Organic waste collection a must
Recently, I went with Franklin Local Board colleagues Brendon Crompton and Sharlene Druyven of Waiuku and the manager of Zero Waste Waiuku – Sue Wallis – to Raglan and Tauranga to check out what they have done as communities and councils in regard to reducing waste.
What started out as a desire to see how the communities and in particular businesses have adopted more sustainable practices ended up teaching us a whole lot more.
The end result was a bit of an awakening as to the complexities of recycling, reusing, using compostable products and how even the best intentions does not always deliver the best outcome.
For me it is simple, there are two absolute musts if we are to have any significant change in what we send to land fill and what see harming our environment.
The first is moving away as much as we can from single use bags and containers no matter what they are made of, compostable or noncompostable.
The second and probably most important is having a comprehensive organic waste collection alongside our general rubbish and recycling collections.
Without a comprehensive organic collection, even most compostable containers will end up in landfills where they do break down but as they are organic, they create gas and make the landfill unstable, so not achieving what we ultimately want.
I am told by a very experienced compost industry leader, that compost must be balanced, it just can’t be food waste because for a balanced compost able to be reused, other organic matter is needed.
So whilst I applaud the food waste collection recently started in Papakura, it is limited as that waste has to be combined with other organic matter at the composting plant to make it useable. In Auckland we are limited as to how many companies can achieve this.
We actually don’t have to look too far for what has been described to me as one of the best systems in the world.
Christchurch operates a three-bin system - organics collected weekly with general rubbish and recycling fortnightly.
I know this has been touted as an aspiration for Auckland but having had a bit of a lesson lately, I am really keen to see us get there sooner rather than later.
Like everything it is expensive, but there must be some outstanding opportunities for council to work in partnership with either central government or even better, private industry to create a plant large enough to manage our current needs with capacity to grow alongside our population.
It still does not remove the need for us as consumers to change our habits.
I am weaning myself off plastic bags and takeaway coffee cups, trying to remember to use reusable bags and cups.
But there are so many successful examples in Auckland and beyond such as using your own containers for takeaways, mug and cup libraries where you use and return later a mug or cup.
An eye-opening and worthwhile trip that we will certainly follow up on.
- Andy Baker is deputy chairperson of the Franklin Local Board