by Michelle Twyford, originally published in Flemington-Kensington News Winter 2024 edition

Kensington has a long history of community composting. Many people worry about climate change and how we dispose of our food waste is one way we know we can make a difference.

While our council-run FOGO bins are great and if you’re not able to compost at home, our network of compost hubs is a fantastic option, especially when the FOGO option is not available to you. Your food is composted, with the end result making an excellent compost that improves our soil for our local gardens or can be purchased for a small price. By using these networks, you avoid transportation and are guaranteed you know where your waste is going.

The network of compost hubs is located at the Kensington Town Hall, McCracken Street Church, 78 Clifford Terrace and the Kensington Food Forest. KCCC and the Venny are also part of this network but not accessible to the general public.

These hubs have been funded by City of Melbourne and Sustainability Victoria, but could not happen without the hard-working dedicated volunteers, including Dave Goodman. Dave, along with the team, has put in thousands of hours over the past 10 years (mostly volunteered) in order to make sure these hubs run smoothly. He is undoubtedly an expert when it comes to community composting and is committed to expanding and keeping our compost local.

As a community we are blessed to have a human like Dave whose knowledge, passion and commitment to make our world a more sustainable place in whatever way he can.

If you are interested, have any compost questions, would like to start using the hubs or just want to say hello to the compost team, more information can be found at www.facebook.com/KensingtonCompostHub or kensingtoncomposthub@gmail.com.

Side note – As a fellow community composter please remember keep those fruit and veg stickers out – they don’t compost and will be still in our environment 100s of years from now.

Michelle Twyford is a local resident with her own long and proud commitment to community composting.