From kitchen leftovers to lush community landscapes
Community gardens across Melbourne's inner north receive a special delivery every year to help locals grow their own fruit and veggies. Merri-bek City Council and organics processor, Veolia, are providing bulk recycled compost for free in a unique collaboration to make the most of food and garden scraps locally.
Your food and garden waste is helping community gardens grow and flourish, providing healthy, low-cost food to local residents.
Where is the compost from?
Merri-bek residents will be happy to know that the compost is made from exactly what they put into their food and garden organics bin at home.
Veolia produces the recycled product at their composting facility in Bulla. The contents collected from the lime green bins first go through a decontamination process. Veolia then uses a large hot composting system to turn the material into bulk compost.
It is a great way of turning food scraps and garden clippings into a valuable product that goes directly back into the local community.
How your community benefits
Since 2019, Merri-bek City Council has delivered over 450 cubic metres of bulk compost to community gardens. The recycled compost adds much-needed nutrients to the soil. Gardeners have noticed better soil quality and increased plant growth in their plots.
Their message is simple. "Your food and garden waste is helping community gardens grow and flourish, providing healthy, low-cost food to local residents."
One of the compost recipients is Mulberry Community Garden in Glenroy. They are a garden focused on shared harvest between members and multicultural community connection. They also run excursions to primary schools and donate food and seedlings to local organisations.
Why recycle food and garden scraps?
Food sent to landfill creates greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to climate change. In Merri-bek about a third of the average household general rubbish bin is food waste. This is a significant amount of organic material that can be turned into compost for local use instead of sending to landfill.
The nutrients in food scraps are too precious to lose. Through recycling, they can be used to grow food again instead of going to waste in landfill. But it is important to recycle food and garden scraps correctly and keep rubbish out of your lime green bin.
“You can help our farmers and community gardeners by keeping plastic bags, metal and other contaminants out of the food and garden organics bin, so the recycled compost is good quality and safe to use. Correct disposal of food and garden organics waste helps to keep microplastics out of the food chain.” says Lee Tozzi, Towards Zero Food Waste Lead at Merri-bek City Council.
By correctly recycling your food scraps, you’re also helping ensure food security and environmental safety for your community.