Location: Waiheke Island (78 Onetangi Road, Te Motu site)
Availability: Mondays or Thursdays 9am-1pm on booking through Volunteering Auckland
Team size: 2 - 5
Description:
This Trust is all about creating a great place to live, and undertakes programmes that encourage community development and ecological sustainability on Waiheke Island.
Food, compostable packaging and garden waste doesn’t compost when in landfill. It creates a toxic liquid as it is anaerobically digested, putting our waterways at risk from pollution. It also generates methane and carbon dioxide; greenhouse gases that contribute to climate change. Compostable and biodegradable products can only be processed under specific conditions which are not achievable in home composts. These products cannot be recycled: the only disposal method is landfill.
Through its Compost Co. social enterprise, WRT is meeting the need of local food businesses and events to divert their food scraps and compostable packaging from landfill and minimise their carbon and methane emissions. Simultaneously, it produces local, living, nutrient-rich compost and crushed shells for the community to enhance local soil and sequester carbon from the environment.
It is Waiheke's only commercial hot composting site, and thus the only place where compostable packaging can be processed. It provides a community service that helps to keep a closed loop economy on Waiheke, diverting “waste” from landfill, keeping it on-island, and transforming it into a precious resource.
Compost Co welcomes corporate, community and school groups looking to engage with environmental projects through volunteering. We'd love teams to assist with sorting compostables, turning the compost, bagging crushed shells, and learning all about the process.
By participating in this volunteering opportunity you are helping achieve the following United Nations Sustainability Goals:
Goal 11 - Sustainable cities and communities
Goal 12 - Responsible consumption and production
Goal 13 - Climate action
Goal 15 - Life on land