GREEN VENTURE REUSES FOOD SCRAPS
Green venture reusing Toowoomba’s food scraps
THINKING about what to do with food scraps probably isn’t at the forefront of people’s minds when they’re running a business or cleaning up after a meal at home.
But for Toowoomba’s May Volp, food scraps are one thing she can’t get enough of.
The young gardener has started Full Circle Farm - a project that diverts food scraps from landfill for reuse in compost to grow organic produce.
With nearly 30 businesses and another 30 houses already signed up to provide her with scraps, Ms Volp wants to divert even more waste from the city’s dumps.
“The more businesses I can get to start thinking about it, but also get on board, the bigger impact we can have on a community level,” she said.
“About 50% of what we throw out is organic material and a lot of that obviously comes from businesses, particularly hospitality,” she said.
“So even if I could get every restaurant and cafe in Toowoomba saving that waste, that would amount to half of what they’re sending to landfill, which would be really huge.
“It’s one of those things - one person doing it is not such a big difference, but when 30 businesses are doing it, I’m seeing really large amounts of waste.”
Ms Volp said her aim was to make being environmentally friendly easy for businesses and home owners.
“People can send me a message, then I come into the business or home and we have a chat and we figure out the easiest way to do it, and I provide them with a bin.”