A collaboration between UCSA, Total Waste Solutions and Canterbury Landscapes Supplies is feeding future generations and Canterbury farms through the composting of single-use packaging and food waste.
Total Waste Solutions, Sustainably’s parent company are the waste solution partner for the The University of Canterbury Students Association Ka Ora Ka Ako program responsible for the supply of 3,000 healthy lunches a day to 14 schools in Ōtautahi. All lunches are packaged in compostable packaging and all leftover lunches are redistributed. Any left-over food waste and packaging is returned to their site where it is collected by our team to be commercially composted by Canterbury Landscapes Supplies into a nutrient rich compost that is being redistributed to farms and homes within the Canterbury region.
The UCSA Ka Ora Ka Ako site is diverting an average of 79% of their waste from landfill to compost each month, equal to approx. 80 tonne per year. In addition, they have a successful recycling system in place which lifts their total site landfill diversion to 89%.
We review our processes monthly and have recommended changes to improve efficiencies and help reduce further environmental impacts. This includes onsite compaction of the packaging, which has reduced collections from 3 to 2 times per week, further reducing carbon emissions from truck collection movements.
The carbon emission savings for this programme is approx. 5.28 tonne per month*, the equivalent of 13 cars being taken off the road.
Additionally, by converting this volume of waste to compost, we are also assisting in minimising the need for synthetic fertilisers to be used by farmers, given the high nutrient value of the compost – an extra win for the environment.
The UCSA Ka Ora Ka Ako program is a 2021 finalist for Best Environmental / Sustainable business in the NZ Hospitality Awards. For more information on the UCSA Sustainability commitments please click here: https://ucsa.org.nz/aboutus/sustainability/
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