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!