Turning food waste into compost

MEDIA RELEASE 21 January 2021

Council has been successful in obtaining an innovation grant from Local Government NSW for a pilot project aimed at keeping food waste out of the landfill.

The Closing the Gap on Food Waste project aims to trial new models of domestic and commercial food waste collection to divert an increasing amount of food waste from limited landfill space. This could not only increase the life of our landfill but also turn the food waste into a re-usable organic product.

ANL Blaney will compost the material, the same location our lime green lidded food and garden waste bin service currently goes to for processing.

Mayor of Bathurst Cr Bobby Bourke said the project will build on the successful residential Food Organics and Garden Organics (FOGO) waste collection service Council introduced in 2016 and will see commercial food waste collected by Council from some of the hospitality premises in Bathurst which will be composted rather than taken to landfill with general waste.

“The trial is expected to start in April and run for four months with food waste collected from a number of hospitality businesses daily. The trial will allow Council to test whether removing this waste from landfill helps reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Landfill is one of the big contributors to emissions and food waste is a significant contributor to that.”

In 2019-20 an estimated 2.3 million kg of food waste was taken to landfill, generating a potential 4,800 tonnes of CO₂ equivalent of greenhouse gasses.

“Council will work with businesses as part of the trial to provide them with dedicated food waste bins, education and support to help drive separation of food waste from general waste. If a business would like to participate in the trial, I’d encourage them to get in touch with Council via phone or email to discuss the project.”

“Since the food and garden waste bin was introduced in April 2016, 15.5 million kilograms of food and garden waste has been diverted from landfill. The residential trial is aimed at increasing these numbers even more.”

Council will trial new methods of capturing waste and encouraging diversion of food waste through a wide range of techniques to help target the best organic waste collection service for residents and businesses of Bathurst. This pilot is a trial that will help shape the future of waste services across the region.