ANOR magazine
Australian Edition
December 2004
We welcome all ANOR members to the December edition of the ANOR newsletter
complied by Gerry Gillespie and Dr Sara Beavis and from Australia.
COMPOST AUSTRALIA – ROADMAP
Compost Australia is part of the Waste Management Association of Australia. It has
branches in all Australian states, and this year will be conducting a national program
to investigate opportunities for reusing composted organic materials.
The following material is taken from their website. If you wish more information on
the conference series to be held in 2005 the web site is:
http://www.wmaa.asn.au/roadmap/conference.html
The Roadmap
The aim of the roadmap is to develop a viable and sustainable organics recycling industry
across Australia. This will involve new product and market identification and development ofstrategic plans that target both niche and wide-ranging markets for recycled organics.
The focus will be on the identification of product specifications that will allow the marketingand use of fit for purpose recycled organic products in agriculture, horticulture, landscaping
and other value adding purposes.
This roadmap project is an initiative of the Waste Management Association of Australia(WMAA), Compost Australia and the Barton Group. It is funded in part by the Federal
Government through AusIndustry, and various State Government Agencies including theDepartment of Environment and Conservation (NSW), Queensland Environmental Protection
Agency, EcoRecycle Victoria, Zero Waste SA, ACT NoWaste and the WA Waste
Management Board.

Roadmapping Program
The first stage of the program will be the development and preparation of a discussion paper
to clarify the issues of supply, demand and the environment. This will be done by integrated
background research of the recycled organics industry together with input from key
stakeholders within the Australian recycled organics supply chain.

Conference Series
The second stage will consist of five two-day conferences/workshops which will be conductedin the major capital cities during late February and early March 2005. Three overseas experts
have been engaged to present relevant US and European case studies as well as bring thedelegates up to date on the latest technology, issues and lessons from overseas. The
conference and workshop series will be facilitated by Resource Consulting Services (RCS)
Pty Ltd in conjunction with the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) Working Group
for Cleaner Production. This partnership will bring the experience of national agribusinesstraining and consulting, environmental research, supply chain mapping and roadmap
preparation to the project. At the conclusion of day one of the conferences a networking
dinner will be offered to delegates to encourage stakeholder networking and interaction withoverseas experts.
Following the Conference/Workshop Series and Industry Business Plan will be prepared for1

presentation to all stakeholders.
For more information on the Conference Series please click here.

Future Directions Seminars
In June/July 2005 a series of short seminars in each capital city and up to ten regional areas
to present the Business Plan to all stakeholders in the Product Chain. The Business Plan will
be developed by Resource Consulting Services Pty Ltd from the information presented anddiscussed during the Conference Series,

For Further Information Contact
Waste Management Association of Australia
Val SouthamChief Executive Officer
PO Box 994 ROCKDALE NSW 2216
T: 02 9599 7533 E: vsoutham@wmaa.asn.au

CITY TO SOIL
This project was presented at the recent conferences in Japan and China. Numerous
requests were received for more information. If you require more detail and reportcopies please contact Gerry Gillespie.
This project sought to demonstrate that falling levels of organic materials inagricultural soils could be addressed in part by engaging the rural and urban
communities together in a trial, which sought to increase soil health by returning
quality composted product to agriculture.
Increased soil health brings benefits to the farmer by increasing yield and income andto the broader community by ensuring agricultural sustainability for future
generations.
The project aimed to minimize alterations to existing systems in collection, processing
and on- farm application. Using very simple bar-code technology and rear loadingvehicles, a householder credit system was devised, which reduced contamination by40%.
This in turn, lead to cleaner, compost product with more direct application for thefarmer, with no concern for contamination.
Innovative aspects
This project is unique, in that using simple existing equipment in collection,
processing and product delivery, it resulted in a process that rewards all participants inthe system.
The “City to Soil” project was designed as a model, which could be modified andremodelled to suit any regional, rural or urban centre.

2The project used a low-tech approach to collection, processing and delivery. It uses
standard hand- held scanners to record the bin bar code of any household, which has
placed a bin, free of contamination on to the kerbside
The main innovative aspect of this project is that identifies all the financial benefits ofapplying quality organic material to agriculture and then returns part of that value tothe household for source separation of the product in the first place.

