Commercial compost collection to be trialled
A trial to reduce the amount of food waste sent to landfill is under way in Ha¯wera.
The South Taranaki District Council (STDC) has teamed up with a Whanganui commercial composting business to begin a weekly collection service for South Taranaki businesses.
About 30 per cent of the district’s waste is organic or food waste that should be composted, STDC environment and sustainability manager Rebecca Martin said.
‘‘Most residents can easily compost at home, but for many businesses this is not an easy option.’’
Commercial composting company EasyEarth has started a trial to see how many businesses are willing to sign up to a weekly commercial composting collection on the route from Whanganui to Ha¯wera.
The trial will initially run to June 2020 but it is hoped enough businesses will sign up for the service to make it viable, she said. It is being funded by the STDC with money from the Ministry for the Environment Waste Disposal Levy, which is collected for every tonne of waste sent to landfill.
‘‘EasyEarth will do weekly runs to collect organic waste/compost bins from the businesses that they sign up, and then replace the bin they collect with a clean one,’’ she said.
Several STDC facilities have already signed up for the trial, including the LibraryPlus centres in Ha¯wera, Waverley and Pa¯tea, the district museum in Pa¯tea, the TSB Hub staffroom and the council’s main administrative building in Ha¯wera.
As well, other businesses including the catering company at the Hub had already signed up for the bins, she said.
EasyEarth owners Derek Pickering and his wife Sarah started collecting food waste from Whanganui businesses in April 2019.
The collected food waste is processed by a hot composting machine that can also deal with compostable food packaging.
Initially they will pick up the waste on Thursdays, with the possibility of expanding to more pickups if demand increased.
‘‘Depending on how it goes, we would like to expand it to the wider district, but the scheme has got to be able to pay for itself,’’ he said.
The fee for a 10-litre bin is $9 a week. For more information visit: www.easyearth. co.nz/our-services/work