#10 Youth Council

Kia ora my name is Jack Karetai-Barrett and I’m a year ten student at Whakatane High School. This months article is going to be about Youth Councils throughout Aotearoa and using your voice to be part of making change. 

Last month, I was elected as the co-deputy chair of the Whakatane District Youth Council. The other co-deputy chair is Jasper House, and our chair is Charlotte Billings.

In Aotearoa, Youth Councils give young people a chance to share their ideas with local leaders and decision-makers. They help young people get involved in their communities, learn leadership skills, and make sure their voices count in decision-making for the future of the community. For most people who get involved in political roles, it is becuase there is something in their community that they want to see changed. But you also have to be interested in whats best for the whole community, not just the things that are important to you. 

The things that matter the most to me in my role on the youth council, are waste management, mountain biking, and recreation spaces for kids. It’s the importance of those things in my life that made me want to get involved. But since getting involved, I’ve started to get really interested in all the different jobs our council does in our community. 

According to LGNZ, (Local Government New Zealand) a Council's role is “to enable democratic decision-making by and for communities and to promote their social, economic, environmental and cultural wellbeing. In practice, this means everything from footpaths and lighting and the supply of freshwater/wai to resource management and environmental health and safety.” 

According to the Whakatane District Council website, our council’s “vision is to be known as the place of choice for people to live, work and play.”

They also say:

“In achieving our vision:

• Our community will be safe and surrounded by people who are friendly and caring

• Businesses will be thriving

• There will be respect for and pride in our history

• We will be successful guardians of our natural environment

Our purpose is to lead the Whakatāne District to sustainable economic, social, environmental and cultural well-being.

As a District Council we will achieve this through:

• Good governance, leadership and advocacy

• Integrated, long-term planning

• Effective and reliable community infrastructure

• Outstanding service delivery”

The important thing to understand about a council’s role in the community and their aspirations, is that their vision has to be funded somehow, and no one is ever happy with how much they have to pay for things. Councils are funded by several different sources, the first and the one all adults seem to complain about the most is “rates”. Rates are paid by people who own land. The more land you own and the more the land is worth, the more you have to pay - that seems fair to me.

There are so many rates! General rates, targeted rates, differential rates, uniform annual general charges, and water rates. Mum says theres also another rate that we have to pay to the Regional Council. You can learn about how all the rates are caculated on the LGNZ website - it is very helpful.  As well as all the rates, there are development contributions, subsidies and grants, and fees and charges. 

A council has so many responsibilities, and quite a few different sources of income to pay for everything. But how do they choose what to pay for? Every three years, we have an election where we elect the people who represent what matters most to us at the table where all the decisions are made. They also set the future plans for the community, and figure out where they can get money from and how the money will be spent. When I read the letters to the editor of the Whakatane Beacon, it looks to me like people just vote so they have someone to complain about. But actually, I know some of our councillors very well, and I know how hard they work and how much they care about our community. I think we should complain less and have more conversations about whats important to us. 

At the moment, the Councils long term plan is being renewed. At our Youth Council meeting we learned that the council has to renew it’s long term plan every three years to make sure it’s still heading in the direction the community wants it to go. As members of the public, no matter if we’re a school kid, or retired, or anywhere in between, we’re allowed to make a submission on the long term plan, to make sure that our councillors understand whats important to our community. The council will read and hear all the submissions, set it’s long term plans, and then find the money that it needs to achieve it’s plans for the community. Last time we had a long term plan, I went with my mum to talk about mountain biking, but nothing really came of that. I felt a bit cynical, but mum reminds me that COVID happened, lots of weather events happened, and Whakaari happened. Those all happened unexpectedly, so the Council's plans and priorities had to change since the community's needs had changed. I’m going to have another go this year to talk about mountain biking, and how important our recreation spaces are in the community for us kids. But the thing thats most important to me right now, is what I learned from attending the EQC public meeting at the War Memorial hall last month. They taught us that we need to prepare for an earthquake that could be as high as a 9 on the Richter scale, and cause a really big tsunami. I think our council needs to make preparing for that its number one priority. It’s hard to prepare for, but it’s really important that we do. 

