Shanks described Para Kore’s approach as holistic.
“It’s about appreciating and caring for what we have. And it’s the view we need to be taking.”
Waikarere Gregory (Te Rarawa, Te Aupōuri) was among the group of kaitiaki working on the weekend, and had given up her cherished place on a waka to do it.
“As tangata whenua, this kaupapa is a huge part of my whakapapa, and who I am,” Gregory said.
Gregory, who works for Para Kore, CBEC EcoSolutions and the Far North Environment Trust, said the weekend had given her a real insight into human behaviour and our culture of consumption.
“People are spending a lot of hard-earned money on things that end up in the waste,” she said.
“We come from a culture rich in beautiful crafts that you’d put under a tree and they’d return to the soil.
“That’s not what this is. We’re stuffing papatūānuku (mother earth) full of waste that’s bad for her, and ourselves.
“This kaupapa is about protecting our whakapapa — yes, the past — and forward to our tamariki and mokopuna.”
In the end, Gregory was rewarded for her choice to spend the weekend working on the whenua.
“I haven’t been on the land side of things watching the waka come in for a number of years,” she said.
Aside from this moment of appreciation, Gregory spent the long weekend offering the public guidance on what could be recycled or composted, and manually sorting through waste.
Shanks emphasised the importance of proper sorting to ensure no organic matter — like wood products or food — would end up in landfill, where it would eventually decompose and off-gas methane.
“Unstaffed bins need a lot of sorting, while those with people explaining how it works are just about perfectly sorted,” Shanks said.
“Those details keep items out of landfill and make a huge difference on the other end, at the point of composting or recycling.”
Shanks said EcoSolutions had spent $25,000 on the Treaty Grounds effort, which included a setup day for the four-day event, staff wages, koha to volunteers for petrol and food, bin hire fees, purchasing event recycling lids, signage and a compost provider fee.
“It’s very expensive to run a zero-waste event that still has non-compostable or recyclable items,” she said.
Upon reviewing the waste on Tuesday, Waste Management New Zealand account manager Sean Andrewes reported that 16.5 cubic metres out of 19cu m of waste in the Treaty Grounds would be recycled or composted, reflecting a lower percentage than the last effort in 2021.
“This, due to three non-compliant stallholders with PLA cups, PLA coffee lids and No.5 plastics, which can’t be recycled when they are dirty, as well as one particularly bad dumping from a clothing stallholder,” Andrewes said.
PLA stands for polylactic acid and is commonly used to make “green” takeaway food packaging despite uncertainties about how compostable (or even biodegradable) it is.
Andrewes noted that in the waka zones, 42 stalls achieved a 95 per cent diversion rate.
This year also marked the first time waste management efforts were put into place on the other side of the awa at Te Tii Marae.
Shanks said while the Treaty Grounds had attained full funding as a national event, Te Tii Marae didn’t manage to secure funding other than a small contribution from Far North District Council.
EcoSolutions spent a total of $11,000 on the effort at Te Tii Marae that was offset by a $1600 grant from the district council.
Shanks said Te Tii Marae sorted waste from 30 bins themselves, thanks to a large group of volunteers descended from original settlers, and applauded the effort.
“They’ve diverted at least 60 per cent of waste from landfill, which is amazing for a first attempt.”
The event was also supported by two generous loans of quad bikes from Honda Waipapa, and the iwi of Ngāi Takoto.
“We know this is hard; landfill is the easy version,” Shanks said.
“But there are a lot of people who aren’t accepting the easy, and want to see the best solution.
“This is just another learning curve. We evolved past coal and asbestos, and this is simply the next layer.”
To learn about free education programmes for schools, businesses and community groups, go to: ecosolutions.org.nz
