Waist high in waste

I didn’t really know what to expect when I volunteered to be part of a waste audit.

Except that it would probably get yucky.

Turns out it wasn’t quite as messy as I feared, and I could see our efforts were worthwhile.

Our small team also had some good chats and laughs during our 9am to 3pm day’s work.

Sustainable Matamata is keen to help people reduce their waste to landfill. We know “throwing away” comes at a high cost to the natural environment and in terms of rates (which affect all residents). And we also know how careful purchasing and following a “reduce, reuse, repair and recycle” approach can get rubbish volumes and costs down.

We don’t want to see Matamata-Piako District Council forced to truck the district’s waste to Hamilton any time soon – which will likely happen when the Tirohia landfill reaches its limit.

So we do appreciate opportunities to play our part in community waste minimisation, like handling cafes’ used drink cartons.

Checking Hobbit habits

Stewart Mortensen, Martin Louw and Virginia McMillan sifting through Hobbiton waste

The Hobbiton Movie Set annual waste audit is a chance to get our (gloved) hands dirty helping the renowned tourism operator calculate its waste output, in its mission to reduce the volume to landfill over time.

Three Sustainable Matamata volunteers recently worked under the direction of Hobbiton sustainability coordinator Lianne Edwards-Maas, going through the bins and bags of used and discarded materials produced at the tourism destination over a 24-hour period. Bear in mind, over the summer, the site gets a couple of thousand visitors each day and has about 300 staff on hand.

Lianne supports the Hobbiton teams with learning how to separate compostables and recyclables from actual general waste such as retail packaging, food-encrusted paper plates and non-recyclable plastics. Clearly labelled bins are provided for the guests, too.

Annual waste audits are aimed at checking on progress. Lianne especially wants to know what and how much is being thrown away, as well as how much waste could be diverted from landfill if kept separate and reused, recycled or composted onsite.

The audit carried out for 2026 showed great progress in the sorting practices of Hobbiton staff and guests, Lianne says. With working systems in place for sorting waste streams correctly, attention will now shift to reducing the overall quantity produced onsite.