How Geelong's green waste is feeding its most vulnerable residents

For many Victorians, the fate of the grass clippings and garden waste they pop into their green bins is a mystery once it leaves the kerbside.

About 750,000 tonnes of organic material is picked up every year within 57 of 79 council areas across the state.

For some Geelong residents, including Hamdieh Mohmmadi, it ends up on their plates — but in a slightly different form.

Ms Mohmmadi has been shopping at one of Geelong Foodshare's social supermarkets for eight years.

The products here can be purchased with food vouchers, and together with its distribution service, feed about 20,000 people each week.

Over the past year, some of the fruits and vegetables stocked at Geelong Foodshare have been sourced locally from the Geelong Botanic Gardens, where produce is grown with the help of compost produced from green waste from across the municipality.

"I make soup with them and Iranian food, Iranian cooking," Ms Mohmmadi said.

"It helps me save money, I do shopping here and we save money for electric bills … and the kids."

How does it work?

Each year, the City of Greater Geelong collects 30,000 tonnes of green waste, transforming it into 18,000 tonnes of compost as part of its circular economy.

It's one of the only Victorian councils with its own processing facilities, meaning compost can be made locally instead of being transferred to commercial providers.

A waste truck transports the organic material to a transfer facility in Moolap, where it is hand picked to remove contaminants.

"People use the green bin for things other than green waste," City of Greater Geelong Council's waste operations coordinator Andrew Lucas said.

Treated timber, soil or building material are often found in the green bins which, in Geelong, should only have twigs and small branches, plants, leaves and grass clippings.

Rules for disposal can differ between councils but in Geelong, Mr Lucas said about 2 per cent of the green waste collected was contaminated.

"We really want to encourage people to put the cleanest material in, it gives us the best chance to actually make a quality product at the end of the process," Mr Lucas said.

Once the material is hand-picked it is placed into a giant shredder, known as a grinder, with the product then loaded on to a truck to a site in Anakie.

There it's positioned into large windrows about 100 metres long where a machine irrigates and turns each row about five times.

Turning the material mixes and aerates it to maintain a high temperature to accelerate decomposition and nutrient production.

The product is then placed into a pile to mature before it's put through a large screen that breaks it down to a specific size, depending on the market, before it's bagged.

About 2,000 tonnes is given to Geelong Botanic Gardens each year, with the remainder used within council programs or sold to local agricultural markets.

Fuelling produce

Liam Kelly is a horticulturist at the Geelong Botanic Gardens where he manages a garden, growing about 25 different types of vegetables and 12 fruit trees.

The garden harvests about four crates of produce every couple of weeks, which is donated to Geelong Foodshare.

"Not everyone can afford to go down and even buy some groceries let alone have some healthy food in their house as opposed to getting your takeaway every night," Mr Kelly said.

For the past year, the Geelong Botanic Gardens has been experimenting with the council's compost, which Mr Kelly said had helped to increase the garden's yield.

"All the organic matter that's been added into the soil has improved the structure of the soil," Mr Kelly said.

"It's helped retain moisture in the garden and I haven't had to use any fertiliser in the garden whatsoever."

Over the summer season the garden sprouted corn, squash, zucchinis, cucumbers and pumpkins.

"The idea is to show people that you can do this at home as well, doesn't matter the size of your backyard," he said.

Local food as an educational tool

For Geelong Foodshare, the produce donated by the Geelong Botanic Gardens acts as an educational tool to customers, through an accompanying leaflet explaining its life cycle.

"It's part of the whole package of teaching people about healthy eating," Geelong Foodshare head of impact Felicia Bell said.

"That really encourages people to eat more seasonally, which is healthier."

Ms Bell said projects like the one at the botanic gardens promoted the growth of peri-urban farming, which was becoming increasingly important over the next two decades amid urban sprawl.

"We have to have these green spaces that are local so there's less food miles and [to encourage a] circular economy," she said.

"We know the cohort of people [accessing our supermarkets] is changing and the cost-of-living crisis is only getting worse, so we need to make sure people are being looked after and being fed."

Reducing waste going to landfill

The state government set a target to divert 80 per cent of waste from landfill by 2030, but the total waste recovery rate has remained around 69 per cent since introducing the circular economy policy in 2020, according to the Victorian Auditor General's Office.

Organic waste made up nearly half of all household waste in 2022-23 and more than a quarter of waste produced by businesses.

Andrew Lucas said the project reduced the volume of landfill produced by council areas, while reducing carbon emissions.

Australia generated about 14.4 million tonnes of food waste, garden organics, timber waste and biosolids in 2021-22, according to the most recent National Waste Report.

Nearly 60 per cent of that waste was recycled or recovered through methods including composting and landfill gas capture.

"We also don't want to send organic matter to landfill because it generates methane," Mr Lucas said.

"And although we do capture methane at all our landfills in Geelong, it's not the best use of landfill space."

Within the next few years, the council will also be exploring how to expand its operations to include food waste in the composting process.

The government's circular economy goals

The federal government has committed to increasing its average resource recovery rate from all waste streams to 80 per cent by 2030, as part of the National Waste Policy Action Plan.

Organics kerbside collection services are available in less than half of Australia's local government areas and are mainly concentrated in the south-east of the country.

Sustainability Victoria aims to contribute to the national goal by spreading the initiative, implemented in Geelong, across the state and for all Victorian councils to offer a green bin service.

"We'll see more and more compost, really high-quality organic compost being created at facilities all across the state and going back out into parks and gardens," Sustainability Victoria CEO Matt Genever said.

He said about 450,000 tonnes of compost and mulch were made each year from green waste across Victoria.

But Geelong was only one of eight councils using the product in council and community settings.

Sustainability Victoria awarded grants to eight councils last year to increase their use of compost made from green waste locally, through community education, storage solutions, and transport infrastructure.

This includes Brimbank City Council, City of Yarra, East Gippsland Shire Council, Hepburn Shire Council, Monash City Council, Strathbogie Shire Council and Stonnington City Council.

"We create so many resources in our society and the more we can invest in turning those resources back into new products like compost and like mulch the better value we get out of those while reducing our emissions," Mr Genever said.