Greenwaste

Greenwaste is the ingredient that Living Earth makes its compost from. Greenwaste is plant material that comes from your garden when you weed, prune your trees and mow your lawns. It includes:

• tree prunings and branches - up to 200 mm diameter stems
• weeds
• old plants
• lawn clippings
• shrubs
• flowers
• But please, no:
• flax
• cabbage tree leaves
• bamboo
• soil (other than what is around the plant roots)
• plastic
• glass
• tins, metal
• wood ash

In Auckland, greenwaste collected by the following companies is delivered to Puketutu Island and processed into quality compost:

• Sunshine Garden Bag & Bin Co. 0800 786 224. www.sunshinebags.co.nz
• Auckland Garden Bag Company 09 5706030
• North Shore Garden Bags 09 476 7999
• gabco 0800 843 987; www.gabco.co.nz
• Bag It 09 534 2495
• Rams Greenwaste 09 443 3106
• Greenwork Limited 0800 668 312. greenwork.co.nz
• Clippa 0800 GO CLIPPA; 09 570 6492

Greenwaste brought into the following transfer stations is transported to Living Earth for composting.

• Living Earth Limited, Devonport Transfer Station,27 Lake Road Devonport 09 445 6914
• Envirowaste, Pikes Point Transfer Station 81 Captain Springs Road, Onehunga 09 636 6635.
• Constellation Drive Transfer Station, 4 Home Place, Mairangi Bay 09 478 9888.
• Central Landscape Supplies, Central Landscape Supplies, 419 Rosebank Road, Avondale 09 828 5533
• Waste Management Limited, East Tamaki Transfer Station, 33 Neales Road, East Tamaki 09 273 8087.
• Papakura Transfer Station, Inlet Road, Takanini 09 299 8153
• Waitakere City, Refuse Recycling Station, The Concourse, Henderson 09 839 0400 (WCC Customer Services)

In Christchurch, your greenwaste is collected at kerbside on a regular basis. For more information go to http://www.ccc.govt.nz/homeliving/rubbish/kerbsidecollection/index.aspx

No, throughout the composting process temperatures of over 55 degrees celsius are reached. It only takes three days at this heat to kill all weed seeds and there is no chance of them germinating at a later date. However, our outdoor (windrow) composting lasts much longer, up to 120 days and during this time, the pile is turned many times to make sure all the greenwaste gets to this temperature.

In Christchurch with the Organics collection, it stays in the tunnel for 7-10 days, then matures outside for up to 30 days. The greenwaste that is brought into Metro Place on trailers is put into windrows like Puketutu Island and takes 120 days.

The heat process mentioned above is enough to kill out virtually all herbicide and pesticide residues. Every batch of compost and compost product made is tested to ensure plants grow actively and healthily.

There is one culprit that you need to be aware of - clopyralid. While most selective weedkillers for lawns are broken down in the composting process, any product containing the active ingredient clopyralid leaves a detectable residue in your lawn clippings that in turn affect that batch of compost. So if you've sprayed your lawn with a product containing it, put your lawn clippings in your inorganic waste bin collection.

But be assured, each year Living Earth spends over $150,000.00 testing our compost products to ensure that when they are used on the garden, your plants will be the biggest and healthiest around!

For Auckland drop-off hours and charges phone your nearest transfer station listed above

For Christchurch Greenwaste information phone 03 373 8152