$34k turns waste to reward at Yandina Community Gardens

Yandina Community Gardens has combined the funds from two Federal Government Environment Grants to pilot a three-way organic waste management system for the town.

Federal Member for Fairfax Ted O’Brien said the funding amounted to $34,000.

“The first grant of $20,000 is allowing the Gardens to pilot a program where they audit and collect organic food waste from local businesses and turn it into compost to help reduce the organic waste which goes into landfill,” Mr O’Brien said.

“Yandina Community Gardens was already using two different composting systems but the second grant of $14,000 means it’s been able to introduce a black soldier fly waste management system as well.

“I particularly love that there will be three different composting options on display for the public to learn about reducing and composting organic waste in their own homes,” Mr O’Brien said.

Emily Boyd is the project officer for the Garden’s Food Waste Program.  She said the pilot program would run for 12 months.

“Our aim is to divert as much food waste from landfill as possible so we’re picking up all the food waste that is generated from local businesses such as cafes, restaurants and fruit shops and composting it back at our site at Yandina Community Gardens,” Ms Boyd said.

“We’ve surveyed all of the Yandina food businesses in town and we have eight businesses already signed up to the program.”

Those businesses need to separate their regular plastic and other landfill waste from the compostable organic waste, then Yandina Community Gardens will do the rest.

“We have three different compost systems to process this waste, that’s the worm farm, our hot- aerobic compost system and our black solider fly larvae system,” Ms Boyd explained.

“We imagine a world where none of this food waste is actually getting wasted, in fact it’s getting turned into a fantastic fertiliser and soil amendment we can sell back to the local Yandina community and use at the Gardens as well.

“Without the funding we wouldn’t have been able to kick start this program, which is a vision for the Yandina community we’ve had for a long time.”

Anyone keen to learn more about composting is welcome to visit the Gardens, view the different composting systems and take away some tips and tricks about composting at home.  Community workshops are also planned to educate people about the new black soldier fly system.

Drop into Yandina Community Gardens Mondays, Tuesdays and Saturdays or check out their website at yandinacommunitygardens.com.au.