Organic waste recycling up 80% since 2003

The Australian Organics Recycling Association (AORA) reports that the waste recycling amount of garden (green) and food waste diverted from landfill thanks to recycling has risen by around 80 percent in NSW since 2003.  This is equivalent to two million-plus tonnes of organic material saved from landfill across NSW per annum. 

Over the same period, there’s been a 13 percent rise in sales of recycled-organics compost for use in landscaping, gardening, sportsground and farming. 

This achievement by the state’s recycled organics industry has been recognised in the AORA Leadership Awards, a joint initiative with the NSW Government to raise awareness of the environmental and economic benefits of recycling organic resources. 

The 2016 awards ceremony, held in early December in Sydney, recognised high achievers in four categories: local government, industry development, agriculture and amenity.

Major award-winners included a brace of city councils, two dedicated Australian Standards reviewers and a leading soil-management company.

The Leadership Awards recognise the array of applications, specific products and programs by which Local Governments, growers and landscapers have utilised compost products to improve soil and plant health.

THIS YEAR’S WINNERS

Outstanding local government initiative in organics collection/processing or marketing: Lismore City Council - BIOcycle Compost Facility

Lismore City Council won the ‘Outstanding local government initiative in organics collection/processing or marketing’ award for its state-of-the-art organics collection and processing system. 

Lismore Recycling & Recovery Centre is “closing the loop on our organics recycling, turning organic material collected from homes into nutrient-rich BIOcycle compost for local farms and backyard gardens”, the Council’s website states.

Lismore CC makes regular kerbside organics collections, including household food waste collection, from the city of Lismore and surrounding council areas. The collected recycled organic material is brought to the Northern Rivers Waste facility, where it’s processed using a new Mobile Aerated Floor (MAF) system. 

Developed in Germany, the MAF system aerates the maturing compost via a complex of pipes laid beneath the piles, reducing the need to turn the decomposing organic matter and cutting the usual 16- to 20-week composting process by half.

The MAF system also has many ancillary benefits:

• reduced fuel costs;
• much faster throughput, hence greater amounts of recycled organics (RO) compost processed for sale;
• reduced electricity use;
• reduced water usage; and hence,
• greater profits.

Northern Rivers Waste workers and the local BIOcycle Compost Facility.

Northern Rivers Waste

At Lismore CC’s facility, waste is stockpiled in rows on a ‘composting pad’, then sorted.

“Organics and green waste are mulched (shredded) twice and then allowed to break down to compost in rows,” states Lismore CC. “The composting rows are turned regularly and maintained at a temperature greater than 60 degrees Celsius to kill off pathogens and weed seeds for at least three months.”

The resulting composted material is graded, then screened to remove any stray plastics and other inorganic matter.

The Council has been able to implement this technology thanks to funding from the NSW EPA Waste Less, Recycle More Infrastructure grants program. 

“In return, they welcome the opportunity to display their progress and communicate the benefits of the technology to a much wider community,” states AORA.

For more information about organics recycling initiatives in north-eastern NSW, take a look at the latest NE Waste Annual Report. 

Outstanding contribution to industry development: Tony Emery and Garry Kimble

Tony Emery and Garry Kimble were recognised for their “outstanding contribution” to the review of Australian Standards, AS 4454 – ‘Composts, soil conditioners and mulches’ and AS 4419 – ‘Soils for landscape and garden use’.

Emery, as Chair of Standards committee CS-037 – ‘Garden Soils and Potting Mixes’, helmed the committee during the difficult four-year negotiation process that, AORA states, resulted in “a workable, useful, and highly regarded standard”. Kimble, drafting leader on CS-037, made “a huge contribution” to the document’s finalisation over the four-year revision process.

Currently, both are engaged in similar roles on CS-037 for the revision of AS 4419.

Compost user demonstrating innovation and advocacy in Agricultural Markets: Australian Soil Management

Australian Soil Management (ASM) has developed a novel solution to the threat to agricultural productivity posed by invasive species ‘African Lovegrass’ in the Snowy-Monaro region. 

While conventional methods of weed control have proven largely ineffective, ASM has found that using recycled-organics compost to improve soil conditions, including soil moisture retention, gives commercial crop species the strength they need to ‘outcompete’ the crop invader.

In doing so, they reverse the trend towards monoculture threatened by regional Lovegrass infestation. Moreover, using locally produced compost diverts a significant amount of organic material from local landfill.

NSW EPA supports the ASM project under its Waste Less, Recycle More grants program, funded from the waste levy.

Eragrostis curvula, a species of grass native to Africa, is commonly called African lovegrass (as well as weeping, curved, Boer and Catalina lovegrass).

Harry Rose, Flickr CC

Compost user demonstrating innovation and advocacy in Amenity Markets: Parramatta City Council

Western Sydney’s City of Parramatta Council has worked hard to improve the condition of its playing fields, gardens and parks by taking actions that help boost organic matter in the soil, improving the soil’s nutrient- and water-holding capacities; enhancing soil microbiology; and reducing the need for chemical fertilisers.

Parramatta CC has been using green and other organic waste generated within the municipality in a ‘closed-loop’ system: the recycled organics materials collected by the Council are processed by SUEZ at its Eastern Creek Organic Resource Recovery Facility, then returned to Parramatta City Parks and Gardens as “custom-designed products” that are used to improve soils in the municipality’s green and public spaces.

Parramatta Park, NSW: Parramatta City Council won an AORA Leadership award for turning the city's household organic waste into compost that it uses to replenish soils in the city's parks, gardens and sports grounds.

MRB, Flickr CC

HIGHLY COMMENDED: Compost user demonstrating innovation and advocacy in Amenity Markets – Lake Macquarie City Council

Lake Macquarie City Council won an AORA Leadership award for providing “improved sports field amenity, implementing a renovation program using compost made from green organics”, states AORA on its website.

This program provides “increased longevity and reduced maintenance requirements of the public-use playing fields but beneficially re-uses green organics and assists the council to achieve its sustainability targets” AORA states.