Do you know what happens to organic materials you put out for collection?

Many councils around Australia now offer a collection service for garden materials. This material is professionally processed into compost-based products such as soil conditioners, mulches, garden soils, top dressing soils and potting mixes. New products are continuously being developed for environmental applications such as erosion control and storm water treatment. Tailored products are also available for agricultural applications such as fruit & vegetables, grains & cereals, pasture improvement and forestry.

There are approximately 140 businesses around Australia recovering more than 5.2 million tonnes of organic wastes and turning them into useful products and services each year. Most of this organic material is turned into compost products at commercial scale composting facilities with capacities of between 10,000 and 100,000 tonnes per annum. The remaining recycled organic material is either applied directly to land or used to generate heat or electrical energy.

Collectively these commercial organic recycling businesses are called the Recycled Organics Industry. The peak body representing the Recycled Organics Industry nationally is Compost Australia.

The Recycled Organics Industry uses a wide variety of organic materials to make their products. In addition to the lawn clippings, cuttings, branches and leaves that are collected from your home they also recover the sludge from sewerage treatment plants, manures, wastes from the forestry industry, food wastes, grease trap wastes and many other organic by-products that would otherwise go to waste. With the right technologies and process controls nearly any organic waste can become a resource.

The Recycled Organics Industry is also developing innovative uses for compost. From liquid compost extracts (known as ‘compost tea’) that suppress disease in grape vines to compost erosion control ‘blankets’ that prevent erosion in road cuttings. Even storm water can be bilogically ‘cleaned’ with compost media before being released into the ocean, as is currently the case at North Steyne Beach in Sydney (read more at http://www.manly.nsw.gov.au/Stormwater-Treatment-and-Re-Use.html).

Compost has a multitude of commercial uses. You can start by using composted mulches to save water in your own back yard!

Be sure to also visit the Compost for Soils Website: www.compostforsoils.com.au