Name: From Scraps to Soil
Start: 2026-03-23T23:00:00+13:00
End: 2026-03-24T01:00:00+13:00
Location: 101 Queen Street East, Hastings, New Zealand 4122

Practical food waste solutions for Hawke’s Bay businesses
Join us for a practical, hands-on workshop designed for small and medium businesses that want realistic, workable ways to manage food waste on site and keep them out of the rubbish.
Food waste is costing businesses more than they realise and it doesn’t have to.
Sending food scraps to landfill increases waste costs, creates emissions, and wastes a valuable resource that can be reused locally.
This session will show you exactly how food scraps can be diverted from landfill using bokashi and composting systems that work in real workplaces.
You must register on our website to attend this event: https://www.hbchamber.nz/events-training/events/from-scraps-to-soil/
Speakers:
🍌 Lydia Thomsen, Pickled Compost – Lydia will lead a hands-on bokashi demonstration, showing you how to use a bokashi bin in your workplace, what can and cannot go into it, how to manage it day to day, and what to do with the fermented end product.
🌿 Sam Paterson, Sustainable HB – Sam will cover implementing practical composting or worm farms in your workplace.
🗑️ Toni Bye, Hastings District Council – on why food scraps in landfill are a problem and what support is available to help businesses reduce waste, costs and emissions.
🍌Dr Libby Eaton from Presbyterian Support East Coast who started a composting programme at their Havelock North office of about 30 staff.
Hosted by the Hawke’s Bay Chamber of Commerce and Hastings District Council as part of The Great Food Rescue month, the workshop will also cover practical options for turning bokashi into soil on site using compost systems and soil factories.
A subsidy for bokashi and compost equipment will be available to attending businesses through Hastings District Council from waste levy funds. Details to be confirmed at the event.
Places are limited. Registration is essential.