By Justine, Meredith and Frances
Following on from our Sweet Talks
event earlier in the year, Friends of the Farm are now developing a Household Waste
Pilot Project as part of our wastewise commitment. Our trained mentors live
in the community and are working alongside Mangere Bridge households to find
ways to reduce the amount of waste going to the landfill. This might
include:
·
Learning more about what
else you can recycle along with what you’re already doing.
·
Trying a Bokashi or
composting system to deal with food waste
·
Finding out where to
dispose of other household items.
A mentor is available to answer questions
along the way about certain kinds of packaging or other things you’re not sure
how to get rid of. We’re also measuring the volume of waste diverted over a
number of weeks so households can appreciate the gains they’re making.
Several Bridge families gathered together earlier
this month to kick off the programme. They brought along their waste for
the week and after weighing and photos, the bags were emptied into a common
pile and sorted. By sorting together, our
friendly mentors were able to focus on the particular kinds of waste produced
in each household and target their advice to meet individual needs and
questions. After sorting, the remaining waste to landfill was weighed again.
Everyone was amazed by the result. We’d been able to divert a significant
proportion of what was originally in the bags away from landfill.
We then looked at some options for dealing with
food waste (composting and Bokashi) and discussed miscellaneous questions.
Each household was asked to keep a record of
their waste weights and volumes, and take photos over a three month period, to
measure the change. Mentors, Caroline
and Meredith, let the group know they’re only a phone call away if participants
strike any problems or have further questions.
All families involved in the project are
volunteers. We hope the project will grow organically by word of mouth and that
some families may wish to share their knowledge with their own friends and
family. Our mentors are open to suggestions and ideas, and will use what
we've learnt going forward.
Pilot participant Frances Hancock gave this
feedback on her involvement to date:
Our family of three signed up for
the Household Pilot project because we knew we could be doing more to divert
waste to landfill but didn’t know how. At the first meeting our black sack of
rubbish weighed 2.8 kilos. Meredith, our Friends of the Farm mentor, went
through the rubbish with us and reduced it to .8 kilos! To level the
playing field, she also brought along her very modest bag of weekly rubbish,
which we also sorted and reduced even
more. That told us that the pilot project is about ‘doing better’ rather than
aiming for perfection. Meredith’s friendly, encouraging and informative
approach left us inspired to change our behaviour. The following week
instead of putting out a black sack, we put a small supermarket shopping bag at
the gate; it was so light it didn’t register on our scales! Whereas before we
composted uncooked food, now we’ve got a Bokashi system up and running to
accommodate left-over cooked food as well. Now we’re looking at what
we’re purchasing as a way to reduce waste further. I’ve called Meredith a
couple of times to ask her questions about recycling particular items. She is
always incredibly enthusiastic and
encouraging, and keen to hear how we’re doing. Caroline is developing practical
resources to use in the pilot and also working closely with another group. We encourage other households in
Mangere Bridge to sign up to the project. Our experience shows that one hour
with a trained mentor can make a huge difference.
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Eventually Council plans to charge households
to take away waste destined for the landfill, so there’s an added incentive to
reduce as much waste as possible, to save money down the line.
We’re now looking for more households willing
to take part in the project. So if you’re interested, please send us an email (friends@fof.nz), and we’ll connect you up with one of our trained mentors. It’s a
small time commitment – just an hour to get started - that will produce a real
sense of satisfaction.
