#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!

Public talk for Minister David Parker's visit to Whakatane 11/10/2024

 

Kia ora koutou katoa. 

Thank you for the opportunity to speak today about my work in the waste space. I’d like to start by saying I have known Tamati my whole life. He’s not just a great mp, he is an awesome person, and he is our friend.  

This year I started year nine at Whakatane High School. When I was at Whakatane Intermediate School my teacher, Jade Raynes, got me involved in the William Pike challenge. 

You might remember William’s story. In 2007 while sleeping in the dome shelter at Ruapehu, William’s leg was crushed by rocks which came from an unexpected and violent eruption. Lucky for us, he survived. 

This event had a big impact on him and he wanted to use his story and his successful recovery to help kids learn to be explorers,  and learn to overcome their own challenges. Based on his experience in the Duke of Edinburgh/Hillary Award when he was at High School, he started the William Pike Challenge programme for young people, encouraging us to be leaders.

When I first became involved, I read William’s book. I was so inspired by him. I was very shy, not a happy boy, and not really interested in exploring. After reading his book I changed. I took up mountain biking, community volunteering and just wanted to live better. It is because of the William Pike Challenge that I became a volunteer for  Waste Zero Whakatane, and what I have learned has given me a feeling of wanting to be part of changing things. This year I followed in William’s footsteps and I joined the Duke of Edinburgh Hillary Award. 

For my Duke of Edinburgh/Hillary Award, I have tasks to complete - community service, outdoor activities, new skills and two adventurous journeys.. I have my Bronze award now, and am working on my silver. My six months of community service will be spent working in the waste space, researching, writing and talking to people about what I learn. 

I am glad I have learned how to properly research things - how to check facts and always look to see who paid for the research. Here is the thing about learning though - it makes you responsible. I know what it means when you can’t unlearn something - even if you want to. 

Learning about the seriousness of the state of our environment and how irresponsible we are with waste is something that I sometimes wish I could unlearn - it makes me disappointed in people. We need to do better. 

Here is an example. We all agree we really want to stop burning fossil fuels, but just recently, BP has decided to keep investing in new fossil fuel exploration, and they changed their goal to reduce greenhouse gasses - they have almost halved their planned goal. With everything we know about the impact of greenhouse gasses on climate change, it's hard to imagine why they would do this - purposely adding to the problem. They will get away with this more easily because we are not managing our battery resources properly. 

Did you know that we recycle less than 1% of household batteries? More than 99% of our household batteries are dumped into the toxic soup that we call landfill.  That is not good at all. 

Did you know that there are not enough raw materials in nature to build the batteries we need for the future - that is what Mum calls “settled science” - that means we know it is a fact. But we are wasting the resources that we have already mined. 

It is easy to state problems, but for this I think I actually found a small part of a solution. People would be more willing to recycle, if when they buy a battery - the cost of recycling the battery, is included in battery sale price. If you sell anything, you should let people know how they can recycle it. Batteries matter more than a lot of things, so that is a great place to start. If people know they have paid for recycling, they might be more willing to do it. We won’t know until we try. Let’s try.

I really love to write my articles for the Whakatane Beacon. It's the learning that I enjoy the most about writing. If you don’t get the paper and you’d like to read the articles, you can go to my blog, the waste space with jack.blogspot.com - that is all one long word. When I leave school I am going to go into the New Zealand Army as an officer, and study Engineering. I want to be ready to help our climate affected communities - I think that problem will get worse for us.

There is not much we can do now to meet our climate goals, and there is not much NZ can do to change the habits of the rest of the world. 

But there’s a lot we can do to care for our land, our waterways, and to manage our own waste here in Aotearoa. 

Let’s do all we can, please be a good ancestor for the future generations to look back on. 

Please recycle your batteries.

Bring all your waste to the right place. 

No reira, tena koutou, tena koutou, tena tatou katoa.

#1 Waste Zero Whakatane - as published in the Whakatane Beacon

 

People often talk to me at the Waste Zero stall at the Sunday market, confused about what we at Waste Zero Whakatane do, what we take, why we do it, and what our goal is. I’ve been volunteering at Waste Zero Whakatane for the last two years. My name is Jack Karetai-Barrett. I’m a year nine student at Whakatane High School, and a change maker in the waste space.

Whenever I’m at the stall, we always have someone who doesn’t know about us, or who does not know what they can recycle. That’s the reason why I asked the Beacon editor, Whaea Neryda, if I could start writing a monthly column for the paper.

While Waste Zero Whakatane is a community volunteering group that is supporting the community to zero waste, we know that we are a long way away from achieving that. Alongside working towards zero waste, we are helping our community to understand how best to manage the waste it produces.

On the first Sunday of every month, we open up our Sunday market stall for people to come to talk with us, and to bring waste items we collect on the day. When we are at our stall, you can bring in the following items:

• Household batteries, please keep dry and secure
• Energy efficient light bulbs, (e.g. CFLs, LEDS)
• Colgate and Ecostore dental products (toothpaste tubes and caps, toothbrushes, floss containers) and packaging.
• Food storage containers, cling film, zip/snap lock bags
• Metal bottle tops, caps and tabs.
• Razors - blades, handles and packaging.
• Natural fibre clothing (cotton, linen, silk), and also socks.

