Household composting pilot to begin next year

Monique Portegys, Whangarei's CBEC Eco Solutions manager, is hoping to change the way Whangarei residents think about composting. Photo / Michael Cunningham

A community enterprise aims to slash the amount of kitchen waste heading to landfill by teaching Whangarei residents the ins and outs of composting.

Whangarei's CBEC Eco Solutions plans to make a dent in the 8750 tonnes of organic waste heading to landfill every year - estimated to cost the District Council $1.75 million annually - with a large-scale educational composting programme.

"The single biggest component of landfill waste, at 25 per cent, is organic material. It seems a natural to focus on," CBEC Eco Solutions manager Monique Portegys said.

Based on the Auckland Council's successful Composting for Communities initiative, the programme will see mentors recruited in communities to help teach different composting methods, as well as workshops and equipment subsidies for residents.

"What we are trying to do is change people's attitudes on a bigger level. We are trying to break down all the barriers to composting."

The pilot is set to kick off after July next year with 60 Whangarei households - 20 each in selected rural, urban and coastal areas that are yet to be determined - expanding to 600 households over the following two years.

Different methods to be explored in the programme include traditional composting (by way of bins), worm farming and bokashi - a Japanese system which uses a catalyst to ferment the waste quickly.

"It has an activator added which pickles the waste. You can dig that straight into the ground and it doesn't attract vermin like regular composting can," Ms Portegys said.

The benefits of composting for households include reducing kerbside rubbish - therefore reducing the cost of waste disposal - and increasing nutrients in the soil of the their gardens.

"You're going to save money, the environment, and it's good karma."

Ms Portegys' ultimate goal is to have no food waste going to landfill.

"The vast majority of people can find alternate was of dealing with food scraps. In Whangarei, most people have a reasonable-sized backyard."

Whangarei District Council voted this month to provide $20,000 towards the project spread over three years, conditional on the enterprise first finding the balance of funding for the project, which will have a total cost of $123,390. Options for funding the balance of the programme could include from the Ministry for the Environment's Waste Minimisation Fund or from national foundations.

CBEC Eco Solutions is taking expressions of interests from groups, organisations and communities that want to be involved with the programme, as well as ideas of potential mentors in those communities.

"We are going to find mentors within the communities themselves and then train them up.

We are looking for community people who are quite well-known," she said.

• For more information contact Eco Solutions on 09 438 8710.