More composting capacity in the Sunshine Coast to reduce organic waste going to landfill and greenhouse gas emissions! Read about what the Queensland Government is planning.

Did you know that in Australia, around 13 million tonnes of CO2 is created as a result of organic waste going to landfill?

In addition, according to Queensland Minister for the Environment and the Great Barrier Reef Meaghan Scanlon, “Food waste not only increases household budget costs – estimated at $2200 a year – it also has a serious impact on our environment as unwanted food and garden waste dumped in landfill produces damaging methane gas.”

This scenario is about to change though! Minister Scanlon says “By 2030, we want to halve the amount of food waste generated, divert 80% of the organic material going to landfill, and achieve a 70% recycling rate for organics.”

Numerous initiatives will be promoted over time to achieve this goal and the increase in composting could be pivotal to the purpose.

Increasing composting would help with reducing organic waste sent to landfill and therefore the amount of greenhouse gas emissions.

The Queensland Government is onto it and recently announced 1.5 million in funding to upgrade Earthborn Australia's Palmwoods organics processing facility on the Sunshine Coast. The project will create 6 new construction jobs and 6 new ongoing positions. The completed facility will be able to process an additional 22,000 tonnes of organic waste each year to create high-quality soil improvers.

This is a first step towards reducing waste and greenhouse gas emissions while creating jobs and supporting agriculture in Queensland.

Assistant Minister for Education, Assistant Minister for Regional Development, and Senator for Queensland, Anthony Chisholm said “This grant will increase the amount of diverted food and organic waste by 22,000 tonnes per year which are then processed into high-quality, compost which can be used to enhance agricultural soil, in landscaping, roadsides and urban parks.
“This is great for the environment, great for local jobs, and agriculture.”

Source: Queensland Government’s Media Release, 2 February 2023 ‘REUSING QUEENSLAND’S FOOD WASTE FOR BETTER FARMING OUTCOMES’.