Community Composting Service - Let’s do this Raglan!

Please help Raglan’s community composting service to continue, and do your bit to help reduce the negative impacts of emissions on climate change from food waste so that our beautiful planet, our people, and all other species can flourish.

Why is it important?

- 25% of Raglan's household waste is food waste

- Food waste in landfill emits harmful greenhouse gases, especially Methane

- Methane is 86 times more harmful than C02 for global warming over 20 years

- Removing food waste from rubbish bags reduces costs and harmful emissions

- Our children have pleaded with us to minimize the climate crisis

- Future generations will thank you

Please donate today to help Xtreme continue the kerbside food waste and composting service in Raglan. This is a successful scalable community-driven project that’s leading the way in Aotearoa NZ. The community service costs Xtreme $120,000 annually to run, and we are seeking to urgently raise $30,000 now to be able to continue this vital service for three months until 01 October 2019. And we are busy trying to raise $90,000 more from elsewhere to continue this vital community service for the rest of the year.

Every gift helps, no matter how small.

Why do we need your urgent support now?

Raglan has the first dedicated kerbside food waste collection system in Aotearoa New Zealand. Initially trialled with 100 homes in Raglan West from 2011-2016, the programme was successfully rolled out to all Raglan urban homes in 2017. As part of the programme an innovative 30-metre hot composting unit was developed on site at Xtreme.

The service was fully funded by the Ministry for Environment through Waikato District Council until July 2019. In May 2019, Waikato District Council asked urban ratepayers – (those who receive kerbside collections), if they valued the service and wanted it to continue, and at cost of $1.52 per week, ($79.29 per year). While the majority of Raglan residents wanted the service to continue, they did not feel comfortable with the proposed cost being added to their already escalating rates, so the Council decided not to continue to fund the service.

The importance of diverting food waste out of landfill cannot be overstated, in terms of impact on climate change. Xtreme is therefore now fundraising including crowdfunding to enable the kerbside collection to continue for 12 – 24 months, after which time it is hoped that kerbside food waste collection will be a universal council-provided service for the whole Waikato region.

What’s the background to this story?

The climate emergency is now a reality and the New Zealand Government has set an ambitious goal to make Aotearoa carbon neutral by 2050. Keeping food waste out of landfills reduces production of two potent greenhouse gases, methane and carbon dioxide.

Raglan’s food waste collection is the first dedicated kerbside food waste collection service in New Zealand, so Raglan can be proud to be national leaders in an initiative to address the causes of climate change. Since the kerbside collection started in August 2017, Xtreme and the community has diverted around 380,000 kilos of Raglan household’s food waste. This means as a community we’ve collectively helped reduce several hundred tonnes of greenhouse gases going into the atmosphere, equivalent to around 84 cars emissions in carbon dioxide, and we’ve also reduced other emissions by having less waste trucks going to the landfill at Hampton Downs, more than half way to Auckland. There are other benefits too – we are creating a locally used resource from our food waste, i.e. compost, and the service and composting operation provides employment to local people.

Xtreme was set up by the community, for the community almost twenty years ago, as a not for profit community enterprise that is passionate about our community’s wellbeing and the environment. Xtreme diverts 78% of Raglan’s waste from landfill, which is one of the highest rates in the country. Our aim is to move forward to a world without waste.

Today Xtreme continues to operate as a charitable community enterprise. We rarely make surplus income, and if we do, it is reinvested into people projects and equipment to help us do our job better. Xtreme’s key contract is with Waikato District Council to collect kerbside waste and recycling, municipal street bins, and most recently household food waste.

Reducing food waste is a win-win-win solution for everyone as less food goes to landfill, harmful greenhouse gas emissions are reduced, and the nutritious compost produced from all the local food waste enables more people to grow healthy local kai.

Remember, every gift helps, no matter how small.