A POTTED HISTORY |
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Here at Living Earth, we're very passionate about gardening, recycling and composting. The year is 1994; Jim Bolger is still PM, Danyon Loader wins gold at Commonwealth Games, and that new-fangled thing called "the internet" hasn't really caught on yet. It is also the year three nice fellows by the names of Roger Wark, John Tapper and Rob Fenwick decide to start a composting business together. Living Earth is born. 
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Fast forward a bit and 8 years later we'd cranked out one million bags of compost. Nice!
2006 saw the Living Earth brand growing further as the business evolved into a joint venture
with Transpacific Industries. 2009 was another exciting year for us; the first household organics
collection kicked off in Christchurch, from Christchurch homes to the Organic Processing Plant in
Bromley. Ah, the memories.
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FOCUS ON COMPOST-BASED GROWING MEDIA |
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Ever since those early days, we've focused on crafting the best compost on the market. This natural super food has everything: it gives your plants a turbo boost and helps build a healthier soil long term. That's why we decided to make it the base ingredient in all our mixes. OUR KAUPAPAOur kaupapa is based on the principles of sustainable development. Through reducing waste and creating products and services to restore soils, we will satisfy customers; reward our owners; support our staff; add value to partnerships and care for the environment and the communities we serve. |
Living Earth is pleased as punch to be NZ's main provider of organic waste processing services. We make our compost by collecting and recycling greenwaste and brewing it into plant-nourishing goodness. In fact, since we've been doing our composting thing, we've prevented well over a million tonnes of organic waste from ending up in landfills. By recycling we're proud to be doing our part for the environment - you could almost call us, wait for it, "Loving Earth"! For some more info about our compost, check out the Compost bit in our Products section. For more info on greenwaste, check out the Greenwaste section under FAQ. |
ABOUT-HALF-WAY-DOWN-THE-PAGE INTERLUDE |
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| To date we've composted enough greenwaste to build a garden the width of a road from here to Australia! | Every year we keep over 100,000 tonnes of garden and food waste from heading to smelly old landfills. | While we help you grow great gardens, we are also helping Auckland & Christchurch Local Authorities meet waste reduction targets. | In 2012 Living Earth celebrated the composting of one millionth tonnes of organic matter – that’s a lot of landfill that didn’t happen! |
OUR OPERATIONS
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AUCKLANDBased on beautiful Puketutu Island, Living Earth operates an outdoor windrow composting system to process Auckland greenwaste. It takes 3-4 months to brew, in which time the compost reaches a toasty 55°C. We make sure it stays above this temperature for the life of the composting process. The compost site is surrounded by birdlife and native bush, and is also adjacent to the lovely garden on the Kelliher Estate, where the functions centre of Dawson's is situated.
All compost made on Puketutu is used for Living Earth's bagged home gardener range,
bulk supply to landscape supply yards,and commercial projects in and around the region. A small
but increasing rural market is developing, particularly for the organic-certified compost. |
CHRISTCHURCHThe Organics Processing Plant in Bromley receives nearly 50,000 tonnes of foodwaste and greenwaste per year from Christchurch households' "Love Organics" collection. Operating since 2009, this state of the art processing plant contains a total of 18 in-vessel composting tunnels, where the household collection is processed over a period of 7-10 days. As in Auckland, the greenwaste material is brewed in windrows and takes 3-4 months to transform into our amazing compost. |
PARTNERSHIPS...
- Christchurch City Council has contracted Living Earth to operate its composting plant.
- Central Landscape Supplies yards throughout Auckland are important
distributors of Living Earth products.
-NZ Landscapes Supplies, The Landscape Depot, Auckland Landscape Supplies and Yard
Art Pukekohe complete the coverage of Auckland merchant supply yards.
- Kings Plant Barn has contracted us to supply house brand compost to its
chain of leading garden centres. - Department of Corrections bag our product under contract. We are pleased to offer work to prison inmates as part of their rehabilitation. - Garden bag collection operators provide us with feedstock while offering gardeners an excellent service. - Envirowaste and Waste Management operate transfer stations around the Auckland region where Living Earth gathers garden waste which is then transported to its production plant. |
... AND PROJECTS- Living Earth supports many environmental groups by supplying compost products:
o Motutapu Island's brilliant revegetation project, that is now well established,
has just played home to the first takahe released there. Since late last century
all Living Earth Garden Mix sent there has been carefully packed on a predator-free
ferry to arrive at its destination for use in growing the NZ plants you
see on the Island.
o Garden to Table - Living Earth compost products have grown thousands of vegetables
in school gardens under the Garden to Table project. Living Earth is proud to support
young gardeners learning to grow and cook healthy food.
o Gardens for Health - Living Earth Compost is being used in many of the community
projects and teaching gardens around Auckland City under this initiative to teach
people to grow healthy food. |
(and they're yuck) so please try
to recycle your greenwaste.
Happy digging!
© Living Earth Ltd. 2012
Organic Range