Last June the Northern Tasmania Development Corporation (NTDC) awarded nearly $200,000 to seven local businesses as part of its Circular Economy Grants. NTDC was looking for some food venues and it led to Welsh investigating about an Enrich360 dehydrator unit – a machine which in one night does what a normal composter breaks down in a month. This allows Stillwater to separate all organic waste in its kitchen and dishwashing areas and turn it into dehydrated soil conditioner. With the businesses’ strong connections to community, this valuable product is then given back to the growers and/or community groups to produce vegetables. “We’ve only had it for the last [couple] of months, actually installed and going, it’s still early days but it is very easy in terms that the kitchen staff just have a bucket next to them when they’re prepping, put the scraps that are able to go in this dehydrator in that and put it in for a cycle. One of the stats I think is 70 kilos of waste comes out as around 100 grams of what looks like soil, and we can use that in the garden. We’re just bagging it up and giving it away to some of our suppliers, it does need to be mixed with something because it’s pretty strong and dynamic. But it’s quite incredible to see the result of what goes in and then what comes out. “Even if we were just putting that into the skip, we’ve reduced the quantity and then what it’s been turned into is so less damaging. All the greenhouse gases being taken out, being a tiny amount rather than this huge pile of food scrap. In this industry, there’s always going to be a level of food scrap. No matter how smart the menu is and how smart the kitchen is, there’s always going to be an element of some waste. So for us to be able to reduce that down and then make it circular, is just fantastic.” When applying for the grant, Stillwater needed to quantify its waste. Currently it has three 1,100L rubbish bins collected three times a week, with the installation of the Enrich360 unit reducing this to two 1,100L rubbish bins collected twice a week. This is a reduction of 5,500 litres of waste per week, (or 55 per cent of rubbish) which will instead be turned into soil conditioner. Welsh estimates 5,500 litres, or 500kg, of food waste will turn into between 133-380 litres/kg of soil conditioner per week and while it is too early to judge if those specific targets are being hit, the difference is already noticeable.
Tasmanian Hospitality Review 28 Dec/Jan Edition
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