Sunshine Coast Council representatives joined Yandina Community Garden volunteers this morning (Nov 30) to officially launch stage two of a Food Waste Loop program.
Led by the dedicated team and volunteers at Yandina Community Gardens, the Food Waste Loop program turns waste from nine Yandina businesses into a compost product.
Sunshine Coast Council Mayor Mark Jamieson said the project explored the role community gardens could play in a circular economy, providing benefits for the Sunshine Coast and Queensland.
"By stimulating community awareness about the importance of their choices, we can reduce waste, increase efficiencies and create exceptional products, to create a more sustainable and resilient region," Mayor Jamieson said.
"Through our Banksia award-winning Environment and Liveability Strategy council aims to embed sustainable living practices in our community, and increase understanding and adoption of those practices by 2041.
"The team at Yandina Community Gardens is a great example of this approach in action.
"I have every confidence in Yandina Community Gardens and their leadership in this space and their ability to grow the knowledge and understanding of other Sunshine Coast community groups."
Division 10 Councillor David Law said the Food Waste Loop project was a great example of council funding supporting the community to embed innovative sustainability practices into everyday living.
"Our community is at the forefront of making local and sustainable decisions which help minimise our environment footprint and reduce our impacts on the region and our planet," Cr Law said.
"I admire the dedicated team and volunteers at Yandina Community Gardens for their forward-looking approach and community-minded attitude to find new and improved ways of doing things."
The Food Waste Loop project collects up to 70 buckets of food waste from nine Yandina businesses each week.
The waste is separated into buckets and processed through a hot aerobic compost system, fed to their commercial worm farm, or fed to their chickens.
To date, the project has diverted more than 24 tonnes of food waste from landfill by creating a sustainable compost resource that can be used for soil regeneration. So far, the program has prevented 45,600kg of CO2e emissions from being released into the atmosphere.
Yandina Community Gardens project officer Emily Boyd said there was massive potential for community gardens to play a pivotal role in our collective response to climate change.
"The Food Waste Loop model is an innovative and creative way to address the problem of food waste and its contribution to greenhouse gas emissions," Ms Boyd said.
"It allows participating businesses to realise how much waste they are producing and enables them to take ownership of diverting it from landfill.
"This empowers community members to participate in a sustainable system actively and responsibly.
"We're really keen to continue growing this project, by processing the township's waste, educating our community on the value of waste diversion and also helping guide other community organisations to implement Food Waste Loop projects in their local area."