Cost/Benefit
The cost of landfill in the region where the trial was conducted, near Canberra,
Australia’s National capital, is generally recognized as around $65 per tonne. The costof disposal of waste to landfill for Sydney varies from around $100 per tonne up to$150 per tonne.
Yet it is possible for a commercial processor to manufacture quality compost toAustralian Standard AS4454 and carry the product at least 200 klms in any direction
for a cost of $50 per tonne.
This means that the product can be delivered to the farm gate for less cost to thecommunity than disposal to landfill.
As this trial demonstrated however, when the farmer applied the product in hisvineyard, his productivity in the trial area increased dramatically.
In the cool climate wine area where this compost was applied the sale value of thegrapes on this vineyard was approximately $1300 per tonne. In the trial area theapplication of compost at a rate of 10 centimetres depth gave an increase in yield of
182% - a value of more than $17,000 per hectare.
Given that these wine grapes were young, it is still expected that long term the grapes
would still have produced an increased yield of at least 40% for 10 cm of compost.
This would mean that if the farmer paid a rate of $30 per tonne for the compost, theapplication cost would have been around $900 but it would have returned a profit of$3900 or a net profit of $3000 per tonne.
The sale value of the compost can be returned to the community as community
rewards and prizes to encourage clean, source separation of household product.
This project uses the same funds, which were previously used to landfill organic
products to return them to useful function within agriculture. At the same time it
generates profit and reward for all who participate.
This project is about the triple bottom line of social economy.

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Replication Potential
Farming is a mineral extractive industry. It takes between 60 top 90 elements,
minerals and nutrients to grow a plant. Yet where che mical farming is practiced many
farmers now only return three chemical nutrients to the soil. All soils will
progressively suffer from this slow degeneration process.
The extraction process can also affect the organic levels of soils, reducing thematerials on which soil biology lives and thus slowly killing the soil.
This project is not about putting companies out of business. It is about having people
in the waste and fertilizer industries transport and sell a different range of products.
As a national community we must resolve to change to more sustainable methods ofagriculture and as we do we must demonstrate that farming can be sustainable andthat it can involve the entire community.
The “City to Soil” model will fit into any community. It will broaden the market toinclude not only the fertilizer companies, but also the farmer and the generalcommunity, engaging them all in sustainable food production.

City to Soil Benefits
Environmental•
Reducedwaste to landfill•
Reduced runoff andcontamination fromlandfill•
Reducedmethane fromlandfill•
Reduced weeddumping in publicspaces•
Environmental
collection benefitsof kerbside, rather
than household tolandfill

Cost/Benefit•
Compostcan be made andtransported to
the farm for lesscost thandisposal tolandfill•
On farm
benefits provide$ input value forcommunity
rewards•
Costsavings on
fertilizer•
Betterreturn on
investment forcommunity
waste handlingdollarFarm•
Increased
yield•
Reducedwater use•
Moreefficient wateruse•
Improvedsoil struc ture•
Increasedmicrobial activity•
Reducedfertilizer costs•
Reducederosion•
Carbonsequestration

4Social•Urban-ruralsoil and foodrelationships•
Community
Education•
Communitybuy- in•More jobs
in every rural andurban community•
More onfarm employment
distributing
product•
Increasedbusiness activity inrecycling•
Ties directly
into Sustainable
Schools programZERO WASTE AUSTRALIA & HEALTHY SOILS
Zero Waste Australia has recently established a new group called Healthy Soils
Australia.
The group will work with local farmers to establish work groups to identify potential
composted organic markets in agriculture.
The group hopes to assist farmers in recognising the problems they face with theirsoils and to develop solutions which are specific to not only the particular farm but
also the soils type, crop and climatic conditions.
Healthy Soils Australia recognises that the best person to identify problems on thefarm is the farmer. If the farmer is allowed to work in this way they will also ‘own’
the solution.
It is remarkable that despite that fact that the objectives of the Healthy Soils group
have been discussed for many, many years, they are still not part of the practicalsolutions which farmers apply to their land.
COMPOST LIBRARY
The Recycled Organics Unit (ROU) at the University of NSW has an excellent
library site for anyone interested in current or past compost research programs inAustralia.
The site is at : http://www.rolibrary.com/search.php
Another of their sites carries details on compost training programs:
http://www.recycledorganics.com/training/index.htm
THE NEW YEAR
A happy and positive New Year to all ANOR members and their families.
We hope that 2005 brings you all that you desire.

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