In early May we hosted Nick and Peat from Riverton Environment Centre and the Murihiku Kai Collective who connected with over sixty of us islanders, in a variety of ways, to learn all about composting.

There were workshops at the Halfmoon Bay School, an evening talk at the Snuggery, a tour of an established compost and one lucky community family ended up with a professionally developed set up made from scratch.

Some key points were to mix greens (e.g. grass clippings, food scraps, garden weeds) and browns (e.g. leaves, shredded paper, wood chips), make sure it’s moist and has air in the mix. Exclude rats and that’s about it. Accommodation providers could have a food waste bucket to help reduce landfill (approx 90% of food waste is water – imagine if we reduced the volume of waste going across the Strait and therefore reducing the emissions that go with that…).

Get in touch if you’d like more information, or to set up a worm farm. Lots of opportunity around waste minimisation – watch this space!