Gillian Black has composted for as long as she can remember and now, thanks to a new community initiative, is sharing a lifetime of knowledge across the Bellarine and Surf Coast.<\/p>\n
Mrs Black joined ShareWaste a couple of months ago, a free web app that connects composters and those wanting to donate green waste.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve composted all my life. In the UK I\u2019m from a family of composters. It\u2019s not a new thing for me but other people adding their green waste to mine is,\u201d Mrs Black said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI started to put a bin out the front through ShareWaste and it\u2019s really taken off. Especially since I decided to start weighing how much waste we\u2019ve saved from landfill; anything that grows, that\u2019s raw will break down, I don\u2019t refuse anything.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey see it\u2019s not just going in someone\u2019s compost, it\u2019s being reused and recycled and staying in Ocean Grove. Some people are dropping off tiny amounts and others are filling the bin; in just three weeks I\u2019ve collected 100kg of scraps.\u201d<\/p>\n
Husband-and-wife team Tomas Brambora and Eliska Bramborova launched the ShareWaste app in 2016 to connect people with an interest in composting.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe help people who have green scraps and would like to compost them (rather than just chuck them into the garbage) find a neighbour with a composting bin, worm farm or chooks willing to accept their waste,\u201d co-founder Eliska said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe sustainability and waste aspect is only 50 per cent of what we do. The rest, which is equally important to us, is community work to build more resilient and caring communities.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ocean Grove resident Marnie Holden recently saw one of Gillian\u2019s posts on Facebook and arrived to Mrs Black\u2019s house to a guided tour of her composting and worm farm set up.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve just started composting and thought that\u2019s a good idea (ShareWaste), I live in a more built up area but I thought I\u2019ll have a go at it,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve been making a real effort to reduce waste in our house all together and it\u2019s been amazing.<\/p>\n
Just taking out the soft plastics and not buying as many, as well as taking out the green waste to compost, we hardly fill a bag a week now.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s amazing to see Gillian\u2019s set up. I would encourage others to come and learn, I\u2019d been watching a lot of YouTube videos about worm farms and compost but there\u2019s a lot of conflicting messages.<\/p>\n
Knowing someone that does it is really handy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mrs Black said her goal is to use the donated scraps to compost her garden, which in turn will produce an abundance of produce which she intends to give back to those who donated.<\/p>\n
\u201cPart of ShareWaste, half is to do with waste and the other is connecting with the community and the neighbours. I\u2019ve met Marnie today and I probably would never have, it just breaks down barriers that there are within communities,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve got an 89-year-old man whose dropping off tiny amounts of waste. I was at the gate another time when someone was dropping off waste and we had a good chat about gardening.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been composting for so long and find it so easy to do, sometimes I can\u2019t understand why other people don\u2019t do it, maybe it\u2019s a knowledge thing. I feel if people can\u2019t and don\u2019t want to I can, so we can all join together and do our little bit for the community.\u201d<\/p>\n
For more information, go to sharewaste.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Gillian Black has composted for as long as she can remember and now, thanks to a new community initiative, is sharing a lifetime of knowledge across the Bellarine and Surf Coast. Mrs Black joined ShareWaste a couple of months ago, a free web app that connects composters and those wanting to donate green waste. \u201cI\u2019ve […]<\/p>\n