More than 530 tonnes of food scraps from apartments are set to be diverted from landfills under a $4 million trial funded by the South East Queensland Council of Mayors and participating local councils.
The Multi-Unit Dwellings (MUDS) Food Organics Pilot Program aims to use a mix of on-site processing technology and community-based collection methods to divert the equivalent of about 100 garbage trucks’ worth of food waste for recycling into compost, fertiliser, and renewable energy. Methods will be tested, including tailored collection setups, on-site processing technologies, and targeted community education to separate and recycle food and garden waste over a two-and-a-half-year program across six pilot sites.
In response to the state’s rapidly rising population, which is projected to reach six million by 2046 and produce waste at an even faster rate, the local government-backed initiative will identify practical food-recovery solutions to inform long-term waste-reduction strategies for residential buildings across SEQ, including apartments, townhouses, resorts and retirement villages.
Dr David Pearson, the program’s research director and professor at Central Queensland University, said that currently three of six pilot programs are underway and will be wrapped up within the next two years. Afterwards, research findings will be shared with the government to inform policy action and scale up waste recycling efforts.
“I would hope that it becomes action on the ground, on scale, quickly,” Pearson said. “Certainly over the next couple of years.”
Food waste solutions currently being trialled include on-site composting, food dehydrators, waste-sorting icons, and anaerobic digestion, a process in which microorganisms break down organic materials to produce fertiliser and promote a circular economy.
Through these processes, food waste can be repurposed into products, such as potting mix, soil, or compost.
Ashleigh Brownlow, director of Earthborn, the company processing the food scraps, said the resulting compost also retains moisture more effectively, helping farmers reduce water use while supporting plant growth.
Building managers as the gatekeepers
Looking ahead to scaling up recycling efforts, responsibility for unit operations primarily falls on building managers, whom Pearson calls the “critical gatekeepers” for multi-unit dwellings. To encourage proper waste collection, managers will receive proposals that are “sufficiently attractive,” including financial and environmental incentives, noting that as resident waste continues to increase, its collection can become more expensive than recycling.
This financial incentive lever is the result of the former Queensland state government’s reintroduction of the Waste Disposal Levy in 2019, which applies a per-tonne fee to waste sent to landfills within designated zones.
The SEQ Council of Mayors Chair and Brisbane Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner said that because households are increasingly paying more for their waste, “decisions about what goes into the household bin matter more than ever.”
The consumer challenge
As a key strategist involved in the research and implementation of the program, Pearson said his biggest concern is not the lengthy logistics of scaling up the initiative or the policy process ahead, but consumer behaviour.
Despite the project’s efforts to test recycling alternatives on a variety of households, Pearson notes it is “notoriously hard to change a habit.” However, he said, “once it’s changed, it’s very secure.”
The pilots were designed to be a 12-month intervention, which Pearson said is a realistic timeframe for establishing a new habit. At the beginning of the 12-month trial periods, organisations specialising in measuring waste streams will collect baseline data to compare with the data collected at the end of the program. By measuring changes in different food categories, the recycling intervention can be assessed for its effectiveness.
Scott Ferguson, the general manager at IRT Group, one of Australia’s largest aged care and home care services, said so far, he does not believe consumers will be an issue in adopting the new recycling strategy.
The company’s retirement village is a key participant in the trial, and Ferguson said residents “responded really positively to being part of this”.
“We have so many people in our villages that are really passionate about the environment, and they’re really pleased to be given the opportunity to contribute in a positive way.”
