Embracing Community-led Waste Management on Global Recycling Day 2023

Localised Waste Management Services in Mercury Bay?

2023 has certainly been a year of unprecedented upheaval, locally, nationally and globally.  It has tested our resilience and illuminated our sense of community. 

Amongst other things we have been challenged locally by the roading situation, which isolates us, complicates supply and drives complexity into our homes and businesses.  I was struck by just this point in a recent conversation with a TCDC staff member about the kerbside collection service.  She mentioned the impact our roading woes were having on those who did the rubbish collection services – extending their driving time enormously every day as they came to Mercury Bay from Thames and beyond, and inhibiting their ability to get to all our communities with enough time to complete their standard service run.

Community Ownership in Achieving Better Waste Management?

I came away pondering what a localised service could do to alleviate these long journeys, how community controlled Refuse Transfer Stations (RTS) could better flex in times of stress to meet the needs of our people, and how self-funded community-led services could contribute to spreading the already stretched ratepayer-generated revenue further.

Our collective of Coromandel Peninsula Resource Recovery Centres (which includes Wãhi Tukurua/ Mercury Bay Resource Recovery Centre) has been lobbying for just this in our recent Submission on TCDC Draft Waste Management and Minimisation Plan (WMMP).  We believe this will enable better management of waste generally, especially in events and disasters.

Features of community run waste facilities and services include greater awareness of local waste issues and opportunity, greater community ownership of solutions and outcomes, higher uptake of at-home recycling and waste segregation, and in-district employment opportunities. 

When the cyclone covered our beaches and roads with debris and eroded our coastlines, it felt great to respond as a community.  We were proud of those who rolled up their sleeves, and we felt connected in our response. 

Imagine what we could achieve if we bring this same can-do attitude and pragmatism to management and minimisation of our waste too. If we believed and acted like waste was not a “problem” but an “opportunity”, we would better realise the value in this rich resource.  If we were self-directed and accountable rather than seeing Council as solely responsible and failing, we could be empowered to make change - moving from containing waste to promoting the valuable resource it is. 

Tracey Bell - Chair, Wãhi Tukurua / Mercury Bay Resource Recovery Trust

Transforming Waste into a Valuable Resource

Global Recycling Day is an example and celebration of the mindset shift we’d need to embrace to bring this vision to life. The Global Recycling Foundation (who launched Global Recycling Day in 2018) explain on their site that March 18th “is a day that will truly recognise that recycling is too important not to be a global issue. It is a day to showcase that whoever and wherever we live on this great planet, whether we are the humblest individual or the greatest leader, the responsible use of the materials around us, the better understanding of how they are used and dispatched, and the championing of recycled goods from the plastics in our home to the metals in our buildings, is a collective, and global, concern".

Wãhi Tukurua see two key actions required from Council to bring this to life in our community:

1. adopt our recommendations on the TCDC WMMP  and
2. prioritise completion of the Wahi Tukuru and the Whitianga RTS on Moewai Road.  

Immediate action on these two items would allow our community to truly embrace the goals of Global Recycling  Day and bring our vision of “waste” transformed to “resource” to life.  It would ensure that resources are processed properly at dedicated local recycling centres, rather than buried in landfill out of district.

It’s not a new idea.  The 3Rs – Reduce, Reuse, Recycle - have been around for decades. So has the Waste Hierarchy, which establishes the order of preferred operations regarding waste management (prevention, reuse, recycling, disposal). The concept of sustainable development has been broadly embraced since the adoption of Agenda 21 in 1992.

But it is an idea coming into its own – and by rethinking what we throw away, we truly have the power to change the world. What a powerful and exciting vision!

Find out more about Wãhi Tukurua / Mercury Bay Resource Recover Centre Trust

Wãhi Tukurua / Mercury Bay Resource Recovery Centre Trust (MBRRCT) is a charitable trust created in 2020 to plan, establish, maintain and operate a waste reduction and recycling centre in Whitianga. The centre is based upon the successful business model of the Seagull Centre in Thames and will be located at the new Refuse Transfer Station (RTS).

Read more about the Trust on their All About Whitianga Community listing page linked below.