I hope that you take the time to have a look at the Council's long term plan, and make a submission. You can find the plan and the online submission page on the Council website. If you don’t like using a computer, then you can visit the Council and someone will help you.  If we can’t be bothered to let the Council know whats important to us, then we probably shouldn’t complain afterwards when we’re not happy with the decisions they make. 

I would like to give a shout out to Andrew Isles and Toi Iti (BOPRC) for being amazing role models for me. They have shown me how being involved in something like Council gives you the chance to have your say. Please have your say by Friday 12th of April 2024. You can make your submission online,  send your submission in, or you can ask to speak at a meeting to the Councillors!

# 9 Mountainbiking with my team

Today I’m continuing from last month's story about mountain biking. 

As you may recall, last month I wrote about my role models and how important it is to have good role models who care about us and help us work out the hard things in life. I’ve been really lucky to have Richard Hamer, Jonny Evetts and Michaela Wellauer in my life, who support me in my mountain biking. 

When I was at Whakatane Intermediate, not long after I started riding, I heard in the notices about Aims Games. I looked into it some more, and I saw that there was a section for mountain biking. I was starting to get more confident with riding around then, so I decided to try out for the team. I talked to the teacher, Mr. Cochrane, and he told me some more about it - he said I needed to be much fitter. From that day I started to ride up the Mokorua hill every day. I wasn’t very fast when I started, but I got a lot faster as time went on. 

Before we could get to Aims Games, I was offered to compete in a relay race at Onepu MTB Park, on the Zephyr trail. I was familiar with Zephyr, so I was really excited. I started training on Zephyr a lot, and I was happy with my results. I had two coaches while I was training for racing: Hannah Thompson and Josh Barry. They both helped me with cornering and jumping, along with general fitness, and lots of encouragement. On the day of the Zephyr race, I was doing really well, having fun doing some jumps. Then, around 30 minutes before my race, I went really flat on the last jump on the easy jump line, and I went flying into a pit of mud. My entire body was covered, and I looked like I was straight out of a war movie scene in the trenches.  Sam Knapton picked me up out of the puddle, helped me check my bike, and made sure I was ok. I didn’t hurt myself too badly, so I could still race.

Soon after my crash, we lined up, ready to go. My first teammate went, and he was quite fast, so I knew I had to be ready to go quickly. He came flying around the corner and tapped me in. I quickly put my dropper post up, started sprinting up to the line, and at the line, quickly hopped onto my bike. I rode as fast as I could, all the way to the start of Zephyr. I kept a consistent pace all the way through, and as soon as I got to the end of Zephyr, I quickly did a skid into the corner and started pedalling as hard as I could. I sprinted hard, and I got to the end where I saw my next teammate ready for his turn, I then hopped off my bike and ran with it as fast as I could before tapping him in. I was exhausted! We ended up getting second in our relay race, and we were stoked. I have never really cared much for winning races, but I like it when I am on a team and the team does well.

I was really into racing from this point, and the Aims Games race was coming up fast, so I kept on training hard. I got really fit and had very strong legs. Then, when I finally got to the race, I was feeling so ready for it. I rode as hard and fast as I could - I did my absolute best. I was nowhere near winning the race, but I was happy that I even finished it! It was two laps around Summerhill, and they were difficult. Not to mention it was a crazy 28⁰C day, in September - it was so hot that riders were fainting, and many did not finish the race. From that point on, I have loved racing on my bike, and even more than racing, I just love being on my bike, training with my mates. 

This month my team has competed in the North Island Secondary Schools MTB Champs in Rotorua, as part of the international Crankworx events. Our team has 12 people: Arran Dominic, Liam Burgess, Logan Jephson, Noah Vullings, Walker Turner, Luca Goodman, Ollie Peat, Beren Pearce, Barclay Fort, Kalani Robinson,  Mason Philpott and me. Arran had an injury that prevented him from racing this time - but he is still on our team.

