The Slash for Cash initiatives mobile kiln is planned to be on beaches around Tairāwhiti and Wairoa to help transform woody debris into biochar. The group is working on getting the discharge permit to use the kiln.
The Slash for Cash initiatives mobile kiln is planned to be on beaches around Tairāwhiti and Wairoa to help transform woody debris into biochar. The group is working on getting the discharge permit to use the kiln.
Public Interest Journalism funded through NZ On Air
An innovative project to transform woody debris from beaches into valuable products is gaining momentum. The initiative also aims to address environmental challenges and unemployment in Tairāwhiti and Wairoa with the launch of a one-year job-readiness programme.
Slash for Cash, a social enterprise established in 2023 by the Tolaga Bay Inn Charitable Trust, has secured $320,000 in funding to advance its kaupapa. This includes $220,000 from the Te Puna Tahua Lottery Grants Board’s community fund via the Department of Internal Affairs and $100,000 from the Eastern and Central Community Trust’s community impact fund.
The funding will support a year-long job-readiness training programme for 18 unemployed participants from Ūawa/Tolaga Bay, Ruatōria and Wairoa. The training, led by Slash for Cash project co-ordinator and lead instructor Thabiso Mashaba, will focus on developing practical and soft skills to prepare participants for employment with the enterprise or elsewhere.
“The training will retool, upskill and empower whānau with soft skills, digital skills, general life skills and skills specific to the Slash for Cash value chain,” said Mashaba.
“This will transform them into holistic and well-rounded potential future employees.”
Ūawa/Tolaga Bay participants Abby Roberts, Renata Fox-Haerewa, Jessie Thatcher, Matene Maraki, Mary-Lee Smyth, Kenneth Johnson and Navarone Walker (absent) are all enjoying the training programme.
Ūawa participant Abby Roberts expressed her enthusiasm for learning new skills and joining the Slash for Cash team.
Ruatōria participant Arihia Maora Kaiwai said she was grateful for the opportunity to contribute to sustainable land-based practices and tackle the adverse effects of woody debris on the environment.
Wairoa participant Todd Cuttance, now in his second Slash for Cash course, described the programme as a valuable learning experience that benefitted many communities.
Slash for Cash was founded in response to repeated inundations of woody debris, or slash, on Tolaga Bay beaches. The initiative seeks to turn the environmental problem into an opportunity by converting slash into organic biochar fertiliser and smokeless charcoal briquettes.
The Slash for Cash team includes Edmund Hillary Fellowship fellow Thabiso Mashaba, Matene Maraki, Hine Aio Apatari and Lily Stender of the Tolaga Bay Inn Charitable Trust.
The board of directors also includes Professor Gary Mersham and Alan Hemmings of Supreme Engineering.
The Wairoa participants have been learning new skills to benefit them going forward in the mahi with Slash for Cash. Penelope Whaanga (back from left), Todd Cuttence, Whitu Mikara, Sydney Whaanga and Thabiso Mashaba are joined by (front from left) Saphire-Levia Ormsby, Mereana Taueki, Hine Aio Apatari, Jayden Batten and Trevor Raku Raku. Absent was Merlene Smith.
A key development in the initiative is a mobile kiln designed to convert slash into biochar through carbonisation. The kiln, built to New Zealand engineering standards by Supreme Engineering, is protected by intellectual property rights.
Carbonisation involves heating woody debris without oxygen, producing biochar, a carbon-rich substance that improves soil fertility, retains moisture and reduces reliance on synthetic fertilisers. The process also sequesters carbon, preventing it from being released into the atmosphere.
Mashaba explained that the kiln was almost ready for use, with the final step being a discharge permit.
“We are currently consulting with six iwi across the two regions to secure their support letters for our resource consent application. Once the permit is approved, we can begin moving the kiln and offering incineration services along with our products.”
With the job-readiness programme underway and plans to pilot the kiln’s services, Slash for Cash is taking significant steps towards its vision of turning an environmental hazard into an economic and ecological opportunity.
Matai O’Connor, Ngāti Porou, has been a journalist for five years and Kaupapa Māori reporter at the Gisborne Herald for two years.
