Mangere Bridge Food and Wine Festival 2016

Friends of the Farm lent waste reduction expertise to the Mangere Bridge Food and Wine Festival this month, for the third year running.  Our seasoned environmental educator Meredith co-ordinated support, with assistance from Sharryn and one of our newer members Jane Gravestock. Local boys Mathew and Asher helped out with the set up of bin stations, earning community hours for St Peters School.

The Vipers Netball team and whanau were our wonderful bin monitors, helping festival-goers put their waste in the right bin.  They remained enthusiastic and dedicated, despite the inclement weather.  “We have some tremendous people in our community and it’s great to meet people who want to make a difference”, said Meredith.

Kate Adams from the Business Association had primed vendors on our mission to reduce waste, and lots of compostable packaging was used during the event. Better packaging made it much easier to sort and separate waste, and contributed to the fantastic waste reduction stats for the day. 

In total, a whopping 91% of waste from the event was diverted from landfill, including 71kg of compostable waste.  “I’m delighted because the percentage of compostables was up dramatically from last year which bodes well for future events. Landfill figures were down once again with only 9kg going to landfill”, reported Meredith. Most of the landfill waste was plastic bags and non-compostable cups and plates, which were mainly being generated by our local cafes and take away stores.  Lucky dip packaging and waste from outside the event also made it into the landfill bins.

Once again, this event has shown us how much support there is in our community for reducing waste, from the positive response of festival-goers to the feedback from volunteers manning the bins. “I learned so much today and have come home with a renewed passion for recycling, sitting my family down straight away and getting them involved.  We made up some charts and we're going to set up some bins to help us sort.  I loved meeting different people and educating them as well.  Everyone was so cool about it.  Keen to get involved again!” said Lisa Tuara, secretary for the Vipers Netball Club.

Huge thanks again to Steve Rickerby at We Compost, who provided the bin stations and took away all the rubbish at the end.  Well done to the Business Association for showing leadership and to the Mangere Bridge community for supporting us all to reduce our waste! 

 

Sharing the Message about the Mangere Bridge Household Waste Pilot

Our Friends of the Farm team have been active recently with presentations to our local Probus  Group and a Pop Up Stall in the Village Market in early March. The purpose of this activity is to sign up new households for the Mangere Bridge Household Waste Pilot. The Pilot educates households on how to reduce their waste and collect data on their kerbside rubbish each week for eight weeks.

Carol-Anne Armitage and Jane Gravestock were invited to speak at the Fellowship (Probus) NZ’s Annual General Meeting on Friday 1 April at the Bowling Club. Fellowship New Zealand, formerly known as Probus, is a welcoming social organisation for people living in New Zealand who are retired, semi-retired or soon-to-retire. 

Carol-Anne shared a presentation on the vision and activities of Friends of the Farm from its annual community conversation called Sweet Talks, Seaweek Clean Up- Manukau Harbour, Family Fun Events and Fruit Preserving Sessions to planting a Community Orchard and hosting an annual Community Picnic. Probus members were very receptive to the Friends of the Farm and shared their views on what they value about living in Mangere Bridge. They highlighted the Walking Group, the uniquely caring and friendly community, and as one member put it “Simply, it is home.” They were also forthcoming with their concerns about parking in the village shops, the need for more disability carparks and to reduce speeding on the roads, and burglaries.

Jane spoke to the Probus group about the Mangere Bridge Household Wastewise Pilot. She explained that the project aims to assist people to reduce their waste for two key reasons; to care for our local environment and to ensure rubbish is put into the correct waste streams, that is, recycling, compost, soft plastics and landfill. Household waste reduction will be particularly important when Auckland Council begin to charge ratepayers per lift of the landfill bin, possibly in a couple of years.

“It was a bit like preaching to the converted as many of the Probus members have had a lifetime of economising and minimising waste,” said Jane after the session. However they were keen to hear about recycling their soft plastics at Pak N Save, Countdown, New World and the Warehouse. “Every soft plastic that can be crumpled or crushed in your hand can be recycled” Jane advised.

The Household Pilot was also the focus of the Pop-up Stall at the Village Market in early March. Caroline Walmsley and Jane Gravestock spent the morning talking to locals about rubbish and how to manage it. Both the Popup Stall and the Probus workshop created an opportunity for Friends of the Farm to collect names for the Household Waste Pilot. Jane told the Probus members she couldn’t go back to her Friends of the Farm colleagues “without three signed up Households!”

Households interested in taking part in this easy, rewarding project should contact Friends of the Farm on friends@fof.nz  or phone Frances Hancock: 0210722696.

Written by Jane Gravestock

Seaweek Clean Up- Manukau Harbour 5 March 2016

Over a tonne of rubbish was collected from the Mangere Bridge foreshore and the Oruarangi Awa during our recent Seaweek clean up.  Friends of the Farm co-ordinated the Mangere Bridge clean up, joining five other events around the Manukau Harbour as part of the Sustainable Coastlines’ Love Your Coast initiative. In total, 77,000 litres of rubbish was taken away from the harbour during the Seaweek operation.

More than 80 people headed to the Mangere Bridge foreshore at the beginning of March to participate in our event, ably co-ordinated by Friends of the Farm’s Janine Nillesen.  Lots of family groups pitched in, including some from Westpac’s head office, which also provided sponsorship for the event.   Local esplanade neighbours, children, young people and older residents from our community, as well as some out of towners, all worked together, showing broad solidarity for caring for our environment.

Volunteers combed the area from the old bridge to the yacht club, collecting around 50 bags of waste.  The trusty Ambury Farm mule transported the waste to the Mangere Bridge Boat Club, which was kindly opened up as our base for the day.  “It was awesome to gather so much rubbish from our foreshore but disturbing at the same time”, says Janine.

Our focus for the clean up was on picking up single use plastic and small pieces of plastic that birds and fish can mistake for food.  Some of our young people were devastated to find a shag that had become snared on a fish hook and tangled in fishing line − a graphic example of how litter in our oceans directly affects our wildlife. 

It was fantastic to work in partnership with Sustainable Coastlines, who provided an extra gazebo, re-usable sacks and gloves, and treated us all to drinks sponsored by Phoenix- just what we needed on such a hot and sunny day!  We also benefited from having the event advertised more widely, through their networks as well as our own.

Later in the day Friends of the Farm headed to the Oruarangi Awa at Ihumatao, where we met locals from the papakainga who’d already been gathering rubbish on the low tide. Captain Hayden from SeaCleaners joined us, bringing his boat and a kayak. We proceeded up the awa, collecting the bags that’d been left along the bank. A large volume of rubbish came out of the awa and Captain Hayden plans to remove more rubbish in the future, with the assistance of Friends of the Farm and Ihumatao locals.

Thanks to all the volunteers who helped out on the day − you’ve made a huge difference to our harbour and are an inspiration to our community!  And let’s all remember to be mindful of the impact our rubbish is having on the environment.