Sophie visits a community compost network in Semaphore where cafes and gardeners have organised a face to face, old school, super local, compost collection network that is closing the loop on food waste while building soils. Subscribe 🔔 [ Ссылка ]
People the world over are interested in waste, compost and doing the right thing with food scraps. In one Adelaide suburb, a local grassroots compost network of scrap collectors has been very successful in diverting 120,000kg from landfill. The motto of the group is “A café’s waste is a composter’s gold!”
Stuart Cameron, café owner explained how the network benefits cafes who often have to pay handsomely for waste services, especially composting services. Stuart: “We tried to do composting previously but we were just too busy. Scraps would build up. It just didn’t work. We produce about 40kg food scraps and coffee grounds every day. We cook everything from scratch, so there’s lots of waste. There was a huge change when Tim started taking the scraps. He guaranteed to take all the scraps.” Stuart can show the kitchen area with its 5 separate bins for collection. He says his staff are very enthusiastic about separating the scraps. “If we can do this in a busy café with a small kitchen, any café can do it.”
The network meets regularly and 6 volunteers will stage a meeting for the cameras at the café. They are all gardeners and note that there isn’t a central place they take all the food scraps. Scraps at various shops and cafes are picked up by gardeners who simply take the scraps home or to their community garden. It’s not hard to imagine what they will talk about - Will my worms eat coffee grounds? Can I give meat scraps to chooks? Who’s picking up compost from Café X? It’s a compost citizen’s conversation group.
Why is the Semaphore network so successful?
Tim: “This is an old area, a bit like the Port of Fremantle in Perth. People have been here for generations. There are old houses with big gardens. There’s a strong community already. That helps. Plus being on the coast we have very sandy soil that is deficient in nutrients. And there are horse stables around here, so we want their manure!” Maybe all it takes is a bunch of desperate gardeners who know the value of organic matter. Or as Tim says “we’re building soil, building community and saving the planet!”
Tim’s tips to start your own compost network:
Tim: “We found that some cafes just stay on coffee grounds and they don’t grow into giving away food scraps, which he thinks is a pity, so he suggests having a sit down meeting with the café owner at the beginning and setting up an agreement. “Explain what you want to see happen on both sides.”
Tim: “I’ve seen a few people who think they can do this elsewhere, and sometimes it’s failed. It’s all about harnessing the assets in your community. And working out a system that suits everyone. What works in one place, won’t work somewhere else.” Learn what the rules are for café waste under your local council.
Tim: “Every day there is something positive thing you can do for the environment. It’s about taking control and do something positive and useful. It’s providing an additional relationship that is more than just being a customer. It acknowledges that we have a larger agreement. I’m not just sitting down for a coffee. Doing this makes feel better about myself and the world. We want a larger sense of Ok-ness before you have your coffee and that’s becoming more important to people.”
Next time you have a coffee, maybe you can start taking the coffee grounds home for your own garden. Or better still band together with your mates and start a waste revolution.
“We don’t want to grow our group. We don’t want too much publicity!” Tim explains that the group was originally called the Compost Network, but this resulted in so many queries from people all over the world, and raised too much attention, so they renamed to the Semaphore Compost Network. “It’s about place making. People are always asking me about compost, how to compost, but I’m not a compost expert. I send them to watch Costa’s videos.”
Filmed on Kaurna Country | Semaphore, SA
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