Wash station option food for thought
Levin could lead New Zealand efforts to introduce a simple solution to piles of waste from disposable plates and cutlery at community events.
Rosanna Angus has begun taking a free wash station to Levin’s Pop Up Eats food caravan days.
She sets up big tubs of hot water, and piles of ceramic plates and metal cutlery donated from secondhand shops.
Patrons can pick up plates and cutlery before hitting the food trucks, where the staff will put their meal on to the reusable plates instead of serving them with disposable takeaway containers.
After their meal, patrons take the items to the wash station, wash and stack them.
Ideally, community groups such as schools or clubs could organise the wash station with the option of doing the washing up for donations, Angus said.
‘‘I lived in Freemantle and they had a really amazing farmers market and had crockery plates, and people just used it all the time. It wasn’t even manned.’’
The idea has also been tested at a wash against waste station at the Newtown Festival in Wellington in March, and the Nelson summer Evolve festival in January, but is not yet widespread in New Zealand.
Angus hopes the idea will spread and is encouraging organisations in Levin to contact her to borrow the wash station gear for free for their own events.
Lots of people were confused about the wash station, but Angus was confident that once people become familiar with it, it will be well-used.
‘‘Everyone’s been really supportive and enthusiastic and receptive. We just need a little bit of a kickstart.
‘‘It’s about the community getting involved and taking responsibility for something everyone needs to be worried about now, which is plastic pollution.’’
She invites people interested in having the wash station at their event to get hold of her on roseangus87@hotmail.com.