New logo and new space for Waikato Environment Centre

Go Eco workers Kelli Pike and Hans Verberne with general manager Sonia Fursdon outside new premises in the former Frankton Post Office. Photo / Geoff Lewis

What used to be the Waikato Environment Centre based at Five Crossroads is now Go Eco and has taken over the historic Frankton Post Office in Hamilton.

It plans to expand Kaivolution - its flagship food rescue programme to Cambridge and Te Awamutu.

Kaivolution collects edible but unsellable food from donors including supermarkets, cafes and bakeries, which is sorted into boxes and delivered to charities and clients in Hamilton.

Over the 32 months since its inception the initiative has collected and delivered about 300 tonnes of food which may otherwise have gone to waste.

Go Eco general manager Sonia Fursdon said arrangements had been made with the Countdown supermarkets in Cambridge and Te Awamutu, along with the Volare Cafe and Emma's Food Bag, to undertake a daily collection of surplus food for distribution to local charities.

In its new Frankton home Go Eco is also close to the St Vincent de Paul Frankton soup kitchen and provides the surplus food it collects to about 60 charities each week with the main recipients being the Western Community Centre and Women's Refuge.

The service will get a larger custom-built chiller, another delivery van and a forklift, Fursdon said.

Also based in the new premises will be the centre's eco-shop, seed and curtain library, environmental information education centre and electronics recycling depot.

Fursdon said the centre needed larger premises to help grow its programmes.

"The move is prompted by the growing audiences at our events and workshops. More people are choosing to do the right thing and recycle their e-waste with us. Kaivolution has continued to expand its food re-distribution operations.

"The new space will be home to our team of educators, instigators and activators and will let us hold larger events, a greater variety of workshops, and offer community groups access to an improved meeting space. We're very close to the Western Rail Trail and public transport and there's better access for visitors, volunteers, and our food rescue and e-waste trucks."

The new brand Go Eco was adopted partly to avoid continual confusion with the Waikato Regional Council, previously Environment Waikato, and to better represent the group's ethos as an active catalyst for change, she said.

Opening month for Go Eco will see the Hello Frankton series of workshops and events including a bottle drive on August 12 to support the national Container Deposit Scheme campaign.

This is designed to bring to the attention of Government the need to have containers that can be recycled and re-used - and kept out of the waste stream.

The new-look Go Eco opened on Saturday July 22.