Nelson residents are dumping less rubbish per capita as the council tries to cut back on waste.
The average Nelson resident produced 580kg of waste per capita in the last financial year, down from 613kg in 2018/19 - a drop of 5.4%.
“This sets us on track to reach our target … to reduce waste to landfill per capita by 10% by 2030,” said Alec Louverdis, Nelson City Council’s group manager infrastructure.
The council supported waste reduction through its Rethink Waste Whakaarohia programme.
Initiatives included grants and subsidies for community waste reduction projects and events like Secondhand Sunday, which encouraged residents to reuse and rehome household items.
Education campaigns also helped to keep batteries out of landfill, promote household recycling, and teach people how to compost.
The council has also been developing battery bins that could be placed at key locations around the region to further divert hazardous lithium-ion batteries from the landfill.
Last year, the council awarded $40,000 to seven applicants from the annual round of waste minimisation grants.
Successful applicants included the Nelson Environment Centre, which used a $7500 grant for a trial using cardboard as a packing material to replace bubble wrap.
The Recycle a Device programme received a $7500 grant to further extend its scheme through local schools and groups.
Additionally, the Victory Community Centre was awarded $10,000 so it could develop a composting system for its community garden, which has recently been revamped.
The composting system is eventually hoped to supply much of the community garden’s compost needs.
The council also promotes and provides grants to repair cafés.
A grant to the Nelson Tasman Climate Forum has helped it offer eight repair cafés between February and September 2023.
Residents brought a total of 235 items to the events for repair. Of these, 67% could be fixed and 24% were fixable with additional parts of expertise - keeping 543kg of waste from going to the landfill.
“These cafes were also opportunities for repairers to share their knowledge with customers, empowering people to make their own repairs in the future and promoting reuse and repair as normal behaviours,” Louverdis said.
Rethink Waste Whakaarohia grants for repair activities are currently open and close on 17 November. More information can be found by searching “Grants for Repair Cafes and Other Repair Activities” on the Nelson City Council website.
By Local Democracy Reporting's Max Frethey
Public Interest Journalism funded through NZ On Air
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