The global partnership – facilitated by Tidy Planet’s exclusive Australian distributor, Eco Guardians – will see the A900 In-Vessel Composter (IVC) head over 17,000 km to Fish Creek, Victoria, where it will be installed on the Rail Trail near Buckley Park Community Farm.
The composting project is funded by the Victorian Government’s ‘Pick My Project’ community grants initiative.
Food and green wastes will be collected from the surrounding residences before being fed into the Rocket – alongside a dry source of woodchip – to produce nutrient-rich compost for use in the on-site gardens.
Commenting on the rationale behind the investment, Marg Watson, a volunteer at Buckley Park Community Farm, said: “This is a completely new project for the farm, and as we’re a community initiative, it was crucial that the environmental solution we invested in would allow for a completely closed-loop model.
“We’ve been operating for over three years now, and our ethos has always been that a community should be able to grow enough food to feed all those who live in it. With the help of the Rocket, we’ll be able to produce high-quality compost for use on our cultivation plots.
“We’ve been strongly supported by the wider community in bringing this project to fruition, and we’re looking forward to what the future holds.”
For the green wastes, soft environmental weeds – from public and private lands – will be collected by local community groups and dried on-site, to be used as the main source of carbon content.
The IVC will not only help the site to redirect food wastes from landfills, but it will also create a nutrient-rich fertilizer in just 14 days.
“This represents our first-ever composting project in Australia and we’re really excited about taking our technology to the other side of the world,” commented Tidy Planet’s sales manager, Huw Crampton.
“The food waste management debate has been hotting up in Oz for a while – ever since the government launched the ‘National Food Waste Strategy’ in 2017 – and composting can provide an effective way to reduce landfill and carbon emissions, at the same time.”
David Berry, director of Eco Guardians added: “The country is continuing to take action to halve annual food waste figures by 2030.
“We hope that by showing the positive environmental results composting can have on a localized scale, more businesses and municipalities across the land will see the benefits and look at ways to close the loop themselves to create a more circular economy countrywide.”
The A900 Rocket Composter is expected to be installed and in operation in September this year.