At the end of last year we started with me and my mate Logan. I had asked Mum if there were any enduro races coming up that we could compete in for school. We found some local races that we ended up competing in, and got excited about the North Islands. We asked our Head of Sport at Whakatane High School,  Mr Sexton,  if we could enter and he said we could. He offered Mum the use of the school bike trailer and a van. Mum didn’t expect us to have 12 people, but that is what happened, and Mum became a Team Manager for our team. 

Every weekend for 13 weeks, often twice a week, Mum would drive a van full of us over to the Redwoods, so we could practise on the actual competition enduro and cross-country tracks. All the members of our team competed in the Enduro. Enduro is the one everyone wants to ride in, so it is very limited. Only 500 riders can compete and there are always a lot who apply, but don’t get in. Amazingly, our whole team made the start list. For our Enduro race, we rode Box of Birds, Gunna Gotta, Te Huinga, and Old Exit. All of us completed the course within time and all of us were happy with our results. Kalani Robinson even got a top 20 finish. My actual race was really amazing, but I did have a quite bad crash on my first stage on Box of Birds. Because of that crash, I ended up not being at a level of competition with others, so I was quite disappointed, but also just so happy that I was there. I know that next year I will be stronger, faster and will do better. 

Whakatane High School also put in a relay team (Mason, Logan and I) and  two XC (cross country) riders (Noah and Ollie). We all did well. 

Mum said that she's committed to our racing team for the next three years until I finish high school. My Mum really is the best person to have in the world when you have something you want to do. She is always there to make our lives better, gives us advice, and cooks sausages for us after our training and our races - every time. 

On behalf of our team I want to thank all the people who helped us in our races, not only on the race days but also in the leadup to the race. First I want to thank Whakatane High School and Mr Sexton for saying “yes”. Thank you to our teacher in charge,  Ms. Rachelle Owen-Cooper (OC) for taking us to the WAIBOP race when Mum had to work, and supporting the team at the North Islands. Thank you Brenda from Cafe Coco for providing fresh muffins and baked goods for the team on multiple occasions, and for giving our team and the Whakatane Intermediate team fresh muffins on XC day for breakfast. Thank you Renske, our school sports coordinator, for doing all the background work to get our entries in on time - Mum says Renske could be a cat juggler. Thank you to all the families who provided kai for us and helped Mum with getting things organised. And thanks to BlueLight Whakatane for the use of the van when the school did not have a spare van. 

Now we are back to training, for the Nationals in Christchurch in October. I’ll tell you about that then. Good luck to the Intermediate riders who will soon race at Aims Games.

#8 Role models

Kia ora my name is Jack Karetai-Barrett and I’m a year ten student at Whakatane High School. This months article is going to be about Youth Councils throughout Aotearoa and using your voice to be part of making change. 

Last month, I was elected as the co-deputy chair of the Whakatane District Youth Council. The other co-deputy chair is Jasper House, and our chair is Charlotte Billings.

In Aotearoa, Youth Councils give young people a chance to share their ideas with local leaders and decision-makers. They help young people get involved in their communities, learn leadership skills, and make sure their voices count in decision-making for the future of the community. For most people who get involved in political roles, it is becuase there is something in their community that they want to see changed. But you also have to be interested in whats best for the whole community, not just the things that are important to you. 

The things that matter the most to me in my role on the youth council, are waste management, mountain biking, and recreation spaces for kids. It’s the importance of those things in my life that made me want to get involved. But since getting involved, I’ve started to get really interested in all the different jobs our council does in our community. 

According to LGNZ, (Local Government New Zealand) a Council's role is “to enable democratic decision-making by and for communities and to promote their social, economic, environmental and cultural wellbeing. In practice, this means everything from footpaths and lighting and the supply of freshwater/wai to resource management and environmental health and safety.” 

According to the Whakatane District Council website, our council’s “vision is to be known as the place of choice for people to live, work and play.”

They also say:

“In achieving our vision:

• Our community will be safe and surrounded by people who are friendly and caring

• Businesses will be thriving

• There will be respect for and pride in our history

• We will be successful guardians of our natural environment

Our purpose is to lead the Whakatāne District to sustainable economic, social, environmental and cultural well-being.

