Compost

What are the benefits of compost?

According to the City of Whitehorse food waste currently makes up 44 percent of items currently found in the average rubbish bin. So the first and obvious benefit is we are reducing the amount of waste going to landfill. Better yet making compost - and applying it to your garden improves the soil by releasing the nutrients back into the soil, saving money on fertilisers along the way. 

How do you make compost?

According to Clean Up making your own compost is a lot easier than most people realise, and we agree.  A composting system can be started in specially made containers, wooden boxes, or in a simple heap. We opted for a system that looks like a Death Star! We chose this system because we have a small garden, and we can roll the Death Star to where we want to empty it.

Composting organisms require four equally important components to work effectively:

• 'Green ingredients' such as kitchen scraps, fresh lawn clippings, weeds pulled from your garden - they supply nitrogen to the compost. If all you have is green stuff, your compost will turn into a stinky slime ball!
• 'Brown ingredients' that supply the compost with carbon for energy (heat). These items are often drier than the green ingredients, leaves, branches, straw, etc.
• Oxygen to enable the decomposition process (turn your compost regularly, or take the Death Star for a roll!)
• Water, compost should be moist, but not soaking wet.

How do we collect material for our compost?

We bought a compost caddy for our scraps, which we keep on the kitchen bench. We use compostable liners and it snaps shut to keep in the moisture and the smells. Our Death Stars are located next to the Laundry door - making it easy to access them - no trips to the bottom of the garden path for us! We also add fallen leaves and straw to keep the green / brown balance. 

What's our secret ingredient?

No it's not 11 herbs and spices, just one herb - Comfrey. The leaves are a useful addition to compost as they contain silica, nitrogen, magnesium, calcium, potassium and iron. Comfrey leaves are about 15 to 30 percent protein which is as high as most legumes.

A Little bit of Rubbish

Why does the amount of waste going to landfill matter?

Last year the disposal of almost 31,000 tonnes of rubbish from household bins in Whitehorse (our Local Council) cost rate payers $3.8 million. $2.2 million of of this is attributable to the state government landfill levy and the carbon tax. Reducing the amount of waste that goes to landfill will therefore reduce pressure on our Council rates.

From an environmental perspective - we think it's clear why we should be aiming to throw less rubbish into a decreasing number of landfill sites across the state.

How big is our rubbish bin?

City of Whitehorse have recently introduced a smaller (80 litre) standard rubbish bin. If residents want to keep the large bin (120 litre) they need to pay an annual fee. They have also reduced the fees for the 'optional garden organics bin service'. Despite some negative press in the local paper we think all of this is a good thing. 

Why does our Council supply a Smaller Bin?

One of the proven strategies to reduce the amount of waste going to landfill is the use of a smaller 80 litre rubbish bin as standard. The average Victorian council with an 80 litre standard bin sends 402kg of waste per household per year to landfill. Whitehorse households currently send 508kg to landfill each year.

How much rubbish did we throw out last week?

Where we live Monday night is rubbish night. This week we threw out two bags of rubbish, which weighed in at 1.8kg. Multiplying this by 52 weeks equates to 94kg a year; which is less than 20 percent of the average Whitehorse household. A little bit of rubbish indeed!

Household Waste and Recycling

How much household waste do we throw out?

According to Australia Bureau of Statistics in 2007 the annual waste generated per person was 2,100kg! This is a up from 1997 when it was 1,226kg. The average Australian family (of four) generates enough rubbish in one year to completely fill a three bed room house from floor to ceiling!

We are tracking the amount of waste we place in our red landfill bin each week. Last week it was two bags of rubbish. But starting Monday we are going to be more scientific about this and will weigh how much waste we are sending to landfill each week.

What do we throw out?

So we all know there are lots of things that shouldn't end up in landfill. According to Cleanaway Australians throw out:

• 414kg of food
• 330kg of paper
• 552 Aluminium cans
• 118kg of plastic
• 74kg of metal
• 206 glass bottles/jars

Almost all of the above can, and should be recycled or composted. We have two compost bins (more to come in another blog) for food and garden waste. We recycle as much as possible with regards to the other items listed.

What about plastics?

We've recently found out that most Coles Supermarkets have introduced an initiative to collect the soft plastics that can't be be placed in household recycling bins.

"In an Australian first, The Red Group, in partnership with Coles, has developed and implemented an innovative closed-loop recycling initiative, the REDcycle program. The program is set up as a product stewardship scheme involving 10 of the biggest food companies in Australia. These companies are taking responsibility for their product packaging, and covering the costs of the collection and recycling of the soft plastics.

The program is aimed at collecting the soft plastics you can't put in your kerbside recycling bin. The processed materials will be converted into outdoor furniture and signage for schools and communities by program partner Replas."


They accept plastics such as: bread bags, frozen food bags, confectionery packets and plastic shopping bags.

In terms of volume of waste we think this initiative will divert around a quarter of our waste from landfill - and we think we don't generate much in the way of soft plastic waste. If your in Australia please separate out your soft plastic waste and drop it off at Coles. That's not to say we support Coles, just this great initiative to divert what is largely food packaging waste from landfill.

What else do we do?

• Reduce
• Reuse
• Recycle

We take 'green bags' when we shop, to reduce our reliance on plastic bags. At the moment we are in the process of making some nice new calico bags. For food shopping we also have a collection of home made reusable 'care bags' which are mesh bags for storing fruit and vegetables, in place of plastic bags. To date no markets or stores have refused to accept us using our care bags. When we do have plastic bags we reuse them, before recycling.