Successful partnerships address waste disposal issues
Serious Borey meets waste monster
The cooperation between Porirua City Council, Mana Community Trust and Keep Porirua Beautiful is an outstanding example of what can be achieved when a council builds meaningful partnerships with the local community to deal with waste. As part of their studies, ELTO Officials made a visit there and Bolormaa Borkhuu from Mongolia wrote this report.
I have learned a lot about waste minimisation actions in Porirua city. It is very important for council to work in partnership with other agencies and the wider communities to reduce waste, at the same time to solve economic and social problems of participating stakeholders.
Indeed we ignore the importance of working together to reduce our waste. Mostly people think that the waste problem is a problem of city administration.
I understood from the experience of Porirua city if we work in partnership with other agencies and wider communities to reduce our waste we can easily deal with it.
I would like to emphasize two partnerships’ activities for reducing waste:
1. Mana Community Enterprise MCE
A very successful partnership with council to run Trash Palace
The aim is to divert unwanted household goods from the Spicer Landfill and to provide a resource of low cost goods for the Porirua community.
Trash palace and the education centre is a resource recovery and recycling centre dedicated to finding more sustainable ways of dealing with waste and environment. The experience of MCE to teach vocational skills to mentally ill patient is acceptable best practice in developing countries.
The education centre is located at Trash Palace in a low impact and energy efficient building. The centre offers eco-information and workshops, and is involved in a range of diverse community projects.
2. Te Maara @ Cornwall Crescent community garden
This is lead by Keep Porirua Beautiful and supported by Sustainability Trust and Porirua City Council. Actually organic waste is a main type of waste, accounting for 28% of total waste in New Zealand.
The aim is to support and encourage residents to grow their own food - less food packaging going to landfill and to compost their organic waste - less organic waste going to landfill. In the community garden people plant vegetables, fruit, herbs, flowers and also community composting bins are available.