As a District Council we will achieve this through:

• Good governance, leadership and advocacy

• Integrated, long-term planning

• Effective and reliable community infrastructure

• Outstanding service delivery”

The important thing to understand about a council’s role in the community and their aspirations, is that their vision has to be funded somehow, and no one is ever happy with how much they have to pay for things. Councils are funded by several different sources, the first and the one all adults seem to complain about the most is “rates”. Rates are paid by people who own land. The more land you own and the more the land is worth, the more you have to pay - that seems fair to me.

There are so many rates! General rates, targeted rates, differential rates, uniform annual general charges, and water rates. Mum says theres also another rate that we have to pay to the Regional Council. You can learn about how all the rates are caculated on the LGNZ website - it is very helpful.  As well as all the rates, there are development contributions, subsidies and grants, and fees and charges. 

A council has so many responsibilities, and quite a few different sources of income to pay for everything. But how do they choose what to pay for? Every three years, we have an election where we elect the people who represent what matters most to us at the table where all the decisions are made. They also set the future plans for the community, and figure out where they can get money from and how the money will be spent. When I read the letters to the editor of the Whakatane Beacon, it looks to me like people just vote so they have someone to complain about. But actually, I know some of our councillors very well, and I know how hard they work and how much they care about our community. I think we should complain less and have more conversations about whats important to us. 

At the moment, the Councils long term plan is being renewed. At our Youth Council meeting we learned that the council has to renew it’s long term plan every three years to make sure it’s still heading in the direction the community wants it to go. As members of the public, no matter if we’re a school kid, or retired, or anywhere in between, we’re allowed to make a submission on the long term plan, to make sure that our councillors understand whats important to our community. The council will read and hear all the submissions, set it’s long term plans, and then find the money that it needs to achieve it’s plans for the community. Last time we had a long term plan, I went with my mum to talk about mountain biking, but nothing really came of that. I felt a bit cynical, but mum reminds me that COVID happened, lots of weather events happened, and Whakaari happened. Those all happened unexpectedly, so the Council's plans and priorities had to change since the community's needs had changed. I’m going to have another go this year to talk about mountain biking, and how important our recreation spaces are in the community for us kids. But the thing thats most important to me right now, is what I learned from attending the EQC public meeting at the War Memorial hall last month. They taught us that we need to prepare for an earthquake that could be as high as a 9 on the Richter scale, and cause a really big tsunami. I think our council needs to make preparing for that its number one priority. It’s hard to prepare for, but it’s really important that we do. 

I hope that you take the time to have a look at the Council's long term plan, and make a submission. You can find the plan and the online submission page on the Council website. If you don’t like using a computer, then you can visit the Council and someone will help you.  If we can’t be bothered to let the Council know whats important to us, then we probably shouldn’t complain afterwards when we’re not happy with the decisions they make. 

I would like to give a shout out to Andrew Isles and Toi Iti (BOPRC) for being amazing role models for me. They have shown me how being involved in something like Council gives you the chance to have your say. Please have your say by Friday 12th of April 2024. You can make your submission online,  send your submission in, or you can ask to speak at a meeting to the Councillors!

Kia ora, my name is Jack Karetai-Barrett, and this is my article on my role models.

In January, I was awarded the Youth Environmentalist of the Year award from Forest and Bird.

I invited some of the people who have  helped me in my life; those people were Richard Hamer, Graham Henton, Becs Mackay, and, of course, Mum. I want to tell you a little bit about them.

If it wasn’t for Richard, I might still be a couch potato. Back in 2020, I was around 65kg. I ate, went to school, did minimal exercise, went home, ate, and went to bed, then repeated that same process the day after. We had a lot of changes in our lives through that time with moving to a new home, and the deaths of my poua and koro. I was not very happy. Around that time, Richard Hamer reached out to me and Mum and told us about the holiday programmes he was doing through BlueLight Whakatane. He talked about mountain biking, and I thought that sounded stupid and would be a waste of time. I tried to convince Mum I didn’t want to go, but she knew it would be good for me, so she made me go anyway. I started with a really bad attitude, and I didn’t like it at all. The climb up was just terrible for me; I couldn’t even ride up the loop uphill. I walked for a while; it felt like forever, and then, all of a sudden, we’re at the top! Finally! Richard let me go ahead and lead everyone down, and he told us how to ride different parts of the tracks, and I loved it! I was riding so fast, and it was just the best. Once we got to the bottom, I finally understood why we did the uphill. From that point on, I loved mountain biking, and it’s how I’ve become the best version of myself. Richard Hamer does so much in our community and he does not make a noise for attention for himself. Most people in our community will have had something made better by his work, without even knowing it was because of him. In two weeks time my and my mates are racing in the North Island Mountain Bike Champs - thank you Richard! 

