Turning trash into treasure for Victoria’s farms and gardens
They say one person’s trash is another person’s treasure. And as we transition to a circular economy, that’s truer than ever. Innovative companies are investing in ways to recover resources that used to go to landfill and transform them into something useful.
Repurpose It is one example right here in Victoria. Their mission is to help transition Australia to a circular economy. The company receives a range of ‘waste’ materials and processes them into high-quality products for industries like construction, landscaping and horticulture. One of those products is compost made from food and garden scraps that many of us put into our bins at home. Think of things like banana peels, bones, onion skins, apple cores and grass clippings.
Putting peels, pits and prunings to good use
Most Victorians already have a food and garden organics bin or access to a drop-off recycling service. Within a few years, this service will be available across the state.
When you sort food scraps and garden clippings into your lime green bin, and keep out rubbish like glass and plastic items, they’ll end up at a composting facility like the one Repurpose It operates in Epping.
Turning this organic material into compost is far better for the environment than putting it into landfill.
“Food and garden organics sent to landfill generate a significant amount of methane, a potent greenhouse gas,” explains Jaimen D’Souza, Head of Continuous Improvement and Capital Projects at Repurpose It.
But when organic material is processed into compost, the result is a useful product instead of a harmful gas.
“Producing high-quality, nutrient-rich compost from food and garden organics not only addresses the problem of greenhouse gas emissions. It also improves soil quality and reduces reliance on synthetic fertilisers.”
Compost is a treasure trove of nutrients. It helps create healthy soils, which then can grow thriving plants. So, by simply keeping rubbish like fruit stickers, cling wrap and coffee pods out of your food and garden organics bin, you’re helping create a valuable resource. Your food scraps from cooking can become compost to help grow crops – and the process keeps repeating over and over. That’s what we mean by a ‘circular’ economy.
Spreading the benefits
Repurpose It currently receives food and garden organics from kerbside bins in the City of Whittlesea, Hume City Council, Yarra City Council, City of Melbourne and City of Port Phillip. To date, they’ve processed more than 100,000 tonnes – or about 12,500 trucks full. They have the capacity to process 200,000 tonnes annually.
That’s a huge amount of organics kept out of landfill and methane emissions avoided. And it’s all thanks to the local residents correctly sorting their food scraps and garden clippings.
When the compost that’s created helps grow plants, we all benefit from a cleaner, greener environment.
Repurpose It works to create a positive impact in many ways, including by returning compost to the community – closing the loop at a local level. They donate to community gardens across Victoria, including in the Whittlesea area where they collect and process organics.
Keeping it clean
Materials like glass, plastic and metals won’t naturally break down, Jaimen explains. So, they’re considered contamination when they end up in food and garden organics bins.
To help processors like Repurpose It produce high-quality compost – free from anything that could be dangerous to farmers and gardeners, food grown with the compost, or the animals and people that eat that food – it’s important to avoid contaminating our household bins.
So, take a moment to check what you're throwing away.
Plastic is one of the most common contaminants in lime green bins. Here are a few tips to avoid it:
- Remove stickers from fruit and veggie peels.
- Take spoiled food out of any packaging.
- Put items in the food and garden organics bin loose or wrapped in accepted materials – not in plastic bags. Check what is accepted in your council area.
When you do this, your organic ‘trash’ can become a treasured resource for farms and gardens. Keeping rubbish out of your food and garden organics bin is a small act that has a big impact on Victoria’s sustainable future.
