Hamilton community garden thrives, thanks to green waste and food scraps

Fairfield Project operations manager Marina Hape (left) with Fairfield Project manager Tania Ashman at their community garden. The garden's soil is being nourished by Tronpost, made from Hamiltonians' green waste and kerbside food scraps. Photo / Hamilton City Council

A truckload of Hamilton City Council’s ‘Tronpost’ was delivered to the Fairfield Project last month, bringing valuable nutrients to its community garden.

Food scraps are collected at the kerbside, along with green waste, to become a high-nutrient compost which the council calls Tronpost. Hamilton residents saved more than 300,000 kilograms of food waste from landfill in November 2022, just via people using their food scrap bins.

Using a food scrap bin contributes to both nature and the community.

Since the beginning of the new kerbside service in 2020, more than 110 cubic metres of Tronpost has been donated to not-for-profit organisations for use in community gardens.

The latest Tronpost recipient, the Fairfield Project, is a community-led organisation seeking to restore urban biodiversity in Hamilton. The project provides educational opportunities for all ages, with a hands-on approach to teaching native restoration, growing your own kai and kaitiakitanga [guardianship].

Since 2016, the project has planted more than 20,000 native trees in the Kukutāruhe Gully, involving more than 2000 people, and created a community garden with more than 100 regular gardeners.

The ongoing restoration work in the gully contributes to the city council’s Nature in the City programme, which aims to increase Hamilton’s native vegetation levels from 2 per cent to 10 per cent by 2050.

The Fairfield Project also has its own community compost facility, funded through the council’s Waste Minimisation Fund. Green waste from the community garden and food scraps from local schools and a café are composted on-site and returned to the soil.

A member of The Fairfield Project, Tania Ashman, runs regular workshops for the community to teach people about composting and how they can do it at home.

She said using the food scraps bin to turn food waste into compost is a great way for people to lower their carbon footprint, as well as reduce waste to landfill.

“Once people are invested in growing their own food, they are so much more connected to the whole ecosystem, and they see how valuable good compost really is,” said Ashman.

Keeping food waste from landfill is a priority for the council. Food waste in landfill is a major contributor to climate change. While it’s high in value when it’s able to be composted properly, its value is lost in landfill and becomes toxic. It decomposes without oxygen and releases methane, a harmful greenhouse gas.

“If food waste was a country, it would be third behind the United States and China in emissions,” said Hamilton City Council’s Sustainability Resource Recovery Unit manager, Tania Hermann.

“We see lots of food waste in Hamilton’s red landfill bins – and even in our yellow recycling bins. It’s such a waste when we have small green bins for your food waste.

“Please keep using your kerbside food scraps bin so we can continue to make compost and give back to the community. It’s a great example of people supporting people,” said Hermann.