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!
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