Mr.Graham Henton was my environmental teacher at Whakatane Intermediate School a few years ago, and if it wasn’t for him, I would have probably never even cared about the local urban environment. Just another kid throwing their rubbish around, not caring about what happens to it or what happens to the environment. Mr. Henton taught us about our local environment, our town-based native species, and how to be a kaitiaki for our communities. In the class, we got to go on walks to the lagoon, clean up the spaces around our school, test water quality and think about our impact. We got to look at the native birds and other species around the lagoon, and it was amazing. It was by far the best class I ever had in intermediate. In my first year, I was given top year seven in enviro, and then in year eight, I got the syndicate award from Whaea Helen. Together Mr Henton and whaea Helen have given me a feeling of duty to care for our urban area They helped me to understand the whakatauki: Toitū te marae a Tāne, Toitū te marae a Tangaroa, Toitū te tangata. If the land is well and the sea is well, the people will thrive. I can see that I will spend my whole life thinking about how to help people thrive, just like Mr Henton and Whaea Helen taught us. 

I first met Mrs. Becs Mackay through Waste Zero, and at the Mountain Bike Club. I was in intermediate and was still quite introverted, so I didn’t know her very well. I would see her at Onepu during the MTB club nights, and she would always make sure to say hello. She was always very encouraging and sometimes rode with me, even though I was a lot slower than her then. In year nine, Mrs Mackay turned out to be my social studies teacher, and I had to stop calling her Becs. If you know my mum then you know I have grown up thinking a lot about the world and why things are the way they are. Mrs Mackay gave me the opportunity to write about all that thinking and that is what made me start this column in the first place. In Social Studies we got to learn about everything we wanted, and it was my favourite core class. She would always make the learning fun. My favourite task we had was that we had to make a business plan and factor in every single thing we would need if we started one today. I never knew how many different insurances there are! Me and my mate Mason decided that we could make a mountain bike park since Whakatane could definitely use one (hint hint) I really liked Social Studies and all the things we learned. The thing I will always remember is that Mrs Mackay, even though she is not Maori, has worked really hard to understand our history, and taught it properly to our class. If we learn and our kids learn, maybe we can make the world a better place than it is right now. 

My Mum is also in the photo that Troy Baker from the Beacon took. My Mum is Dr. Mawera Karetai. Mum says she is an academic doctor, not a useful one. But she is very useful. Mum does so much amazing work that not many people know about. As well as all that work, she works hard to give me a happy and good life. She works hard to give lots of people a happy and good life. I learned duty from my Mum, and the people who are my role models have given me the opportunity to do my duty. My mum is the best, she stops the wheels from falling off my bike and my life.

Lastly, I want to thank Linda Conning and the Forest and Bird volunteers who give time to our natural environment. I was thinking about the Lorax - “Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing's going to get better, it's not”. Thank you for caring and wanting things to get better. Linda, thank you for the award and making me think about the people who have encouraged me to be my best self. 

There are lots of other people who have cared about me and helped me to be my best. Today I just wrote about the people in the photo. Maybe I will write about more of them another day. I would like to write about Kyle MacFarlane and Jonny Evetts, who make everything seem like it is going to be fine. It is really important to have role models.

Jack

# 7 Lava Camp

Kia ora My name is Jack Karetai-Barrett, and I’m a year 10 student at Whakatane High School. Happy New Year to everyone who reads my column. 

