Looking at how Brisbane’s Community Composting Hubs are doing
I am Myra Mow, a Bachelor student at the University of Queensland's School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, currently undertaking my Honor’s project, entitled 'Examining the efficacy and viability of food waste recycling through Community Composting in Brisbane'. The aims of this project are (i) to determine the quantities of food scraps that are diverted from landfill through community composting hubs, and (ii) to learn about how different composting hubs operate and what could be done to improve operations and outcomes. This project involves two key components:
- Weighing the amount of food scraps received at 4 composting hubs over a 4-week period
- Face-to-face interview with the key composting person in all 28 composting hubs
What I Have Done So Far
I have nearly completed monitoring the quantity and quality of collected food scraps in 4 different Community Composting Hubs that are in both suburban (Bethania Street Community Garden & Beelarong Community Farm) and densely populated (Kelvin Grove Community Garden & Jeays Street Community Garden) areas.
So far, the project went very well, and I would like to take this opportunity to thank every community garden that hosted my activities and their member who helped weighting the amount of food scraps. Likewise, I would like to thank Brisbane City Council staff for facilitating my activities.
The next steps- I Need Your Help
In the coming days, I will approach all 24 community composting hubs I have not yet been in touch with, inviting you for a face-to-face interview, through which I will seek to learn how your composting hub functions and identify the strength and weaknesses of
- receiving food scraps
- composting and
- use of generated compost
Your personal experience with organizing and managing the composting of food scraps from neighbouring households and the challenges this brings are important for me to learn about, so I can identify areas for improvement that will achieve a well-functioning and manageable community organics recycling system.