Food waste collection sign-up

Published on 02 August 2019

Whanganui District Council has signed up with Easy Earth for a weekly food waste collection from the Council buildings.

Easy Earth is a start-up business which operates a state-of-the-art commercial ‘HotRot’ composter in Karoro Road in Castlecliff.

Easy Earth Manager, Melany Davy, says their service diverts food waste from landfill, “making it easier for people to do the right thing environmentally”.

Ms Davy says currently 40-60 per cent of waste going to landfill is food waste. “Many people are unaware that food waste doesn’t break down properly in landfills because there is no oxygen or light, and that the methane released contributes to climate change”, Ms Davy says.

Easy Earth provides a weekly service for households as well as businesses.  Households can either drop off their food waste at a designated location – $3.50 per 10 litre bin each week – or have a bin dropped off to their home and collected each week – $6 per 10 litre bin. The cost for businesses is $9 per week. 

The Council’s Waste Advisor, Stuart Hylton, says Easy Earth has had support from the Council’s Waste Minimisation Fund to purchase machinery and set up their service. The Waste Minimisation Fund comes from a government levy placed on rubbish taken to landfill.

“Councils receive half of the levy from rubbish taken to landfill and are required by law to spend it on waste minimisation initiatives,” Mr Hylton says.

The HotRot composter can process up to three tonnes a day and run 24/7. Inside the main vessel the composting process is accelerated, with mixers, air ports and fans working together so that food waste is composted in just 10-20 days.

The composter comes with an odour-free guarantee, and no leachate or methane is produced in the composting process.

Ms Davy says this system “treats food waste as a resource which can go back and feed the earth”.

More information is available on the Easy Earth website: http://www.easyearth.co.nz/