Cutting costs is bio-logical
TASMANIAN gardeners and horticulturalists can rejoice as BIG BIO – a high quality, sustainable worm derived bio-fertiliser – hits our shores for the first time.
BIG BIO is a high quality fertiliser, made from worm leachate collected from worm beds.
It is an odourless natural liquid concentrate containing a broad spectrum of trace elements, beneficial bacteria and microbial life.
Horticultural and Landscape Supplies in Bridgewater will be the first Tasmanian business to stock the new NASAA certified organic product.
HALS owner Steven Gavalas said the product is a huge step forward for sustainable living in Tasmania and a perfect addition to our range including Biochar and own Australian Certified Organic certified SeaGreens compost.
“With a product like BIG BIO on the market, there is no excuse to be using non-organic fertilisers,” Mr Gavalas said.
BIG BIO is produced by Circular Food in Melbourne at Australia’s largest urban worm farm.
Circular Food spokesman Chloe Morriss said the fertiliser is produced from food waste that has been sourced from local businesses.
“We take in food waste from local sources such as; the Epping Wholesale Fruit and Vegie market, MAP Coffee send us coffee grinds, Nestle send us their canteen waste, and a number of fruit growers send us rejected fruit,” Ms Morriss said.
“All of this food waste is processed into worm food, and fed to our hungry workers (over four million of them).
“We have then developed some patented technology which ‘grows’ the finished fertiliser in a bioreactor, kind of like making sourdough bread or yoghurt – the microbes and bacteria multiply in the tanks with food and oxygen added.
“This end product is then bottled as BIG BIO liquid bio-fert, and sold to retail nurseries, wholesale garden supply stores, landscape gardeners and to commercial farmers.”
Ms Morriss said that Circular Food has moved towards a unique business model for BIG BIO.
“Our business model is quite unique, because we only take food waste from businesses and organisations who commit to taking back the end product [the fertiliser],” she said.
“This is implementing a circular economy model, where the consum- er [or even better, the primary producer] takes responsibility for the product right through its life cycle.
“We are able to provide a valuable end-of-life solution for organic waste, and the end product is a high quality bio-fertiliser which has re- generative properties for the soil – the microorganisms in BIG BIO convert nutrients in the soil into a plant available form, it improves soil water retention and improves the general health of a plant.
“It is nature’s fertiliser after all.”