News Flash
Earthcare Environmental is a keen supporter of home composting and wormeries. Compost is produced when plant matter dies and breaks down into nutrients that feed the plants around it. This happens naturally in the forest. Find out how you can easily start composting at home!
There is a strong case to collect more food waste in New Zealand. By doing so we can make a significant reduction to the amount of waste we are currently sending to landfill.
Recycling Tips
Your local council will most likely provide a kerbside recycling service. If not, take your recyclables to your local recycling depot.
Here are some simple recycling tips:
- Plastics: Wash and remove lids of plastic bottles and containers marked with a triangular recycling symbol 1 to 7 such as soft drink and milk bottles, shampoo and cream bottles.
- Paper: Keep and recycle all clean and dry newspaper, magazines, mixed paper, cardboard and telephone books. Clean and flatten cardboard milk and juice cartons.
- Glass: Wash green, clear and brown glass bottles and jars and be sure to remove lids.
- Cans: Wash steel and aluminum cans and remove the paper labels where possible.
Garden Waste Tips
Don’t let your green waste go to waste. Let us help you put it to good use and make the world a better place.
The following materials are accepted as for green waste collection:
- Grass clippings and weeds
- Garden pruning
- Fruit and veggie peelings
- Leaves
- Small branches
Do not overfill your green waste bin and don’t include these items in your organic waste:
- Plant pots
- Gravel dirt
- Bricks and concrete
- Plastic bags
- Plant tags or plant pots
- Household rubbish
- Large logs and stumps
- Bamboo, flax or ginger root
Let’s get down to business
- Our business waste services are totally scalable, which means we work with large and small organisations to improve waste management and recycling efficiency
- Businesses we work with include offices, retail outlets, cafes and restaurants, manufacturing businesses and many others
- We begin by auditing your overall waste management needs so that the solution we provide will be tailored to your unique business situation
- The plan we recommend will be designed to maximise recycling and simplify the whole process of managing rubbish in your business
- We offer a free assessment of your business waste needs - just contact us!
Frequently Asked Questions
What does it cost? Why are we doing this? For a list of frequently asked questions, see below.
What does this service cost?
This trial service will have no cost to the ratepayer or household apart from the minimal cost of purchasing extra bio-degradable liners should you need them.
Why are we doing this?
Over 40% of waste in the average household is food waste. When this decomposes in a landfill it produces methane gas, a major cause of global warming.
Will the food bin smell?
Not if you empty your kitchen caddy regularly into the larger outside food waste bin and tie up the special liner. Our special vented kitchen caddies are designed to reduce or eliminate smells. The outside bin has a sealable and lockable lid.
I don’t have time for this – why should I have to?
It is important that we all do what we can to reduce food waste going to landfill as it generates powerful greenhouse gases and is costing all of us a lot of money. It will also extend the life of the landfill and put off the major costs of building a new one.
Why can’t I use ordinary plastic bags to line my caddy?
Unlike plastic bags, the supplied corn starch bags are fully biodegradable and therefore compostable. If you run out of bags temporarily you can line your caddy with newspaper. Additional bags can be purchased from the South Waikato District Council Putaruru office.
Can we continue to put food waste in our general rubbish bags?
It is great for the environment if we are able to reduce the volume of general waste that is going to landfill. Because of that we reserve the right to refuse collection of any general rubbish bags that clearly have food waste included in them. We will not consider taking that action until there has been a reasonable settling in period of our food waste trial.
