For all the information about our Food Waste Loop Program, check us out here.
Food Waste Loop – What’s happening in September?
Yandina Community Gardens Food Waste Loop program has been operating for just over a month and we couldn’t be happier with the impact we’ve had already! We have diverted over 1.25 tonnes of waste, and saved over 2,400kg of C02-e emissions from our beautiful environment.
We have 10 businesses onboard who are happily separating their waste, and redirecting it for a greater purpose! We are so happy we are able to utilise this resource rather than it end up wasted in landfill.
Our hot compost piles are cooking, we are feeding our worms a variety of great scraps, and it’s warming up for the black soldier larvae. Check out a few photos from the past month.
Our compost piles built by are volunteers are hot!
Inspecting our worm farm!
One of our Food Waste Loop partners, proud to be part of the program! 
Project Officer, Emily Boyd, weighing and recording the waste before it’s added to the hot compost pile. 
Project Officer, Emily Boyd, weighing and recording the waste before it’s added to the hot compost pile.
Chief compost inspector, Louie-Jay.
To share the journey with us, follow us on Facebook (Yandina Community Gardens), and Instagram (@ycgfoodwasteloop)
Food Waste Loop
About the Food Waste Loop project:
Yandina Community Gardens program, Food Waste Loop, diverts food ‘waste’ from Yandina’s food businesses into compost systems.
Yandina Community Gardens have created a localised waste management system. We have partnered with cafes, restaurants, coffee roastery’s, and grocery stores and divert the towns waste into three different compost systems. These are aerobic hot compost, worm farm composting, and black soldier fly larvae composting! We are recording how much of Yandina town waste we are able to process, and evaluating the viability of the Food Waste Loop program to be replicated across Australia.
This program reduces greenhouse gas emissions generated by landfills, whilst creating a valuable, nutrient-rich compost resource. We imagine a future where food ‘waste’ was actually not wasted, and was turned into an amazing resource for the local community to enjoy.
The Australian Government has committed to halve the amount of organic waste sent to landfill for disposal by 2030, as per the National Waste Policy Action Plan. This means a reduction of 2.7 million tonnes of organic waste that is currently thrown out and ends up in landfill. The township of Yandina is playing a direct role in helping meet these targets. We are working towards easing the load on the following issues:
• Eliminating global food waste would save 4.4 million tonnes of C02 a year, the equivalent of taking one in four cars off the road
• If food waste was a country, it would be the third biggest emitter of greenhouse gases after USA and China
• The Government estimates food waste costs the Australian economy $20 billion each year
• Over 5 million tonnes of food ends up as landfill each year, enough to fill 9,000 Olympic sized swimming pools
• Landfill gas contributes 15 million tonnes to Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions.
OzHarvest, 2020
The Food Waste Loop program commenced June 2020. This project received grant funding from the Australian Government’s Communities Environment Program.
To share the journey with us, follow us on Facebook (Yandina Community Gardens), and Instagram (@ycgfoodwasteloop)
Saturday 3 October 2020, 9 – 11am, Composting for Kids
Get your hands dirty again, as you learn how to build super strong compost that will
enrich your garden, fill it with millions of micro-organisms and ancient minerals, and you
can take some home to get you started.
enrich your garden, fill it with millions of micro-organisms and ancient minerals, and you
can take some home to get you started.
PLEASE NOTE:
Parents are welcome to attend, but parent involvement is not necessary as teachers
are qualified and numbers are restricted to cater for this.
Parents are welcome to attend, but parent involvement is not necessary as teachers
are qualified and numbers are restricted to cater for this.
As a hands-on activity, and for maximum learning ability, numbers are capped for
this session so BOOKINGS ARE ESSENTIAL. Please BOOK HERE
this session so BOOKINGS ARE ESSENTIAL. Please BOOK HERE
About the Presenters:The Living Classroom Project is an outdoor learning program that has been functioning for over 17 years in schools across NSW and Queensland. Using experiential, hands- on learning, the programs are tailored to primary and secondary school students, introducing them to the principles and practices of permaculture design, to build and plant organic vegetable gardens, at both home and school.
Living Classroom is different from other gardening progams in that we create seating circles, bed designs, 4 seasons vegetable gardens tied in with water harvesting via swales, food forestry to improve micro-climate of playgrounds, and cafeteria composting – lunch to soil. All teachers have degrees in Education, the Principal is a qualified landscape architect, and 2 of the educators are PDC qualified.
The principles demonstrated in all Living Classroom programs support disaster prevention and crisis management.
Saturday, 19 January 2019, 9 am – 1 pm, Compost Bay Making Workshop with Dave Clark
Join local permaculturist Dave Clark in a hands-on session building the perfect compost bays. Dave will not only teach you how to build a compost bay but also share his secrets with regard to making the best compost that will bring your soil back to fertility. Dave has 25 years experience as a permaculturist and has studied with Bill Mollison and Graeme Sait. He continues to read and experiment on his own property where he has brought a very poor soil back to life.
The workshop includes a light lunch
To book for this workshop click here
