Worms, the latest in sustainability for New World Orewa

Wiggling towards a more sustainable future, New World Orewa has recently installed New Zealand’s first supermarket worm farm. The store’s newest co-workers are responsible for breaking down any green scraps and have an appetite of up to 8kg of organic waste a day.

New World Orewa owner operator Steve McClean says “When our family friends approached us with the opportunity to install a worm farm, we thought it was a marvellous idea. Worm farms are a great way to reduce green scraps and we’re looking forward to using the compost as nutrients for our exterior store gardens.” Find out more about home composting here.

Additional food waste that is not given to the store’s worm farm is further diverted away from landfill and donated to The Forest School, which is situated just north of Orewa and provides a 100 percent outdoor-based classroom environment. 

Tennille Murdoch Founder of Forest School says “We’re so thrilled to receive New World Orewa’s food scraps and play our part in further diverting food waste away from our landfills and helping our school and the store be more sustainable. The food waste scraps donated from New World Orewa provide our pigs and chickens with the nutrients they need, is a sustainable and delicious way to feed our animals on site, and teach our students the importance of a closed loop and to not waste food.” 

New World Orewa are tackling the issue of sustainability through minimising food waste in-store. They donate excess food still fit for human consumption to food rescue organisations such as Kiwi Harvest and Love Soup. 

With Spring and New World’s Little Garden campaign now in full force, New World Orewa have nailed their timings with the arrival of their new worm farm. 

“We’re so pleased with the installation of our worm farm and how it aligns with this year’s Little Garden campaign to further lead in sustainability and help our customers learn more about food provenance and reducing food waste, and how rewarding looking after this place we call home can be,” finishes McClean.