Mangere Bridge Household Waste Pilot

By Justine, Meredith and Frances

Following on from our Sweet Talks event earlier in the year, Friends of the Farm are now developing a Household Waste Pilot Project as part of our wastewise commitment.  Our trained mentors live in the community and are working alongside Mangere Bridge households to find ways to reduce the amount of waste going to the landfill.  This might include:

·     Learning more about what else you can recycle along with what you’re already doing.

·     Trying a Bokashi or composting system to deal with food waste

·     Finding out where to dispose of other household items.

A mentor is available to answer questions along the way about certain kinds of packaging or other things you’re not sure how to get rid of. We’re also measuring the volume of waste diverted over a number of weeks so households can appreciate the gains they’re making.

Several Bridge families gathered together earlier this month to kick off the programme. They brought along their waste for the week and after weighing and photos, the bags were emptied into a common pile  and sorted. By sorting together, our friendly mentors were able to focus on the particular kinds of waste produced in each household and target their advice to meet individual needs and questions. After sorting, the remaining waste to landfill was weighed again. Everyone was amazed by the result.   We’d been able to divert a significant proportion of what was originally in the bags away from landfill.

We then looked at some options for dealing with food waste (composting and Bokashi) and discussed miscellaneous questions.

Each household was asked to keep a record of their waste weights and volumes, and take photos over a three month period, to measure the change.  Mentors, Caroline and Meredith, let the group know they’re only a phone call away if participants strike any problems or have further questions.

All families involved in the project are volunteers. We hope the project will grow organically by word of mouth and that some families may wish to share their knowledge with their own friends and family.  Our mentors are open to suggestions and ideas, and will use what we've learnt going forward.

Pilot participant Frances Hancock gave this feedback on her involvement to date:

Our family of three signed up for the Household Pilot project because we knew we could be doing more to divert waste to landfill but didn’t know how. At the first meeting our black sack of rubbish weighed 2.8 kilos.  Meredith, our Friends of the Farm mentor, went through the rubbish with us and reduced it to .8 kilos!  To level the playing field, she also brought along her very modest bag of weekly rubbish, which we also  sorted and reduced even more. That told us that the pilot project is about ‘doing better’ rather than aiming for perfection.  Meredith’s friendly, encouraging and informative approach left us inspired to change our behaviour.  The following week instead of putting out a black sack, we put a small supermarket shopping bag at the gate; it was so light it didn’t register on our scales! Whereas before we composted uncooked food, now we’ve got a Bokashi system up and running to accommodate left-over cooked food as well.  Now we’re looking at what we’re purchasing as a way to reduce waste further.  I’ve called Meredith a couple of times to ask her questions about recycling particular items. She is always  incredibly enthusiastic and encouraging, and keen to hear how we’re doing. Caroline is developing practical resources to use in the pilot and also working closely with another group. We encourage other households in Mangere Bridge to sign up to the project. Our experience shows that one hour with a trained mentor can make a huge difference.

Before

After

Eventually Council plans to charge households to take away waste destined for the landfill, so there’s an added incentive to reduce as much waste as possible, to save money down the line.  

We’re now looking for more households willing to take part in the project. So if you’re interested, please send us an email (friends@fof.nz), and we’ll connect you up with one of our trained mentors. It’s a small time commitment – just an hour to get started - that will produce a real sense of satisfaction.