Category: rubbish

Rakino Waste Audit

Monday of King’s Birthday weekend 2025.

Following on from the inspiration of the Hauraki Gulf Islands Network Hui, Lyndsey and I got permission to conduct a waste audit at the end of the recent long weekend. The purpose of the audit was to establish how Rakino-ites are utilising our rubbish collection system, whether we are recycling correctly, and what we are consigning to household waste, in order to ascertain the viability of a community composting system, with an associated community garden.

An unimpressive collection of recyclables and food scraps in the household waste bins.

We were unprepared for just how bad the rubbish disposal practises of Rakino-ites are.
If we put the un-recyclables into the recycling bins in Auckland as we do on Rakino, our rubbish wouldn’t be collected. It’s only because Tom and Pat fossick through our filth in order to correctly assign it after they’ve collected it that we avoid sanction.

Recyclable aluminium cans incorrectly placed in the household waste bin.

Many people don’t even put their rubbish into bags to contain it. We found a lot of polystyrene which had just been shoved into the household waste bins. If you can’t take your polystyrene back to Auckland, please break it down and put it into rubbish bags with ties. This is because when the bins are emptied, the propensity for polystyrene beads and pieces to blow away is high. The same applies to moth plant pods; we hugely appreciate your efforts to remove moth plant, especially as it’s a scourge on Rakino with must be removed by landowners, according to council edict, but please put it in bags, and only the pods; not the vines or leaves.

Garbage just tossed into the bins sans bags; tissues, assorted crap, and un-bagged polystyrene.

The worst aspect was the volume of food waste. Food waste was mixed in with recyclables, and all tossed together into household waste bins. Come on, people; we have no rats on Rakino so you could simply bury it, though much of the food we found was still edible, which was quite confronting.

We need to set up a system for food rescue, followed by community composting.

Lyndsey and I are proposing setting up a system to improve the way we deal with waste on Rakino. At this point we can’t do much worse than we are currently; it’s disrespectful to Tom and Pat, and it’s disrespectful to our environment. Living ‘off-grid’ is much more than just collecting rainwater and making solar power. It’s also about treading lightly on the land, reducing, re-using, and recycling.

We intend to see all food waste, brown cardboard, and green waste diverted to community composting, apart from the modest amount that is currently diverted to Pat’s chooks, of course.

Initially we want to supply a few households with small plastic bins with handles, essentially the green compost collection bins we have in Auckland. Tom has generously offered to set aside some waste collection bins for food waste, which will be delivered to our compost site. We will also be removing cardboard (brown carbon waste) from the rubbish collection in order to compost this along with food waste, and we will be encouraging green waste to be donated to the compost scheme, rather than left lying around, or tossed down banks or onto neighbours’ properties. There is funding available, and we intend to go for it. This is Lyndsey’s baby, and it’s going to be a great success. Just watch this space.

The Rubbish Report

Reading the minutes of the Labour Weekend RRA meeting I saw that someone had brought up ‘rubbish’ as an issue. I’m still uncertain as to what the issue was, as no-one I spoke to could remember the specific details of the topic as it was discussed, so I guessed it was probably something to do with putting recycling correctly in bins and composting food scraps instead of throwing them out with household waste.


I put my hand up to look at the way Rakino-ites put our waste into the communal bins because I’ve had some unpleasant olfactory surprises over the years when I’ve gone to dump my own recycling/household waste after my island visits. I’ve also been perplexed at the sheer volumes of waste that Tom has to deal with after busy weekends, the perennial issue of dead and dying vehicles, and the annual consternation around inorganic collections.

After speaking to Kayleigh Appleton at Waiheke Resources Trust I had an enthusiastic online meeting with representatives from the Island Waste Collective on Waiheke, and the WRT. The discussion was wide-ranging, but the most useful things I took from it was the possibility of availing ourselves of a can crusher from Waiheke, and diverting cardboard from the waste stream going off -island into a community composting initiative. Waiheke Resources Trust would happily provide a composting workshop for interested Rakino-ites.

Keith Enoka, General Manager of Island Waste Collective put me in touch with Bret Dragt from Auckland Council, who sent through the Gulf Islands Waste Plan written in 2018 with input from the Rakino Community, and some useful tips for household waste reduction.

Regretfully we have failed to achieve the waste reduction goals as set out by ourselves.

Tom has done an excellent job on the rubbish contract, tidying up the previous shambles at Home Bay, keeping the bins clean and tidy, and generally cracking down on illegal dumping as far as it is possible, but bach owners, myself included, could be doing a great deal more.

This is the 2018 Waste Plan and Report as it relates to Rakino.

As you can see, the ambition was to achieve the aforementioned composting scheme and use cardboard brown waste on-island, but this hasn’t happened. The bokashi bins have also not been utilised to their full potential. It’s a lost composting opportunity.

Bret Dragt also provided this helpful guideline for waste reduction :

https://www.wastenothing.co.nz/council-collections/hauraki-gulf-islands/rakino-island/

Finally, here is the most recent waste reduction plan, out for community consultation now :

Waste_Plan_2024_FINAL_Document

As you can see, the same issues still exist, six years on. The C & D waste referred to in the document is Construction and Demolition waste, the removal of which is the responsibility of builders and householders at their own cost, NOT the council and it’s contractors.

The lowest hanging fruit we can deal with immediately is removing all food waste and cardboard from the waste stream.

I propose we avail ourselves of a community composting workshop via the Waiheke Resources Trust, for any bach owners or residents who want to become composting ninjas. Given that the proportion of green waste to brown waste (paper/cardboard) should be about 50/50 in a successful compost I believe we could eliminate cardboard from the piles of waste which travel off-island.
I’m happy to facilitate the organisation of a composting workshop.