Sheryl Stivens has turned her passion for cleaning up rubbish into a successful, thriving business.
Mid-Canterbury Wastebusters employs 31 staff and has a full book of environmental clean-up projects, funded by local councils. Sheryl, a self-confessed “tree-aholic”, specialises in turning degraded landscapes into areas where plants, animals and people live together in harmony.
It all started 20 years ago, when Sheryl decided to clean up an old shingle pit near her home.
“People used to back through the gate and throw their rubbish in it,” she said. “Every year the council sprayed for blackberry and gorse, but it just grew back again. That was how it was in those days – thank God we have changed, to some extent anyway.”
Sheryl’s hard work, aided by Willowby School children and parents plus willing teams of community correction workers, transformed that barren shingle pit into the Willowby Community Reserve.
“It’s a lovely place to wander through, to see the diversity of plants and birds – a pair of native wood pigeons have even been seen there recently,” she says.
Since that clean-up, Sheryl, aided by Wastebusters’ expanding team of skilled people, has completed many more projects. Her latest is turning 1700 cubic metres of sludge at the old Ashburton Wool Scour into compost, in partnership with other local businesses and contractors.
“After several years of large-scale composting we know how to make good compost,” she said. “It’s fantastic that we can work together locally to clean up the mess made in the past, and create something that’s worthwhile in the process. We can pollute the earth to pieces or compost the earth in peace.”
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