From now on, every month I am going to write a column talking about a different waste stream, so you know what you can recycle in our community, and how to do it. As I write this I am really happy to read that the supermarkets will soon be completely free of single use plastic bags. We are making progress towards a waste-free future, one less bag at a time. Keep up the good work!

To find out when our team of volunteers will be at the Sunday Market, join our Waste Zero Whakatane Facebook page.

I really thank you for reading this,

Jack.

#2 Managing Your Kerbside Collection - 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. Today, I’m writing about what you can recycle at the kerb and how to avoid your recycling ending up in landfill. Every year around 12.6 million tonnes of waste ends up in landfill. Unfortunately, some of this could have been diverted to recycling, for a new life as a new product. Let's talk about what you can recycle in your kerbside collection, and how to make sure it is fit for the recycling process.

The first thing you need to know is that not everything that looks recyclable actually is. Like, for example Tetra Paks, the packs that contain your plant-based milks and other liquids. Tetra Pack is a composite product, made from at least four different products that can’t be easily separated. This makes them unfit for your recycle bin. It's hard to imagine why products are still being made that can't be recycled.

The second thing you need to know is that your recycling should be clean; food containers need to be rinsed before we put them in the recycling bin, and lids removed. If your containers are dirty,  they will find their way straight to landfill. Please use your dishes water to rinse them - don't waste our fresh, clean water.

The third thing you need to know is that in Whakatane, a human is sorting all your recycling by hand.  Please make sure that you keep them safe by having clean, safe recycling. Would you want to pick up shards of glass all day for other people?

The Whakatane District Council’s website tells us that the main things you can kerbside recycle are:

Paper: Newspaper, office paper, envelopes, magazines, wrapping paper, junk mail, and books

Cardboard: Cardboard boxes and egg trays.

Plastics: Look for the little triangle with the number on your plastic, so that way you can ensure that it is alright for recycling. Plastic grades 1 and 2, for example, milk bottles, soft drink bottles and laundry and cleaning bottles that have 1, or 2 stamped on them. You can also add your clean meat trays to your recycling, but remember to remove the soft plastic cover.  

Glass: Glass bottles and jars; clear, brown, green, or blue. For a while blue glass could not be recycled in Whakatane, but now it can. If you are taking your bottles to the free collection at the transfer station, please put blue glass in the green glass bin.

Tins and cans: aluminium cans, steel cans and metal jar lids.

While we do process some recycling in Aotearoa, New Zealand, we also send a lot of our waste problems to other countries to solve. It's best that we reuse our own food containers as much as possible.

https://www.whakatane.govt.nz/waste-search

#3 - Battery Recycling - 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. Today, I’m writing about what’s involved in recycling batteries. 

Used household batteries can be a big problem when it comes to recycling waste. They’re recyclable but aren’t allowed in our recycle bins – and throwing them in the rubbish means they are adding to the toxic soup that is landfill. But there are places you can bring your batteries to be recycled.

The batteries we use in everyday life are broken down into two separate categories: primary, (single use - can not be recharged) and secondary. (Rechargeable) lead-acid, nickel-cadmium, nickel-metal-hydride, and lithium-ion. Each type has a specific recycling method made for its elemental structure.

Battery recycling is a very important process that helps minimise the environmental harm while reducing the need for mining of natural resources. It begins with collection, where used batteries are gathered from various sources like E-waste, (Computers, rechargeable items, etc) vehicles, single use batteries, (non-rechargeables)  industrial equipment.

Lead-acid batteries, (The ones they use in cars) go through a mechanical process to crush and separate their components. Lead is melted and purified for reuse, while plastic casings are melted and reformed. Nickel-cadmium and nickel-metal-hydride batteries go through a very high-temperature smelting process to recover metals like nickel, cobalt, and iron.

Lithium-ion batteries, which are known to be in electric cars, involve a multi-step approach. They are ripped into shreds, to get metals through a combination of mechanical and hydrometallurgical processes (In the case of batteries, hydrometallurgy is the use of water-based chemistry, for the recovery of metals, from recycled battery materials) These recovered materials are then used in the making of new batteries.

After the metals are extracted, they are refined and sent to companies to produce new batteries, reducing the demand for more natural metals to be mined. Properly recycling batteries prevents toxic substances from getting into our environment and minimises the need for mining, which can have big ecological impacts. It's an important step towards creating a more sustainable way of living for Humans. 

In order to prevent the environmental destruction that mining causes just so we can have batteries, we need to properly recycle the batteries that we use. There is a cost to recycling batteries. And I think that sometimes people are put off by that. If we added the recycle cost to the purchase cost, then we could teach people that they have already paid for their recycling, and maybe they’d be more willing to bring in their batteries, rather than put them in the landfill. Then everyone can be a part of the solution, by bringing their waste to the right place. To recycle your batteries, you can bring them to Waste Zero, our stall at the Sunday Market, on the first Sunday of every month.  or you can bring large car/truck batteries to the Whakatane Transfer and Recycling centre,  Macaulay Metals, and Battery Town Whakatane. Bring all small single-use and rechargeable batteries to Waste Zero. Please do not put them in the landfill. Batteries in the landfill can be crushed and become damaged, which can cause them to heat up and catch on fire. These fires can destroy waste collection trucks, waste collection facilities, and cause incredibly damaging and toxic landfill fires. The next Waste Zero stand at the Sunday market will be on Sunday the 1st of October. As I write this Bunnings Whakatane are receiving household batteries for recycling with no cost attached. (For customers)