MANGAWHAI'S NO.1 NEWSPAPER
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Love Kaipara earns big funding grantHundreds of pages of planning and objectives while doing a masters in politics have been amassed by Kaipara councillor Victoria del la Varis-Woodcock, who realised there was a lack of public awareness and education about waste minimisation. Considerable research was done on the issue before launching the Love Kaipara initiative and applying for funding from the Ministry for the Environment and Kaipara District Council. This culminated in a meeting in Dargaville last week attended by the Associate Minister for the Environment, Scott Simpson, who announced an award of nearly $135,000 from the Waste Minimisation Fund to support moving Kaipara communities towards a more sustainable future. An additional $29,440 has been added from the Kaipara District Council with mayor Greg Gent praising the initiative and adding anything that minimised waste should be encouraged. “Love Kaipara is leading the way in encouraging behavioural change throughout Kaipara through promotional advertising campaigns and school education programmes. It is establishing important relationships with the local community, and empowering people of all ages to minimise waste and care for their environment,” Mr Simpson says. “This project provides a great example of how passionate organisations in the regional community, such as Love Kaipara, can utilise Government funding to support their waste minimisation initiatives, which have the potential to positively change the behaviour of an entire district.” “While we all recognise wastage in different ways there is a broad lack of awareness across Kaipara about what waste minimisation actually means and we need to inform and educate people that all waste – plastic, aluminium, or steel – needs to be managed,” says Ms de la Varis-Woodcock. The aim of the project is to educate people about recycling in a three tier scheme. Firstly it is considered that educating school children to think differently about waste will engender a move that will incorporate the whole community. “Children are the voice of conscience,” says Ms de la Varis-Woodcock. “A pilot project in 2015 involved four schools and up to 360 students who were taught ways to reduce different sorts of waste.” Secondly, funding will enable expansion of this scheme to 36 schools across Kaipara over the next three years. Children can often lead adults in such causes as they are not so ingrained in ‘bad’ habits. Furthermore, 9000 educational flyers will be distributed and the company will also undertake an extensive media campaign. Thirdly the funding will enable the formation of infrastructure to move the Northland Field Days towards zero waste. There is no way of assessing how much waste, food stall and packaging was generated over the field days but at least it would be significant. “Packaging today presents huge problems with regard to disposal and breakdown of components, especially in a landfill situation, and minimising this in terms of the Field Days would be a major coup,” says Ms de la Varis-Woodcock. This move also comes on the back of a growing trend towards a plastic-free Mangawhai. Plastic bags were a revelation when introduced – light, long-lasting and taking up very little space, but we gave little thought in the early 1980s that there may in be a serious downside to any advantages plastic bags offered. Prior to this multi-wall heavy duty paper bags or burlap sacks were used for a variety of purposes and were bio-degradable. While they would possibly be too expensive to manufacture nowadays we failed to realise that long term they were a much more user-friendly item than their plastic counterparts. We can do better for our land, waterways and environment. “While we all recognise wastage in different ways there is a broad lack of awareness across Kaipara about what waste minimisation actually means and we need to inform and educate people that all waste… needs to be managed,” - Victoria del la Varis-Woodcock |