Over the week of the New Year, I attended Lava Camp on Mt. Ruapehu for my Duke of Edinburgh Silver Award. The purpose of the Duke of Edinburgh Hillary Award is to equip rangatahi for promising futures by challenging us to develop skills and tools to improve ourselves and our communities. I started Duke of Edinburgh Bronze early last year, to follow on from the William Pike Award that I completed at Whakane Intermediate School. For Duke of Edinburgh Bronze, you have to complete three months of work in learning a new skill, in volunteering, and in some kind of out of school physical activity. You also have to add an extra three months to one of those three skills - I extended my Waste Zero volunteering and started writing this monthly column. For Silver, you have to do six months in each section, and you can continue to develop your new skill from the Bronze, or chose something new. I developed my gardening skills for Bronze, and improved my te reo Maori for Silver. As well as those things, you also receive outdoor training and complete three hikes, including two overnight hikes.

The Duke of Edinburgh Award has made me fitter, smarter, better at navigation, and most of all, safer in the bush. I have learned that the bush is safe until you forget that it’s not.  I’ll be moving onto my Gold award in March this year once my Silver is completed. For Gold, you have to complete a year in each skill, including a weeklong residential service project. I hope to go back to Ruapehu for my residential. 

One of the things I really like about the D of E is how a whole lot of strangers come together to complete their training and adventurous journey for bronze, silver, and gold awards as a team. The purpose of our journeys was to get more confident with our mapping, navigation, building a good new team with strangers, and good self-care. We also had the responsibility of caring for our environment, which meant picking up rubbish. Surprisingly and sadly, there was a lot of it on Mt Ruapehu! So many people just dump their rubbish, even on the Great Walks tracks that have hundreds or even thousands going through each day! On our first eight hour hike alone, we picked up two bread bags full of rubbish. And our next two combined were five bags! People can be so lazy, and it’s sad that they don’t follow the best tramper’s rule - leave no trace. Whenever we would stop to have food, we would put our rubbish into small bags inside our packs. When we would cook, we would also do the same thing. I try to keep my waste to a minimum when on the mountain, not bringing anything that isn’t environmentally friendly in case the wind blows through and catches it and I can’t recover it. 

My Duke of Edinbudgh silver team did lots of clean-up on the tracks, picking up after people who don’t respect the planet. When we got back, we properly disposed of the waste; it was a shame that some of it couldn’t be recycled. I wish people would think before they buy something; always choose things that can be recycled, where ever it is possible. My award leader Gerry Purcel always says “Proper Prior Planning Prevents Poor Performance”. Thank you for reading my article.

#6 I'm Dreaming of a Waste-free Christmas - as published in the Whakatane Beacon 12/2023

Kia ora, my name is Jack Karetai-Barrett, and I’m a year nine student at Whakatane High School. This is my monthly column.

Christmas is coming, and I’ve started thinking about what a waste-free Christmas could look like for our family.

According to wastefreecelebrations.co.nz, “An extra 30% of rubbish is produced and discarded throughout the festive period when compared with the rest of the year. This additional waste will be in the region of 3 million tonnes.”

Is this what Christmas was supposed to be about? There are a few different traditions from around the world that have now evolved into what we now call Christmas. At the time the religion of Christianity was becoming popular, there was a pagan festival called Saturnalia. Saturnalia, the ancient Roman’s favourite holiday, originated from midwinter and winter solstice farming rituals. These rituals involved feasting and giving gifts or making sacrifices to the gods, particularly during the winter sowing season. Our seasons are different here in New Zealand, since we are headed for our longest day, not our shortest. But we still give gifts, and we still make feasts. What I liked about Saturnalia is what you gave was determined by what you had. There didn’t seem to be an expectation that people would have to go and buy expensive things and get into debt to make others happy. If you were rich during Saturnalia, then you would give to the poor. If you were poor, you would participate and give if you could. There were lots of gifts of food, drinks, candles, clothing, and plants. Homemade gifts were the norm. I don’t think they would have liked all the gifts that we give, covered in cardboard and plastic. We literally pay for rubbish.

