Here is a story of Robyn’s waste journey so far. So much has changed for her in a year!
One Saturday morning last year I was going to the Māngere Bridge Library when I noticed a table set up outside loaded with rubbish!
I slowed down to see what was going on. The woman at the table asked if I knew how to recycle my soft plastic rubbish. “I try to recycle as much as possible” I said.
It was Caroline, a member of the Friends of the Farm (or FoF for short), who waylaid me that morning and showed me how the pile of rubbish on the table could be easily sorted and recycled.
“See this cheese wrapping and this pasta packet and this wrapper from a packet of biscuits and this frozen peas bag, all this waste can be recycled,” she said. “If you can scrunch it up in
your hand, it’s recyclable. Just collect it separately from your usual plastic and glass bottles and drop it in the special bin outside a Countdown supermarket or the Warehouse.”
Her simple, effective and memorable message really got through to me.
Since then I have happily (and diligently) collected this form of waste and doing this, along with my compost bin and the usual paper/glass/plastic recycling bin has led to a huge reduction in the amount of rubbish my household sends to landfill each week.
Once my red bin was always three quarters full. Now two small bags of rubbish (which I put in compostable bags) don’t even fill a quarter of the bin. This behaviour change is all thanks to a timely and informative encounter at my local Library.
That encounter also inspired me to become a Friends of the Farm volunteer and support their vision of Mangere Bridge as a Wastewise, Caring, Connected Community. I enjoy writing, so now I write stories on FoF activities as well as attending FoF planning meetings, supporting FoF events and sharing the wastewise message with other residents in the community.
See our article listing your recycling options here.
Robyn is a regular writer for our website – you can see some of her stories here.
More waste-wise news
- Got Any Blisters? I mean Blister Packs…
- Cleaning Our Foreshore
- 2024 Winter Repair Café – Records Broken
- The Recycling Bug is Generational
- Tonnes of eWaste Collected – Māngere Bridge eWaste Day 2024
- Fixing to fix, repair with care – Māngere Bridge Repair Café
- From MOMA New York to Māngere Bridge
- Making it a budget friendly Christmas and holiday season
- Colgate Products Only Please!
- How do you treat your recycling bin?
