Derek Pickering from Easy Earth has more than 50 customers on his books, and has expanded operations into South Taranaki. Photo / Bevan Conley
Derek Pickering from Easy Earth has more than 50 customers on his books, and has expanded operations into South Taranaki. Photo / Bevan Conley
Whanganui's Derek Pickering and his wife Sarah started eco waste company Easy Earth in 2018 with the aim of diverting food waste from landfill and turning it into compost.
A year later they installed an automated HotRot in-vessel composting system which resulted in the company saving 35 tonnes of foodwaste from ending up in local landfills.
Pickering said Easy Earth now collected from more than 50 locations in Whanganui with a mix of residential and commercial customers.
"Things have been ticking along nicely, we've actually expanded into South Taranaki as well," Pickering said.
"The council up there approached us and helped us to get set up, and now we do a run to Taranaki twice a week."
Pickering and his team operate a truck that collects customers' food waste and brings it back to their Whanganui District Council leased land at 13 Karoro Rd in Castlecliff.
From there it is loaded into the HotRot and turned into compost within two weeks.
"It's starting to pay for itself now, which is nice, but it certainly isn't a big money making venture.
Easy Earth could compost "anything that used to grow", Pickering said, with the computer controlled HotRod system running every 20 minutes.
"The system is designed to give the waste the best possible conditions, so the turnaround is pretty quick.
"We work with local arborists too, because you need a certain amount of woody stuff in the recipe."
Easy Earth's HotRod composting machine can turn foodwaste into compost within a fortnight. Photo / Bevan Conley
Pickering said he was looking to "fully launch" their compost sales in the spring, and he had laid concrete foundations for a second HotRod machine to be installed next to the first.
"We've been experimenting quite a bit, and the idea is to tumble sieve the compost before we send it out as final product.
"Sometimes there might be a clump of hair from the hairdressers we collect from, or a bit of harder compostable plastic, so we can get those out with the sieve and put it back through the system, after which it'll be garden material."
Both the Whanganui and South Taranaki district councils had provided financial support through their waste minimisation funds, Pickering said.
"It's been a bit interesting lately with the whole Covid-19 thing, but we're getting there, and we've had lots of people asking about when the compost will be ready to go.
