Food Waste and Fertiliser

While it’s one of the most abundant elements on earth, making up almost 80 per cent of the air we breathe, the bonds of atmospheric nitrogen make it virtually unusable for plants. Plant-available nitrogen, or nitrate, is scarce, and for most of agriculture’s centuries old history, the challenge has been working out how to cycle usable nitrogen back into the soil.‍

In 1909, German chemist Fritz Haber developed a high-temperature, energy intensive process to synthesize nitrate from the air. While the method mirrors the natural process of composting, it also helped inspire chemical fertiliser development and industrial scale-farming.

In his 2001 book Enriching the Earth, for example, Canadian environmental scientist Vaclav Smil argues that all nitrogen-based fertilisers rely on a scaled-up and refined version of Haber’s method.

The results are well known to most, with issues ranging from tasteless tomatoes to poisoned ground water. Despite industrial-scale farming still representing the core of Australia’s agricultural sector, the sustainability movement is having positive effects, as legions of farmers go back to the soil.

Sue and Greg O’Donoghue are two such farmers, establishing their farm and restaurant Green Olive in Red Hill, Victoria, after leaving Melbourne for a “tree change” in 2010.

The couple’s sustainability efforts have continued to evolve ever since, with wastewater processed naturally in an onsite aeration treatment plant, and photovoltaic panels generating a large portion of the property’s power.

Building on their water and energy initiatives, the O’Donoghue’s invested in an enrich360 dehydrator in late 2019t o tackle the growing establishment’s food waste.

Installing the enrich360 dehydrator, Sue says, allows her and Greg to continue the natural life cycle of their produce by giving nutrients back to the soil from which it came.

“This reduces our need for chemical fertilisers, which cause problems such as harmful effects on aquatic flora and fauna due to chemical runoff,” she says.

Sue adds that chemical fertilisers also lead to increased air pollution and depleted soil nutrients, which reduces the overall quality of Green Olive’s produce.

“By using a natural fertiliser made from our restaurant food waste, we allow the natural process of decomposition to occur.This in turn improves the nutritional value and tastiness of our produce.It’s a real paddock to plate and back again situation,” Sue says.

Enrich360 dehydrators condense food waste into recycled water and biomass that can be used as a nutrient rich organic fertiliser, or as part of compost.

According to Sue, the machine recycles food waste through a process that includes dehydration, sterilisation and volume reduction.

“We put food waste produced in our restaurant and farm gardens into the machine without any additives.The resulting output is a pellet of fertiliser that is 80 to 93 per cent smaller than the original waste volume,” she says.

Dean Turner, enrich360 CEO, says the dehydration process is simple and automatic, and takes between eight to 10 hours depending on machine size and moisture levels.

“The machine is emptied completely at the end of the process, and immediately ready to receive the next load. The machine can be loaded and run seven days a week, with no need for off days,” he says.

Additionally, Dean says as the entire process occurs in a closed reactor chamber, odour issues are non-existent.

He adds that with Australia’s food waste bill hitting over $10 billion in 2019, it’s important for individual businesses to play their part and grow organics recovery.

“While the issue of food waste is a national problem that needs to be addressed on a wide-reaching institutional scale, each and every one of us can contribute, with enrich360 offering solutions from 20kg per day right through the large to 1.1 tonne daily capacity unit.”he says.

Dean says enrich360 provide staff training, machine monitoring and ongoing account management to ensure clients get the very best out of the enrich360 program.

“As part of enrich360 implementation, we also advise on the best bins and crates for collection and material handling equipment for food waste and enrich360 biomass,” he says.

“Our solutions are designed to ensure all waste is handled in a safe and hygienic manner throughout the process.”

Sue expresses similar sentiments, highlighting environmental protection as the central component of Green Olive’s philosophy. She adds that after installing the enrich360 dehydrator, Green Olive switched to 100 per cent compostable napkins.

“The napkins used by visitors at Green Olive are now compostable, as is the paper towel used by staff in the kitchen. This means we can put all napkins and paper towels into the enrich360 machine, instead of sending them to landfill,” Sue says.

“We are always considering the impact our farm has on the environment and aware of the huge difference we can make by farming in a more sustainable way and it’s great to have enrich360’s support.

‍