WasteWise Community Presentations

Our WasteWise team has been out and about in the community this month, raising awareness about waste issues, providing education on recycling and inspiring people with our vision for a “wastewise caring community”. With some ongoing funding from Auckland Council, we’ve been able to contract a Project Manager (Sharryn Park) and Project Leader (Justine Skilling), making it possible for us to offer to speak to groups or organisations in our community about waste issues and the work we’re doing.

We were fortunate enough to be given a slot at the Mangere Bridge Residents’ and Ratepayers’ AGM last week, where 58 people were in attendance. Our presentation began with a brief history of our Friends of the Farm group and how we’ve become so passionate about waste.  We shared our vision for Mangere Bridge and showed photos of the work we’ve done to date in growing awareness about waste issues, developing waste champions, supporting households, groups, community events and village businesses to divert waste from landfill, creating opportunities for people to participate, putting community ideas into action and recording inspiring stories. 

Meredith (our Environmental Educator) delved into a rubbish bag and talked about some of those items people are unsure about and which are often sorted incorrectly (e.g. plastic bags, polystyrene meat packs, moulded plastic without numbers etc).  She drew attention to our soft plastics display, encouraging people to bring their stretchy plastic bags and milk bottles to the Mangere Bridge Village Market on Sunday mornings to be upcycled.

To finish, we highlighted some of the opportunities we’ve created for people to participate, including being involved in Friends of the Farm events, becoming a “waste champion”, volunteering, or attending one of our upcoming workshops on Preserving and Bokashi.  Four people signed up to one or more of these opportunities and we also had invitations to speak at Brownies and Rotary.

A smaller group of 10 Mangere Bridge Playcentre parents received a similar presentation last week, with five people requesting to participate in the project at some level.  We’re thrilled to be able to visit local groups in our community where and when they meet, and to not only share our knowledge but also give people the opportunity to contribute to our wastewise vision for Mangere Bridge.  If you would like us to present to a group you’re involved with, please email Justine at justineskilling@gmail.com

Special thanks to the Mangere Bridge Residents’ and Ratepayers’ Association for their ongoing practical support and for their commitment to our community work.