New community garden for Albany campus accommodation

Te Ohanga Village, the Massey University Albany campus accommodation, have been trying to improve their environmental impact.

Students that are now attending university have grown up with the idea that the planet they call home is slowly dying. All over the world, different student organisations are trying to do their bit to encourage people to recycle, cut down on plastic use and encourage sustainable living.

The 2019 goals of the accommodation team are to increase work on the community garden and composting. The community garden was started as a club as part of ASA, however residents weren’t truly getting involved, so RA Chris Drake and the accommodation team built their own garden behind the shared building of Te Rito.

The community garden was created to promote the benefits of growing your own food. The garden is currently growing lettuce, spinach, kale, capsicums, strawberries and herbs.  

Additionally, the recycling competition is back with prizes every half semester to be won for the hall and apartment with the best effort in recycling.

Another great addition this year is the introduction of composting bins in each of the hall’s social hub and into every apartment.

Chris explained that this idea came about through, discussions with Auckland council to educate the accommodation team on composting, and eventually for the addition of compositing bins to campus.

It is the responsibility for each apartment to empty their composite bin into the larger cafeteria bin.

This then get taken to a farm on the outskirts of Auckland to eventually turn into compost that can be reused by the community garden.

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