Greetings composters in Australia and further afield!

Hopefully you’ve found a few dry days to get out and turn your piles during this soggy Autumn, but even as we head into Winter, there’s plenty of things to think about in regard to your composting.

Some interesting things have popped up in discussion at LOCCAL this May.

Ernie shared her story about how her monthly Coffee & Compost sessions came about, which brought together people of a wide variety of skills in compost to share knowledge skills and … compost!

In our frustration at the often overwhelming stream of fruit stickers, LOCCAL kicked off our campaign to #SayNoToFruitStickers as we mentioned in our last newsletter. We would love to see more composters use this hashtag and raise their voice for policymakers and regulators to take this issue seriously.

The creation of a new shared composting platform. After ShareWaste sadly ceased operation, our friend Danny White, also a LOCCAL member, decided to put together an online platform where composters and compost donors can find each other and compost together. Read about the “Peels” platform and see if there are composters or donors near you.

Clytie described her fascination with Black Soldier Fly Larvae after attending a workshop. These amazing creatures can consume up to 100 times their body weight in a single day!

We celebrated International Compost Awareness Week from 4 to 10 May and LOCCAL hosted a webinar to mark the occasion, this featured people describing their community composting activities from around the country.

News

Looking one level up at centralised waste management strategies, NSW Government is acknowledging extreme challenges with the phasing out of landfill approaches, which is something we as community composters have always been saying: “We can’t keep sending waste into big holes out of sight. Always good to hear from expert Mike Ritchie from MRA Consulting, quoted in this article.

It’s also interesting to see the PFAS contamination issue continuing to plague large-scale composters, who have struggled with the influx of feedstock in recent months as a result of kerbside FOGO collection.

What’s on in June

During the month of June, there are events in Qld, TAS, SA, VIC, ACT and WA, and the month is packed with workshops, festivals, screenings and celebrations.

Head over to our What’s on guide for all the details, but just to point out a few events that you may enjoy:

Online

JUN 3: Women in Soil Science-Australia Seminar Series: Dr Zahra Islam

(Online) “From enzymes to ecosystems: a journey from sponge symbiosis to soil microbiology”

JUN 14 & 15: LOCALISATION MONTH – Economics of Happiness

Online – celebrating “World Localization Day” Permaculture Film Club Hosted by Morag Gamble

JUN 23 – JUL 21: Making Compost on farm – 5 part Online Course

Whether using a pitchfork, a tractor and bucket or a compost turner, this course will get you started. Hosted by Soil Land Food

In-person

If you’re interested in benefiting from an in-person composting course in your area, pay attention to these offerings:

JUN 1: Home Composting Workshop, Mathers House, Hobart

• chickens
• small compost bins
• large compost bays & piles
• compost worm farms
• and more

JUN 3: Community Compost – ANU Kitchen Garden Plot, Acton

Help create a compost system for the Plot Garden. We’re going to build a compost! This will turn our beautiful autumn leaves and garden waste into valuable fertiliser to grow our crops in spring!

JUN 11- JUL 2: The Earth Carers Course – Victoria Park

The life-changing Earth Carer course returns to the Town of Victoria Park, over 3 weeks and 5 sessions.

JUN 14 & 21: Sustainable Living in the House and Garden -Northey St City Farm, Brisbane

Based on Sustainability Principles, and drawing from the Retrosuburbia concept, this empowering course will help you make the transition to regenerative living.

JUN 17: Home Composting Workshop – Kiama Community Garden

Bokashi, compost bins, worm farms

JUN 14: Setting up a Worm Farm @ Edendale – Edendale Farm, Eltham

Learn how to set up a worm farm and the easiest methods to manage and care for these hard-working creatures.

JUN 26: Semaphore Compost Network Monthly Get-Together – Largs Bay

Last Thursday of each month with dinner to follow at 6:30

Get involved 

If you have matters, news or offerings to share with Australia’s small-scale composting community, write to us and send us your pieces for publication on our website and follow us on social media to get day-to-day updates and posts. If you’re involved with a community compost organisation, why not join LOCCAL and add your voice to the movement so that we can communicate as a group of devoted organic waste recyclers towards government, donors, regulators and so forth.

News from around the world 

If the article about fruit stickers got you thinking, take a look at our friends’ work on contamination, happening at the Institute for Local Self Reliance in the US. These composters are an excellent channel for keeping abreast with our composting colleagues progress over there!