A cash injection from the Hamilton City Council Waste Minimisation Fund is enabling a Hillcrest Childcare centre to fight the landfill.

Hillcrest Community Childcare Manager Tania Charteris-Bakker is passionate about sustainability. After doing a waste audit of the centre earlier this year, she realised they needed to find solutions to the waste they were creating.

“It was shocking how much food waste we were making,” said Charteris-Bakker. “We were filling 50l bins each week with waste from lunchboxes as well as the morning tea we provide.”

Charteris-Bakker met Council’s Waste Minimisation Education Advisor Belinda Goodwin at a sustainability workshop where they discussed ways the centre could deal with food waste.

After the workshop, Charteris-Bakker wanted to learn more, especially about the issues Hamilton faces around waste. She booked in a group visit to see Goodwin at the Education Room, overlooking the Materials Recovery Facility, where the city’s recycling is sorted.

Goodwin recommended applying to Council’s Waste Minimisation Fund, for the centre to use to help reduce waste.

“We decided we wanted to concentrate on reducing food waste and applied for funds towards a composting system and vegetable garden. Applying was a really easy process and I recommend it to other small organisations like ours.”

The garden is established and the vegetables are nourished each day by the children, who, as part of their daily routine, take their food waste to the compost bins, weed and water the young plants.

The centre’s ultimate goal is to generate fresh vegetables to share with the neighbourhood, through pataka kai (community pantry), as well as for families who can’t always provide lunch for their children.

Charteris-Bakker said she and the other teachers at the centre are concerned about the impact waste has on the future and see all these projects as opportunities to make change.

“We didn’t realise how serious the waste issue was until we started digging into it. Compared to where we were (the centre), we are doing well, but there is a still a long way to go.

“We want to make a difference and to encourage the children to take the knowledge home to teach their parents. We want to see them being agents in their learning and their future.”

In the six months since the centre received funding, Goodwin said she is impressed with how Charteris-Bakker and her team have really embraced the food waste challenge.

“It’s great to see a localised solution – and how the children and the community can be part of that. They really are leading the way and showing how easily waste reduction can be done.

“We hope their journey is an inspiration for other centres to adopt small changes that will ultimately help fight the landfill and support the future for our tamariki (children).”

Do you have a cool project to reduce waste sent to landfill? We will be taking applications for the Waste Minimisation Fund from 13 March 2023.

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