While I was looking at ways of reducing waste, I came across a Japanese tradition called Furoshiki. A traditional Japanese wrapping cloth tradition that has been practised for the last 1200 years. Furoshiki cloths were originally called Tsutsumi, which literally means "wrapping." These cloths can range from simple fabrics to incredibly fancy hand-painted fabrics, and they are often used to wrap very precious items such as gifts and family treasures. I was really interested in this and asked my Mum if she had any old fabric, so I could have a go at making some with the sewing machine. I first made a bag and used some old ribbon to pull the bag closed. Then I made some sheets that can be wrapped like wrapping paper and used an old lanyard as a ribbon to tie them up. And we also had an old shopping bag with a hole in the bottom, so I cut the side out of it and used some old rope Mum had as a ribbon. I also used a Christmas decoration as a permanent name tag. Then I gave all these four things to my Mum, so she could wrap my Christmas presents. (Haha!)

We asked friends of ours, for suggestions on how they have a waste free holiday. One of our friends wraps all their homemade gifts in newspaper - you could be reading from your Christmas paper. Another one of our friends made re-usable homemade Christmas crackers - there are some cool instructions available online to make these. Another friend went to the opshop, bought lots of cheap hats, took them home, washed them, and had a hat party at Christmas. You can have a waste free Christmas by setting rules around what your Christmas should be. You could make a rule where you can  only exchange homemade gifts, or second-hand re-used repurposed gifts. How about the gift of experiences, or only buy things that are needed. We don’t need to create more waste, and we don’t need to create more debt. This should be a fun time, and it’s up to us to make the rules for our families.  I’d tell you what I made for my Mum, but she reads the paper. 

Thanks for reading my articles this year; it’s been a really cool opportunity to learn new stuff, and I’ve liked the comments I’ve had from people in the community who read my column. I’m especially thankful to the Beacon for giving me this opportunity. See you all in 2024.

#5 Food Waste to Energy - as published in the Whakatane Beacon 24/11/2023

Kia ora, my name is Jack Karetai-Barrett, and I’m a year nine student at Whakatane High School. This is my monthly column.

According to lovefoodhatewaste.co.nz, “the estimated value of food waste per New Zealand household is worth about $1510 per year.”

Today I’m continuing on from my last article, where I talked about my visit to Ecogas, where food waste is turned into methane, which is burned to heat a neighbouring greenhouse. It gave me a lot to think about. When we were driving back from the facility, the only thing I was thinking about was the fact that these kinds of places actually exist because we were so wasteful in the first place. 

I didn’t actually realise that people waste food. If it’s not us eating our food, then it’s the dogs or the chickens. We don’t waste any of our food, and we grow a lot of what we eat. It’s funny that people can even accept the fact that they waste food. Some people dream of having food on their table, but then other people can just throw it away, even if it’s a day old. What is your food philosophy when it comes to wasting kai? 

There are lots of ways you can minimise your food waste. The first one is the most obvious: only buy what you need. If you do end up with more than you need, there are ways you can preserve food to make it last longer. If you’ve got some old bananas, cut them up and put them in a tray for the freezer. Once they’re frozen, put them in a bag and keep them in the freezer. You can take out as many as you need at a time for smoothies, desserts, after-school snacks, etc. You can also freeze things like banana bread, zucchini loaves, and really any kind of cake. Cake thaws quickly and is always handy to have in the freezer. Extra fruit makes the best jam. And frozen lemon and lime cubes are super good in cold water in the summer, and a great way to keep lemon juice for things like guacamole. Speaking of guacamole, mash up your avocado, add some lemon juice, and freeze. You just add your tomato, onion, and garlic when you thaw it out. Mum says it is no accident that avocado and lemon are ready at the same time.

When we have extra veggies, Mum cuts them up into roastie sizes, vacuum packs them, puts them in the freezer, and takes them out to make roast vegetables. Soups are a great way to save extra veggies. Make some soup, then put it in the freezer. If you don’t have chickens, you could even use your clean veggie peels to make a yummy stock for veggie soups. 

There are ways to manage your food to keep it fresh longer. Did you know that apples release a hormone called ethylene that makes other fruits mature faster? So don’t put your apples and bananas together (unless you want them to ripen faster). There are containers that are designed to keep food fresher for longer. The best is to plan your meals and only cook what you need, or plan how you can use your leftovers if you know you have some. 

