The cool power of compost – transforming industries
High-quality commercial compost is set to become a major player in a range of industries, with the launch of the NSW Government’s Cool Compost project.
Through a series of videos, podcasts, fact sheets and specifications, Cool Compost is showcasing the benefits of compost across five target audiences – graziers, vegetable growers, landscapers, councils and government agencies.
Commercial compost production is poised to ramp up with the NSW Government’s target for all households to have food and garden organics (FOGO) recycling services by 2030.
Through the EPA’s Waste Less Recycle More program, we invested close to $100m since 2013 to divert food and garden waste from landfill and support a high-quality commercial compost industry. This included $27m with councils to provide more kerbside green-lid organics waste bins collections, resulting in an extra 200,000 tonnes of food and garden waste being collected per year.
A further $57 million has been invested in new infrastructure to process the extra materials and another $7.5 million to support the development of markets for the compost.
Through the market development program, we supported product quality improvements, equipment, the development of specifications for different markets and upskilling the industry with an online Compost Facility Management Course.
NSW EPA Organics Manager Amanda Kane said the EPA is driving more supply, so the industry will be producing a lot more commercial compost.
“We want to make sure the markets for that end-product are strong. There are numerous benefits to compost across a range of uses, including sporting fields, mine and roadside rehabilitation, landscaping, agriculture and horticulture,” Ms Kane said.
“A substantial body of information has been collected over the years from research and on-farm trials highlighting the benefits of compost.
“We’ve pulled this together under the ‘Cool Compost’ banner with videos and podcasts featuring grant recipients and the people they have worked with.
“Through their stories we’re reaching out to the end users of compost, and the industry itself, to share the valuable lessons we’ve learned.”
Find out more
Cool Compost is being hosted by Circular Australia on its new Circular Ag platform.
For other grants news, head to Around the Grounds.