Community and social development practitioner of ARA, Anthea Rossouw, has pioneered an initiative to reduce waste significantly at a Housing 21 Extra Care Court. Anthea spent 20 months to pioneer and implement a new way of handling waste at Walstead Court, reducing waste to landfill significantly. The model is based on involving the residents and staff to work together as a team to reduce the amount of waste going to landfill.
Anthea noticed that most of the waste was going to landfill each week. Anthea discussed the issue with the Court Manager, who gave her permission to explore the possibility of reducing the waste. Anthea believes that to reduce waste effectively, meant that the people who live at the scheme, should take ownership of the project. The approach Anthea had in mind meant residents would recycle more effectively, and put food waste into a composter called The Green Johanna: a unique design, easy to install and safely handles food and garden waste, rendering quality compost. No more smelly black bags in the rubbish room at the Court! Educational workshops with the residents and some staff members followed to elicit support and involvement.
Implementation has reduced the waste to landfill at Walstead Court by over 55%, the black bags from 3 to 1 per flat per week on average. Food weighed daily, over a 6‐month period alone, showed that 280 kg of food waste was diverted from landfill. Residual waste has dropped significantly and recycling has quadrupled. The tonnage diverted from landfill continues to grow! Developing the model and trailing it, took over 500 hours of her time volunteering to develop a new way for flats to take ownership of -and manage the waste where they live more effectively. Anthea adn ARA has pioneered the way for others to follow!
(Extracts from Crawley News and The Guardian UK).