If you can manage those, then it should be smooth sailing. But if not, then you can still manage it. If it’s vegetable or fruit scraps, then you can give it to chickens, pigs, worm farms, or even put it in your compost bin. We have a lot of friends who bring us their food scraps for our chickens, and their scraps become eggs.

If people would start being more wise with their food, they would save a lot of money and save the environment! You could also start eating a lot healthier by following these steps and getting better food. You can buy local food and get your fruit and veggies from your local fresh market. Less travel miles, fresher, and a lot more nutritious. It also just feels great to support local growers who employ local people. That is the best kind of circular economy - best for everyone. 

Thank you for reading my article.

#4 Food Waste to Energy - as published in the Whakatane Beacon

Kia ora,  My name is Jack Karetai-Barrett; I’m a year nine student at Whakatane High School, and this is my monthly zero waste column. 

This month, I’m writing about food waste. 

According to lovefoodhatewaste.co.nz, New Zealand households send over 298 tonnes of food waste to landfill each year. Over half of that could have been eaten ($1.17 billion dollars worth of food!). These figures don’t include what is consumed by home worm farms, chickens, pets, compost, and garbage disposal units. That is so much food!

There are some changes coming to solid waste management throughout Aotearoa,  New Zealand  over the next few years, as we see standardising of  kerbside collection.  Local government (councils), in collaboration with the waste management sector, will play a really important role in making improvements to the management of household recycling and managing food waste.

Some councils may have to stop the collection of specific materials within their kerbside recycling programs, and others will have to add items to theirs, so it is the same kerbside collection in Dunedin,  as it is in Whakatane,  and over the rest of the country. Out of the entirety of household waste deposited at the kerbside, we must increase the amount we redirect, away from landfill:

30% redirected by 2026

40% redirected 2028

50% redirected 2030

In March 2018 the Auckland Council began a food waste collection trial. The programme was so successful,  it is now increasing to become a city-wide program for collecting food waste at the kerb. The goal is to prevent up to 70,000 tonnes of food from being sent to landfills annually. 23-litre containers were delivered to addresses around the city, and are collected every week. They contain items like tea bags, paper towels, fruit and vegetable peels, bread, dairy items, coffee grounds, meat scraps and every other imaginable food that does not get consumed. The containers are then transported to a plant in Papakura, where it is . From there, they are then transported down to the Ecogas facility in Reporoa, where significant processing takes place, turning the kai from waste, into valuable resources.

Lucky for me, because of the work my Mum does, I was able to visit and explore the Ecogas facility. Here is what I learned: On arriving in Reporoa, kai is immediately loaded into hoppers and scanned for any metals and plastic waste. Once the plastics and metals are removed, the food waste takes on the appearance of a chunky brown soup. This mixture is then piped into one of four large digestion tanks where bacteria starts consuming it. Much like the process that occurs in a cow’s stomach, micro-organisms in these tanks break down the organic matter through anaerobic digestion, without using oxygen. (Anaerobic digestion is when bacteria breaks down organic matter like animal waste, leftover food, .).

This process transforms food scraps into methane, carbon dioxide, liquid fertiliser, and sulphur. The methane is used to heat a neighbouring greenhouse, instead of fossil fuels, as it was previously natural gas boilers. And the carbon dioxide is pumped into the greenhouse to be used as an environmental growth stimulant. The sulphur and liquid fertilisers are applied to farmland as a bioavailable topical fertiliser - and it sure makes the grass green. It's a great way to manage food waste while producing valuable resources. Best of all, it diverts 100% of food away from landfill, which reduces the amount of methane we generate from waste. The only thing that goes to landfill from Ecogas is the cleaned nonorganic material people put in their kai bins.

Methane is a very bad thing to have in our environment. It's 25x more effective at trapping heat in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide. Methane comes from things like animal excrement (farts and poo), making fossil fuels, and of course, from rotting organic materials in landfills. It contributes to climate change tremendously, which hurts our environment.  Controlling methane is very important for slowing down climate change.

Each household must keep doing a better job of sending less household waste to landfills, because it is up to us to do better for our environment. Only buy the food you need, use it all, and try not to waste any food. And, bring your waste to the right place!