Food scraps bins in South Auckland both a challenge and opportunity

By Kim Meredith for Local Democracy Reporting

The rollout of food scraps bins across South Auckland will give residents greater awareness about their connection to the land, says Lionel Hotene of Papatūānuku Kōkiri Marae.

Auckland Council has been delivering the pint-sized bins to households across the region in a bid to reduce the amount of organic waste going to landfill. Manukau's food scraps bins will start appearing next month with collections starting Monday, 16 October.

Papatūānuku in Māngere has become renowned for its organic gardening, giving away produce to locals as well as supplying farmers markets around Tāmaki Makaurau with high-quality eco-friendly veges. It also provides education about ways to grow food.

"It's about connecting back to the land through Māoritanga and deepening connection within the community."

When Pacific Media Network spoke with Hotene, he was busy welcoming a group of Year 12 students from Aorere College visiting the site to learn about kaitiaki Māori worldview and social responsibility. Many of the young people professed to having little awareness about sustainability and recycling, but were interested in the operations of the urban marae.

Hotene took them across to the carpark of Māngere Centre Park to see first-hand the Kai Ika project. For the past seven years the marae has collected and distributed unwanted fish heads and frames from organisations such as Moana Pacific and The Outdoor Boating Club.

The students were surprised to see a line of cars snaking around the carpark all the way back onto Robertson Road, with locals from the community waiting to pick up freshly filleted snapper frames that had the head and tails intact.

"There is plenty of flesh there," Hotene said, pointing to the head of a fish. "The cheeks are the best part and the sweetest."

He handed out pairs of gloves to the Aorere students, filling up bags of fish frames and walking between the cars handing them over to happy local residents who were grateful to receive fresh kai moana for free.

"Nothing goes to waste and it's great to be able to provide for the community."

​He says the introduction of food scraps bins would be challenging for families but it was also an opportunity.

"I think it'll be a good idea, it's an awesome opportunity for our families to think about alternatives rather than throwing everything out into one bin."

He says past experience with the introduction of the yellow recycling bins showed the community would adapt over time to separating out rubbish.

"The challenge is changing people's attitudes and behaviours around the perception of waste."

Auckland Council's general manager of waste solutions Parul Rood says the new rukenga kai (food scraps) service will help the city achieve its goal of having zero waste by 2040.

When asked about what are some easy steps that could help households adjust, Rood says keeping the kitchen caddie near the new bin was a must to ensure an easy transfer of scraps.

"Not having the bin easily accessible… it just takes a little bit of time to finetune… the first few times, once you have that in your mind it just becomes normal; you have to train your mind."

Rood believes those with the role of managing their households' kitchen hold the key to this new service's success.

"Kudos to those women who are homemakers and are nurturers, they'll be leading the way."

And while she acknowledges those that already compost may question the need for such a service, this is all about reducing the amount of waste going into landfill - for the wider benefits that brings for the climate.

"We've had so many [severe climate] events and the climate is changing, we need to help the environment and do things differently."

Local Democracy Reporting is Public Interest Journalism funded through NZ On Air.