Magda, 43, West Harbour

Tell us a bit about yourself.

Part time desk job (Operations Coordinator at Mobility Assistance Dogs Trust) and part time managing director of my husband’s money and project manager of our home renovation; keen gardener working towards being self sufficient at the time my husband and I retire. Mother of one soon to be grown up daughter.

Which composting methods do you use?

Now I have two big compost bins. Mainly cold composting because I have a chicken coop that I need to clean daily. I have used bokashi bins when renting, then incorporated bokashi into hot composting. Had a worm farm for a while but had a habit of ‘spoiling’ my hens by giving them snacks…

When did you start composting?

About 10 years ago I discovered bokashi – halved my rubbish output! Love how easy it was to use.

Why do you do it?

Because it is fun for the whole family: e.g.
1. We all need to go to the beach because mummy needs some seaweed for the compost.
2. I rake the leaves of deciduous trees on my street as my morning workout, because I need dry matter for my compost – no gym fees 🙂 The same goes for my gardening.
3. I offer my neighbour to take his grass clippings off him and he mows the berm for me.
4. We use one 60l rubbish bag per month.
5. The obvious one – I don’t have to buy compost.

What do you love about it?

When we go to the garden centre I love telling my husband, “My God, look how expensive the compost is! Look we saved ourselves at least $40 by making ours. Let’s shout ourselves some lunch – we can afford it.”

How do you think we can encourage more Aucklanders to compost?

That one is really difficult with such a big portion of population being transient. I think the key to get young people to do anything is to make it ‘cool’.

The Compost Collective runs free composting workshops all across Auckland. Participants get a $40 discount voucher to use on a compost system that suits them.