Community Effort Delivers Zero Waste Success at Taranaki Tū Mai (MEDIA RELEASE)
Local volunteers at a Zero Waste station during Taranaki Tū Mai 2025
Taranaki Tū Mai 2025 has set a new benchmark for sustainable events in the region, successfully diverting significant volumes of waste from landfill, and becoming the first large-scale festival to trial Sustainable Taranaki’s new food-waste-to-compost initiative, Green Loop.
The three-day hākinakina, wānanga and kapa haka festival, hosted this year in Ōpunakē (21 - 23 November), brought together 5,500 participants from across Taranaki’s eight iwi. Building on the momentum of the successful pare kore efforts at Te Matatini earlier this year.
Taranaki Tū Mai’s zero waste efforts delivered an impressive landfill diversion outcome, with volunteers and attendees helping redirect the majority of event waste into recycling, composting and food recovery streams. Over the weekend, the festival collected one skip bin of recycling, one skip bin of compostable containers (plus two wheelie bins), two tubs of glass, two rubbish bags of soft plastics, and six 120-litre Green Loop food-scrap bins. Only one skip bin of landfill was generated across the entire event. Additional food scraps were fed to local chickens and pigs, ensuring that almost nothing went to waste.
Green Loop was hailed a success, marking the first time an event of this size had used the region’s new circular organics solution.
“This was our first major event using Green Loop, and the results exceeded all expectations.” Said Suzy Randall, Zero Waste Events Manager. “To see six full bins of food scraps diverted from landfill and on their way to becoming nutrient-rich compost for Taranaki soils is exactly why Green Loop was created. It’s a powerful example of climate action in our own backyard.”
The Zero Waste approach was embedded across the festival, from vendor guidelines to reusable kai kit expectations, encouraging attendees to bring their own drink bottles, containers and utensils.
"We are proud of our partnership with Sustainable Taranaki and would like to thank their volunteers for their mahi and the para kore education they shared with our whānau." Said Te Kāhui o Taranaki tumu whakarito CEO, Damon Ritai
Green Loop in action during Taranaki Tū Mai 2025
Green Loop co-founders Mieke Verschoor and Sophie Walker, whose social enterprise launched earlier this year, said the outcome reflects what is possible when community, tikanga and sustainability come together.
Green Loop was established to provide Taranaki businesses and events with an easy, local alternative to sending food scraps to distant landfills. With the nearest facility near Marton and other organic processing options as far as 294 km, the environmental impact of transporting organic waste has long been a barrier to meaningful action. Green Loop changes that by collecting food scraps locally, pre-processing them through Bokashi fermentation, and composting them on-farm locally, to create microbe-rich, nutrient-dense compost.
The initiative was inspired by waste audits during a 2024 sustainable business pilot, and further shaped by learnings from Betsy and David Kettle of City to Farm. Supported by Toi Foundation and Wild for Taranaki, Green Loop is offering its service across hospitality, corporate, and food-sector businesses.
Taranaki Tū Mai’s success demonstrates the power of collective effort and community leadership in climate action. By choosing to participate in pare kore practices and supporting Green Loop, the festival’s iwi, whānau and visitors have helped close the loop, turning food waste into a resource that will nourish Taranaki soil for years to come.
ENDS
