Mangere Bridge Soft Plastics Collection- Inspiring other communities to take action

by Justine Skilling

It’s hard to believe it was only 6 months ago that Friends of the Farm first took action to keep Mangere Bridge plastic bags out of landfill, establishing our very own soft plastics collection point at the local market.  Since that time, a whopping two cubic metres of tightly compressed soft plastics has been collected, sorted and redistributed by our fabulous Oddbits women, Dawn and Denise, and passed on to the equally wonderful Rematerialise, as well as to Enviroreel in Penrose.  What a great feeling to know that a resource previously destined to spend hundreds of years in a landfill is now being refashioned into stylish durable bags, garden edging and cable reels. 

And it’s not just Mangere Bridge that’s benefitting- reports have been coming in of other communities being inspired by our efforts and setting up similar collection points.  Manurewa’s Randwick Park Community House was an early adopter of the scheme and a visitor from Albany recently made a trip to the Mangere Bridge market specifically to see our soft plastic collection point for himself, with a view to reducing plastic bag waste in his home suburb.  Interest is also being shown by our Mangere neighbours, who are using our collection point but hoping to have one set up closer to home. 

For anyone who’s keen to establish a soft plastics collection point in their community, all that’s required is a central place to locate a large bag and stand and someone to take responsibility for monitoring what’s put in it.  A market, community centre, sports club or marae would be ideal, for instance.  Enviroreel will provide the bag, collect it and replace it once it’s full.  Some signage and monitoring will be required, especially in the beginning, as people need to be made aware of what can and can’t be collected (ie. stretchy plastic bags and clean glad wrap is accepted, but harder plastic that rips or tears is not). 

You’re welcome to visit our collection point at the Mangere Bridge Village Boutique Market, every Sunday 10am-1pm to have a look at our signage and talk to Dawn or Denise about how it works.  Thanks Mangere Bridge locals for getting behind this initiative and showing the rest of Auckland what a wastewise, caring community we are!