A pilot scheme looking at composting the estimated 58 tonnes of coffee ground produced each year by Tauranga cafes is receiving Bay of Plenty Regional Council funding.

Tauranga Gourmet Nigh Market and the Good neighbour Aotearoa Trust also received Waste Resource Advisory Group funding.

Recycling success at the night markets through educating customers.

WRAG is a newly-launched fund to make the most of the region's waste resources. Thirteen groups applied for the $50,000 funding and six were successful.

The contestable fund is aimed at increasing resource efficiency and beneficial reuse, reducing the harmful impacts of waste and stimulating research and innovation while reducing waste to landfill, says BOPRC's regional direction and delivery committee chair Paula Thompson.

'We were delighted with the number and quality of the applications, which show there are some great ideas out in the community to make the most of what would otherwise be waste.”

The coffee grounds composting pilot scheme has received $12,000 from the regional council and an additional $15,580 from the Tauranga City Council via the Ministry for the Environment waste levy.

The 58 tonnes is an estimate based on the eight kilograms or coffee grounds a busy cafe produces in a day or three tonnes it's expected to produce during a year.

Most of the funding is to pay for buckets for the coffee grounds, a contractor to collect them, and a consultant to manage the relationship, says TCC waste minimisation programme leader Rebecca Maiden.

'The whole purpose is to get this off the ground, reduce waste to land fill costs – cafes won't be paying to go to landfill,” says Rebecca.

The intention is to check the figures and costs and see if anyone is interested in taking it on. 'If successful, it will save each cafe about $500 a year in disposal costs,” says Rebecca.

In 2013/2014, about 74,100 tonnes of waste was landfilled from Tauranga City at a cost of about $14.5 million. This includes domestic and commercial waste.

The public charge for disposing waste direct to landfill is $196.00 per tonne of waste.

However, the cost per tonne to landfill does vary depending on who takes the waste to landfill – commercial service providers who undertake the residential collection may incur a different rate.

The city's coffee grounds will be added to the green waste compost mix at the Te Maunga resource recovery park.

'It's really high nutrient, and a beneficial addition to basic compost,” says Rebecca.

'There's an existing system there, it's just facilitating the connection between the cafes, the collection and the composting facility.”

The Gourmet Night Market is receiving $4165 to pay for workshops to pass on expertise in waste minimisation.

The Gourmet Night Market achieved 93.84 per cent diversion from landfill. It means only a little more than six per cent of the market's rubbish is rubbish. The rest is recycled.

It's one of the highest rates in New Zealand and definitely the highest for an ongoing event, says Gourmet Night Market organiser Kim Renshaw.

'We wanted to be able to use the gourmet night market success to be able to share with the community and other event providers how we managed to do what we did,” says Kim.

By weighing instead of estimating their rubbish, they were able to measure the effects of changes in the way they did things.

'We were able to look at what we did and analyse how we did it.

'Also we wanted an educated group of volunteers to use in the community, so that's anyone who is interested in sustainability or waste minimisation,” says Kim.

'They can come along and in a laidback group environment talk about issues in the community and how our waste stream actually works here, because a lot of people don't actually know our landfill goes to Hampton Downs or how things actually work. So we saw an opportunity to use the facilities of the Gourmet Night Market to deliver some information.

'I sort of believe information is power and that's what we want to share some waste minimisation information with people.”

The grant will pay for three workshops off-site, and will help with the GNM's ongoing education programme.

The night market achieves a lot of its success through setting standards on what vendors can use.

'This year we're banning all single-use plastic on-site,” says Kim. 'Some plastic plastics are recyclable, but it's not as cool as glass – which is a way cooler product to use.”

Her primary aim is to make the Gourmet Night Markets the most successful event in terms of waste minimisation in the country and be a leader.

'People have to want to change because it is more hard work to employ waste minimisation than it is to get a skip bin in. It sort of has to come from the public.”

Tauranga-based Good Neighbour Aotearoa Trust received a $15,000 grant, which the charity will spend on a sink and a chiller truck.

The food rescue charity began in February, collecting food that cannot be sold by businesses but is still safe to eat, and donating it to charities throughout the Western Bay.

In its first few months operation the charity has given away more than five tonnes of food to nine Tauranga community organisations.

'We need some plumbing and a kitchen sink in our shelter, so we can wash some of the food that comes in,” says charity member Lavina Good.

'We would also like to start doing picks-ups from Papamoa, and to do that we need a chiller truck so we can transport chilled foods within 20 minutes from one area to another without it defrosting, especially coming into summer.”

Other WRAG recipients are Para Kore – Zero Waste on Marae $4165. Region-wide Para Kore will use WRAG funding to purchase a trailer to transfer and deliver waste minimisation bins and tools to marae around the region, reducing the large amount of compostable and recyclable waste that's disposed of at landfill after hui and events.

The Rotorua District Council receives $4165 to invest in community worm farming workshops, providing participants with all they need to set up their own worm farms, creating home compost and reducing food waste to landfill.