By Callum Ludwig
A new initiative in the Yarra and Dandenong Ranges by Recycling Victoria is encouraging residents to reduce the amount of waste going into landfills, funded by the Sustainability Victoria’s Recycling Victoria Community Fund until April 2023.
The new Community Alliance for Waste Reduction and Sustainability (CAWRS) has banded together environmental groups in the area to help deliver the message behind being sustainable with waste.
Jon Christie of Yarra Valley ECOSS said he heard the early rumblings of establishing the Community Alliance and thought it aligned closely with the aims of ECOSS.
“It was a natural fit, we’re all about education on sustainability, waste reduction and reusing resources that often get thrown away,” Mr Christie said.
“I offered to join the steering committee, which I’ve been a part of for about 6 months. I’ve come from outside the Valley, so it’s been really good to join this group and get in contact with all the other groups forming this alliance.”
The initiative has been founded by Living and Learning Pakenham and Swinburne University of Technology (PrimeSCI!) with local institutions such as ECOSS (Wesburn), Birdsland Reserve through Yarra Ranges Council (Belgrave), Japara House (Kilsyth) and the Bedford Park Community Garden (Ringwood) all joining. Puffing Billy Railway, Montrose Township Group, Mt Evelyn War on Waste, Cockatoo Community House Garden, Garfield Community Garden, the Healesville Community Garden and the Cardinia Environment Coalition are all also involved. Joint Project Co-ordinator of CAWRS Julie Hanman said it is great to have so many organisations working towards the same goal.
“It’s exciting to be working with so many community groups, environmental groups and community houses across the municipalities,” she said.
“I look forward to watching the live count of the kilograms of waste being diverted from landfills through composting, repair cafes and coffee cup collection on the CAWRS website.”
The goals of the alliance are to provide community support and education which establishes and encourages the use of community compost hubs, repair cafes and coffee cup collection points.
Creating and organising the implementation of community compost hubs has fallen on the other Joint Project Co-ordinator of CAWRS Max Godber, who will launch them at five locations, first the Healesville Community Garden with Japara House in Kilsyth, Bedford Park Community Centre in Ringwood, the Hills Community Garden in Cockatoo and the Garfield Community Garden all to come.
ECOSS have had their own community compost hub for over 12 months which Mr Christie said hasn’t been as successful as hoped due to Covid-19.
“During the last 12 months, for a large part of that time, we weren’t able to have the people coming in on-site we normally would have, but that’s beginning to open up now,” he said.
I would certainly expect the next 12 months to show an upswing in the amount of material that we’ll be able to compost, as people are more relaxed to come back in and I finish rebuilding them in a different spot.
Alongside the Pakenham hub, the two existing hubs have already diverted more than 1,114 kg of organic waste from landfills, with eventual goals of diverting 21.5 tonnes of waste from landfills over the 18-month project duration.
All compost hubs and repair café events will be located via an interactive map on the CAWRS website soon. Residents will be invited to sign up to become members of their local compost hub to help close the soil-food loop and keep compost local.
