Supporting the Waste Strategy
One of Noosa Council’s biggest challenges is modernising how we deal with waste. Actually, we do not call the stuff that goes in the rubbish bin waste any more. We call it a resource. Noosa’s landfill on Eumundi Road is filling up and when it does, the ratepayers will be faced with enormous costs. It is far more economical to attempt to deal with the situation now.
The first strategy is to divert waste or resources from the hole in the ground and re-use them. We are now actively diverting resources like concrete, metal, wood, polystyrene, glass and reusable containers and garden and tree clippings. We are getting better at diverting resources, but as the population swells and habits only change slowly, we are still filling our waste space at an alarming rate.
I spent lots of time with the waste team and the director, Kyrone Dodd. Kyrone spent over a decade working on waste in the UK and is very knowledgeable on what the rest of the world is doing. I have attended the Council of Mayors Waste Working Group’s meeting with Kyrone and he definitely seems to be the most experienced person in the room. Kyrone has set out an aggressive plan for waste and it is one strategy that has unanimous support from the councillors. It will be expensive for ratepayers and require a changing of habits, but in the long run it is far better and cheaper than ‘business as usual’.
I have become involved with organic resources and diverting them from the tip to the gardens and farming properties. First, I have worked with Permaculture Noosa on understanding the mulch from the organic waste like palm fronds and tree clippings. Thirty-six cubic meters of mulch called double grind (put through the mulch grinder twice so that the green waste is chopped to a finer consistency) was delivered to the Cooroy Community Gardens. The club measured how it breaks down into loam for growing. When the double grind is first dumped, it is hot and full of woody material. The organisms that break down the wood use the nitrogen, and crops do not grow in double grind at first. We found that nitrogen rich coffee grounds and horse manure quickly aided the digestion of the wood and within 8 months the double grind was prime growing loam.
Permaculture Noosa proved that double grind is very valuable for the bigger scale gardeners and applicable to market gardens. This has led to greater monitoring or policing of the green waste at the tip to ensure plastic or other contaminants do not get mixed in the green waste.
Me posing with Kyrone
Dodd for Noosa Today
Tom’s double grind video
First crops from double grind, coffee grounds and horse manure in the Cooroy Community Garden
Embracing Biochar
A second project I have worked on is the creation and use of biochar.
Biochar is organic matter which is heated but not burned. For example, palm fronds are heated to about 500 degrees but deprived of oxygen so they do not burn. All that is left is the blackened carbon that made the structure of the palm frond. This pure carbon can be buried in the garden or agricultural land and greatly increase crop productivity.
Tom’s Biochar video
In council I have been advocating for a biochar trial at the Resource Recovery Centre (tip). Kyrone and the team are looking into it and it is included in the waste strategy.
Permaculture Noosa has been given quite a few cubic meters of biochar from Pyrocal to experiment with. We found that 20% biochar with 80% of cured double grind (with coffee grounds and horse manure) makes a fantastic growing loam that holds water far longer than normal mulch.
I have a very large vision for Noosa: The silt running into the creeks can be dramatically reduced by replacing many non-regenerative cattle properties with regenerative farming. Swales made up of double grind and biochar would slow the water across the properties reducing erosion and creating fantastic market gardens and farms. The Noosa Hinterland could include a vibrant agriculture economy, healthy food for residents, food resilience and self-sufficiency.