Single use packaging and plastics are hot topic this year; two of Australia’s largest supermarkets have been shamed for their obscene levels of plastic packaging and have since banned single-use plastic bags. The story is sadly no different in food and hospitality business, and it is dizzying to think that Australians churn through 1 billion coffee cups each year let alone the plethora of plastic & cardboard boxes, bowls, cutlery etc. Much of this waste is actually recyclable but sadly old habits die hard and what can ordinarily compost will end up slowly decaying in landfill for next 50 years or so.
So it is refreshing to see when an innovation, such as the Biopak Compost Service, starts to gain some traction. The program launched in Sydney in December 2017 and has been growing ever since
'We’ve got a composting partner in every state, and we’ve got about 100 bins in cafes and businesses across the country' BioPak founder Richard Fine
Interestingly though it is actually Perth who are the strongest adopter to date; so come on Sydney get on board! Yelo café in Perth are now actively composting and recycling all of their waste on site, to be sent to a composting facility where it will be transformed into ‘garden-ready compost within 8 weeks’.
'In Australia, we send more than eight million tonnes of organic waste to landfill every year, including 1.5 million tonnes of food waste,' says Fine. 'The problem with this is that when food waste decomposes in landfills, it releases methane, which is a greenhouse gas 80 times more potent than carbon dioxide, resulting in enormous damage to our environment.'
Yelo are just one of Australia’s innovators teaming up with Biopak packaging, who provide participating businesses with green organics waste bins for collection and composting.
biopak.au: In 3 short months, @yelotrigg has diverted 33,095 kg of waste from landfill and created 23 tonnes of compost. That is 1622 bags of much-needed #compost for our farmers!
Yes there ever more inventive and cutting-edge technologies coming into the market to combat environmental issues; but for all of you business-owners-to-be out there this is just one thing that you can implement from day one into your business; which can help save the environment and potentially save your business money in the process - through the reduction of your waste bill.
Green On Sydney!
