of the problems plastic bags create in our environment and encourage people to get into the habit of dropping off soft plastics as part of a regular visit to the Sunday market. An article will be going into next month’s Community Newsletter and the new collection point will also be advertised through upcoming community WasteWise workshops.

The Friends of the Farm WasteWise team are thrilled to be able to offer this service to our community and extremely grateful for the generosity and enthusiasm of everyone who has been involved in making it happen.  So keep those soft plastics coming in!