Pohutukawa Festival – Mangere Bridge School 3rd December 2016

Written by Janine Nillesen

It was another wonderful event, on a stunning Saturday in Mangere Bridge.  The Pohutukawa Festival, organised by Mangere Bridge School PTA and school staff, combined a carboot sale, food stall, best cake stall ever and white elephant, as well as performances by our tamariki.

Friends of the Farm were approached early on to provide advice and assistance around the waste that would be generated on the day.  The PTA did an outstanding job in making sure they purchased compostable products and advising car booters not to leave any waste.  They committed to sorting the waste in the food stall area, all the while serving great food and working together.

As a parent of the school and Friends of the Farm member, I set up a single waste station on the day for festival-goers.  It’s always encouraging to see that the children are very aware of the waste they create, and confidently put it in the right bin. The adults need a bit more reassurance; it’s very easy to just put waste into the landfill bin without thinking.

Taking that extra bit of time with planning and having a dedicated waste volunteer makes a huge difference. Every bit counts when it comes to reducing what we send to landfill.  In total, 58 kg of  waste was generated on the day and…

only 5 kg went to landfill!

32% was compostable, 56% recycling, 8% landfill and 4% soft plastic.

This means that we diverted 92% from landfill- a terrific team effort.

Congratulations to Mangere Bridge School for flying the Wastewise banner!

Mangere Bridge Community Picnic 2016

 

Building a sense of community is all about finding ways to come together. Around 120 locals did just that at the recent Mangere Bridge Community Picnic.  Complete with break dancing battles, tractor and miniature pony rides, a waterslide, giant sling shots, a fear factor eating challenge and the usual farm fun and games, this year’s picnic had something for everyone!  It was great to see some new faces and to reconnect with our regulars.

The picnic gave us an opportunity to promote our household waste reductionmentoring programme and Wash Against Waste kit, which is available for anyone in the community to borrow.  We were also able to recognise and celebrate some of the young (and not so young!) people who’ve made a big volunteer contribution to Friends of the Farm and our community over the years.  Congratulations to Jade Ramritu, Erin Fountain, Maja Skilling, and Jemma and Aaron Smith, who all received Friends of the Farm’s Community Champion certificates.

Thanks so much to everyone who came to picnic with us, and to all those who made the day fun- Ambury Farm, the Mangere Bridge Scouts, Taking Over, Kidz Karts and Friends of the Farm’s Janine, Sharryn, Meredith and Caroline.  Looking forward to doing it all again next year!

Mangere Bridge Household Waste Project Pops Up at the Library

A short and sweet pop up session at the Mangere Bridge Library this Labour Day Saturday was a great way to spread the word about reducing household waste in Mangere Bridge.

 Friends of the Farm members, Caroline Walmsley and Jane Gravestock, set up shop outside the Mangere Bridge library – with the support of our lovely librarians − to continue the work of informing and assisting local residents on how to reduce household waste.

A steady flow of children, parents and grandparents along with other residents were happy to take a few minutes to discuss their rubbish. Clutching dinosaur and other picture books from a morning visit at our local library, these families were fascinated with our installation “Landfill timeline”. The timeline demonstrates how long things take to breakdown in landfill.  “Wow, soft plastic takes 100 years and meat trays never break down,” one young visitor noted.

“It’s always great to tell people about the soft plastics recycling available at supermarkets,” says Jane. “Participating stores − Pak N Save, Countdown, New World and the Warehouse, − all have bins. It’s simple and impactful to take this rubbish out of the landfill.”

“One hour went very fast and we talked to over 30 people. Of these, we had more in-depth conversation with 15 families about ways to reduce their household waste and six others registered to join our one training hour session,” said Caroline.

Friends of the Farm continue to find ways to work with other groups in the community and approach the education role in a range of varied and innovative ways.

“Simple is best,” said Jane. “The time flew and doing this work with Caroline was an easy way to spend a Saturday morning and make a positive difference for our community.”

Written by Jane Gravestock

Wash Against Waste- Ambury Farm Day 2016

Large gatherings of people with food often produce large volumes of waste.  The volunteer lunch area at Ambury Farm Day is no exception, with up to 400 volunteers being served a tasty meal as thanks for their hard work at the event.  Over the past few years, the farm has called in the services of Wash Against Waste, an initiative of Ecomatters in New Lynn, which hires out a trailer equipped with real crockery, cutlery and dishwashing facilities, cutting out the need for disposable options. 

Inspired by their set-up, Mangere Bridge community volunteer, Aaron Smith, took on the task of creating our very own Wash Against Waste kit, with support from Friends of the Farm. Aaron singlehandedly manned the wash station on Farm Day this year and his clear and cheerful instructions made it easy for people to use.  “The idea is we have dishes going one way and water going the other”, says Aaron.  “Boiling water is at one end to sanitise.  When someone comes along, they rinse their plate in the first bowl and then leave it in the second bowl for me to finish off.”  It’s an easy set up and Aaron feels it could be replicated at other events, as long as there’s a hot water source nearby. 

Around 300 volunteers were served lunch at farm day this year and the 50 plates in the kit, collected up from second-hand shops and school fairs, were ample for the occasion. One volunteer thought the wash station was “impressive” and would have saved a lot of waste from going to landfill.  Thanks so much to Aaron for taking the initiative to create our very own waste station. 

Friends of the Farm plan to use this resource and make it available to other groups in the community when hosting an event.  So if your local group or organisation is hosting an event with food in Mangere Bridge, please contact Friends of the Farm. We’ll be very happy to show you how to use our new Wash Against Waste resource. And there’s no charge!

We’re grateful to Auckland Council for supporting us to develop this new community resource.

Pop-Up Clean Up Sep 2016

Responding to the huge volume of rubbish deposited along a stretch of the Kiwi Esplanade foreshore after a king tide last month, Friends of the Farm decided to organise an impromptu ‘pop-up’ clean up.  We put out the call for volunteers through local social media and our email tree, and three days later 15 wonderful people showed up ready to lend a hand.

The rubbish mainly consisted of thousands of small pieces of broken plastic and waste that had probably been collected by rainwater flowing through our local streets and flushed out to sea.  It was disturbing to see what a terrible impact we humans are collectively having on the environment and wildlife in and around our harbour.

Our group of dedicated volunteers spread out along the water’s edge near the boat club and picked through the debris to collect up as much of the plastic bits as possible. We worked for an hour and a half, before the rain came down again. In total, we collected five large bags, or over 40 kg of rubbish.  At the end of the clean up, we contacted Auckland Council to raise our concerns about the volume of rubbish still lining the foreshore, and the need for Council contractors to clear this away.

Thanks so much to the wonderful Mangere Bridge residents who gave their time to care for “our patch”, and also to the many other concerned locals who picked up rubbish at other times, and who also contacted the Council. It’s great to see our community collectively caring for our beautiful harbour and foreshore. Also good to know that our efforts are supported by Auckland Council.