Zero Waste: Xtreme Waste in RaglanIn 1998 the Raglan landfill was closed and no further landfill sites were available to the Raglan community. The Whakamaua Te-Aio Education Trust in Raglan became interested in the principle of Zero Waste in 1998, after listening to the then general manager of the Zero Waste NZ Trust Gerard Gillespie, address a meeting at the Raglan Area School. The Waikato District Council built a temporary transfer station at the old landfill site and the Trust began managing the green waste and paper and cardboard collection there, led by waste management programme co-ordinator Rick Thorpe, The Trust was committed to advocating for Zero Waste in Raglan and working pro-actively with the Raglan community to achieve this goal. In October 1999, the Trust described its experiences and aspirations for Zero Waste in a report entitled “Proposal to develop a Recycle Centre in Raglan”. In a short time they had already diverted more than 700 tonnes of waste from landfill. Development of the project had generated strong support from all sections of the Raglan community In September 1999, the Trust were granted $2000 from the Zero Waste NZ Trust, towards the Raglan Recycle Centre Feasibility Study which looked at the case for a kerbside collection and establishing a Recycle Centre in Raglan. This also resulted in the Trust holding a workshop and developing a business plan for the centre. In February 2000, a further grant of $9000 was made to the Whakamaua Te-Aio Education Trust towards the purchase of a second hand diesel tip-deck truck with modifications - with the balance of $9000 provided by the Waikato District Council. The truck was to enable the Trust to continue its paper and cardboard collections, to trial and start a kerbside recycling collection, and to further trial green waste management options. By April that year the Trust had created a new independent Incorporated Society with the sole focus on waste management for the Raglan community – called Xtreme Waste. They also had the support of the Waikato District Council policy committee to declare Raglan a Zero Waste town, and negotiate a contract for the management of a recycle centre in Raglan and local kerbside pickup of recyclables. This contract, effective from 1 July 2000 was for the management of the Recycle Centre, development of various recycle collection services and comprehensive education and monitoring strategies. In June 2000, the ZWNZ Trust approved a joint application from Xtreme Waste and the Waikato District Council for $20,000, for the “Raglan Zero Waste Pilot Project”. The grant was made possible with support from the Tindall Foundation. The support requested from Zero Waste was for a percentage of the education and monitoring strategies and a percentage of the establishment costs as outlined in the Business Plan, as well as a tractor. The monitoring strategy included record keeping on all aspects of the waste stream, monitoring of community attitudes to waste management, a cost/benefit analysis of the programme implementation, and use of the results for the evolution of the Zero Waste strategy for Raglan, and for use as a model for other rural communities. Social and economic benefits of the work of Xtreme Waste by 2001 included;
In September 2001 the Zero Waste NZ Trust approved the grant of $2900 to support the publication and distribution of Xtreme Waste’s first annual report. In December 2002, the Trust approved a grant of a further $6300, that included $3300 towards production and distribution of Xtreme Waste’s annual report, and $3000 to cover the group’s “Event recycling capability project”. In July 2003 Xtreme Waste was granted $16,000 that included funding towards the production and distribution of the 2002/2003 Annual Report ($4800),funding for the Zero Waste Workshop held in October 2003 ($10,000), and for tidying up a woodpile and establishing a replacement system ($1200). The three-day workshop on “Life with Waste” included speakers on maori and pakeha perspectives on waste management, on district, regional and national waste strategies, the true cost of waste to landfill, the Zero Waste Academy, and waste data collection systems. In conjunction with the workshop was an exhibition “Art with Waste” featuring art and design from recycled items, and a “Fashion with Waste” event featuring an ‘upcycled fashion’ show. Other amounts granted to Xtreme Waste more recently, include $1250 to attend a Zero Waste Community Enterprise Network meeting in Wellington in November 2003, and $5000 approved in June 2004 for production and distribution of 2000 copies of Xtreme Waste’s 2003/2004 annual report. Some of Xtreme Waste’s achievements in the 2003/2004 year (taken from their Annual Report Calendar) were;
This year Xtreme Waste were also granted $3180 towards travel expenses to the Zero Waste Conference in Kaikoura in April. Total funding from the Zero Waste NZ Trust for Xtreme Waste over the past six years is $64,380.
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