Cans for Kai: a win-win for behaviour change amongst marina customers

Westhaven Marina is one of the biggest marinas in the world and it’s loving leading the way in environmental initiatives. The marina, owned by Auckland Council via Eke Panuku, is Gold Anchor and Clean Marina accredited. In partnership with LegaSea they have helped establish two initiatives to help shift behaviours:

Westhaven has been part of The Kai Ika Project - where fish heads, frames and offal are safely collected from its Z Pier charter base and redistributed to families and community groups in South Auckland, for a number of years.

Marina Manager Gareth Wilson

Now it is helping to pilot Cans for Kai. When its nearly 2,000 boat customers return from days on the water boaties can put empty aluminium cans into one of a number of receptacles around the marina. Non-profit organisation LegaSea collects the cans, and takes them to a Pheonix Metalman recycling depot where it earns money that is returned to its fisheries advocacy work.

“Cans for Kai has been fantastic,” says General Manager Marinas Kevin Lidgard. “LegaSea made $1,000 in the first month. We are going to add Cans for Kai facilities to every one of the marina waste facilities.”

He says it’s fitted into marina operations and that boaties have been great about sorting their recycling.

“Usually waste comes back from the sea as a mix of landfill and recyclables. This is encouraging our customers to sort their waste at source.” 

We really enjoy working with marinas to shift people's behaviours,” says Sam Woolford of Legasea.. “It's particularly motivating because we are doing so year after year.”

Aluminium cans are collected at Westhaven Marina, the Outboard Boating Club, Ōrākei Marina and Papatūānuku Kōkiri Marae. Phoenix Metalman Recycling pays for the resource and recycles the cans. Photos supplied by Legasea.