Puketāpapa’s Wesley market stallholders have helped keep 1500 tonnes of food waste (weighing the same as 12 blue whales) out of landfill until now.
If you want to know how exactly they managed this, come along to the market’s Zero Waste Discovery Day on Friday 27 March. There will be fun activities for the whanau, including compost demonstrations and a zero-waste cultural food court.
Bring your reusable shopping and produce bags to shop at the market. If you have spare bags, the market welcomes donations for its bag library.
Held at the Wesley Community Centre every Tuesday and Friday, Wesley Market was started in 1994 to give locals a nearby place to buy fresh fruit and vegetables.
In 2016 the Puketāpapa Local Board asked EcoMatters Environment Trust to help improve how waste is dealt with at the market, because it was sending the equivalent of four large wheelie bins of rubbish to landfill every week.
Now more is recycled and spoiled produce is collected for animal food, meaning that in three years 1500 tonnes of food waste and 170kg of recyclable items have been kept out of landfill.
Everyone is welcome at the Zero Waste Discovery Day on Friday 27 March, from 8am to 1pm, when the regular market is also on, at Wesley Community Centre, 740 Sandringham Rd Ext, Mt Roskill.
