Large gatherings of people with food often
produce large volumes of waste. The
volunteer lunch area at Ambury Farm Day is no exception, with up to 400
volunteers being served a tasty meal as thanks for their hard work at the event. Over the past few years, the farm has called
in the services of Wash Against Waste, an initiative of Ecomatters in New Lynn,
which hires out a trailer equipped with real crockery, cutlery and dishwashing
facilities, cutting out the need for disposable options.
Inspired by their set-up, Mangere Bridge community
volunteer, Aaron Smith, took on the task of creating our very own Wash Against
Waste kit, with support from Friends of the Farm. Aaron singlehandedly manned
the wash station on Farm Day this year and his clear and cheerful instructions
made it easy for people to use. “The
idea is we have dishes going one way and water going the other”, says Aaron. “Boiling water is at one end to
sanitise. When someone comes along, they
rinse their plate in the first bowl and then leave it in the second bowl for me
to finish off.” It’s an easy set up and
Aaron feels it could be replicated at other events, as long as there’s a hot
water source nearby.
Around 300 volunteers were served lunch at
farm day this year and the 50 plates in the kit, collected up from second-hand shops and
school fairs, were ample for the occasion. One volunteer thought the wash station was
“impressive” and would have saved a lot of waste from going to landfill. Thanks so much to Aaron for taking the
initiative to create our very own waste station.
Friends of the Farm plan to use this
resource and make it available to other groups in the community when hosting an
event. So if your local group or
organisation is hosting an event with food in Mangere Bridge, please
contact Friends of the Farm. We’ll be very happy to show you how to use our new
Wash Against Waste resource. And there’s no charge!
We’re grateful to Auckland Council for
supporting us to develop this new community resource.
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