The Economics of Groundswell

Hi folks
During the Groundswell project the very clever Michael Reynolds agricultural economist extraordinaire was busy pouring over our budgets and crunching the numbers. You can down load his report here:

The Economics of Groundswell

Groundswell Evaluation

Hi folks

The independent evaluation of the Groundswell project is now available from SCRIBD.
To download this and other Groundswell reports you will need to create a scribd account (very easy) or use your facebook log in.



The Magic Pudding - understanding the outcomes, impact and futures of Groundswell 2007 - 2011

City to Soil - the movie!

City to Soil YouTube Channel!

Here you are here folks: 


http://www.youtube.com/user/CitytoSoil

galloping towards the end

Hi folks. Well, it has been a little while between posts. The Groundswell team are all noses down tails up wrapping up the project part of Groundswell. Meanwhile, City to Soil collections happily continue in Goulburn and Condobolin. The Barbaras (Dr Barbara Pamphilon and Barbara Chevalier) from the University of Canberra Australian Institute of Sustainable Communities are up to their armpits in an independent evaluation of the project. The Groundswell Film is FINISHED and we have already given away all our copies.

Do not fear! If you would like to download the full version, you can do so here: City to Soil - become part of the solution. The file is an MP4 and it is 171 megabits small. Please help spread our story far and wide.

In other exciting news, City to Soil has a youtube channel! Unfortunately the film is 17 minutes long - 2 minutes longer than the 15 minute youtube limit. Do not fear, Geoff from Mosquito Productions is busily cutting it in half - you will be able to watch it in two parts. We will also stick some smaller bits of film, interviews and other nice things here as they become available.

Also, in preparation for what happens after the Groundswell project wraps up and your loyal project manager is once more set free into the wilderness, we are playing around trying to find the easiest places to leave all the research papers, evaluation, tools, resources and forms that will magically materialize in the next 7 weeks.  Unless anyone has a better solution, we are thinking SCRIBD might be a nice place to leave all the PDFs. As a practice, I have uploaded the Groundswell Mid Way Review to the Scribd website to see if this works for people.

Oh, and here is another one: the Groundswell Agronomy Trials - Mid Project Report. Chris's final report will be ready in March 2011. Stay tuned. He was smiling the other day. I think Chris likes our compost.

This leaving stuff in the cloud thing is all new to me so any comments or suggestions will be happily received. Please let me know if you have trouble downloading any of the reports.


I know the link to the City to Soil - become part of the solution film works just fine, so if you are having problems with that, I am sorry, I can not help you!


Thats all for now.

Simone

Groundswell - A short background

In 2004, the NSW Department of Environment and Climate Change (DECC) worked closely with the Queanbeyan City Council on a project called “City to Soil”. This project demonstrated that high quality, organic wastes from urban communities can be collected, composted and used in agriculture with positive economic and environmental results for farmers. City-to-Soil also demonstrated a high level of willingness and capacity by the community to participate in source separation of organics. The overall environmental and social benefits of the project were very significant.

In 2007, Goulburn Mulwaree, Palerang, Queanbeyan City and Lachlan Councils, the Wiradjuri Condobolin Aboriginal Corporation, the Palerang Agricultural Society, Bettergrow Pty Ltd and the South East office of the DECC Sustainability Programs Division were granted $1.96 million from the NSW Environoment Trust to prove the wider economic viability of the “City to Soil” collection system and establish composted urban organic waste as a cost effective, high quality agricultural input.

The project (Groundswell) will result in farmers and councils working together to pull urban organic waste out of the cities and back onto agricultural land, simultaneously reducing organic waste to landfill and increasing organic levels in agricultural soils.

The research and project outcomes of Groundswell will provide councils, governments and farmers with the information and data they need to reconfigure waste collection systems and contracts to establish economically viable “City to Soil” collection systems in collaboration with local farmers.

The vision for Groundswell is that:

• Groundswell establishes economic models that are self sustaining and can operate for the same or less cost as current models.
• That the model or systems result in measurable improvement in agricultural soils and productivity.
• That the project also contributes to a range of broader environmental outcomes.
• That the community engages in the project through source separation of household organic waste
• That the systems continue beyond the project timeframe, and are implemented in other settings
• That Groundswell results in a reduction of waste to landfill
  

Unique kitchen waste collection kicks off in Eastgrove

media release

Images: Goulburn locals Gemma (left) and Alicia Hollands are looking forward to helping the environment and local farmers by collecting their kitchen waste in specially designed kitchen top bins and biobags.

Eastgrove residents will be the first to try a unique new kitchen waste collection designed to help the environment and local farmers at the same time.

Eastgrove has been chosen to test run Goulburn Mulwaree Council’s new City to Soil initiative, which will involve residents receiving a free, specially designed MaxAir kitchen top bin and compostable biobags for the collection of food scraps. The bins, a year supply of biobags (a roll of 150 bags), a sticker and an instruction leaflet will be delivered to homes in Eastgrove next week.

Residents will then be asked to collect kitchen waste in the bins and biobags - including raw or cooked food, tea bags, coffee grounds, fruit and vegetables, peelings, leftovers, paper towels, meat and fish. This kitchen waste then goes in the 240 litre greenwaste bins for collection – before being taken to Goulburn Waste Management Centre where it is transformed into high quality compost and provided to local farmers to help improve agricultural soils.

The Eastgrove test run will allow Council to fine tune the composting process before the collection is extended across Goulburn City and Marulan later this year.

"This is a fantastic new project and as far as I am aware, it will be the first community-wide collection of food scraps for composting in Australia," Goulburn Mulwaree Council Facilities Manager David Rayner said.

"The Eastgrove test run will help us do a final check of the composting process. But we know the process works because we have already undertaken a number of trials, and a similar process is used in around 2000 communities worldwide. The kitchen waste collections will definitely be introduced across Goulburn City and Marulan later this year.

"Currently Goulburn’s waste is disposed of at Council’s own landfill. By encouraging composting we will help combat Climate Change by cutting methane gas production, reduce waste costs by prolonging the life of the landfill and help local farmers improve agricultural soils. It really is a win-win for everyone involved," Mr Rayner said.

The introduction of the City to Soil kitchen waste collections in Goulburn Mulwaree, Lachlan, Palerang and Queanbeyan Council areas is being undertaken through a project known as Groundswell – which is funded by a $1.96 million grant over three years from the NSW Environmental Trust. Goulburn Mulwaree Council was the lead organisation in the grant application, and is the first to introduce the kitchen waste collections.

Groundswell Project Manager Simone Dilkara said the other three Council areas involved are on track to start the kitchen waste collections soon.

"Work is underway to establish composting sites in the other Council areas and we are gearing up for the new collections to start between now and the end of the year," Ms Dilkara said.
"It is really exciting that it will officially start in Eastgrove next week.

"We will also be advertising in the coming weeks for local farmers to get involved, however I have already been contacted by a number who are keen to take part. Composted kitchen and greenwaste returns organic matter, microbes and nutrients to soils, which is of enormous benefit in agricultural areas.

"The overall aim of this project is to show that organic waste can be profitably collected, composted to a high standard and returned to agricultural soils. It is also really important for the local community to know that the MaxAir kitchen top bins and biobags have been specially designed to make sure food scraps do not smell – and they really do work," Ms Dilkara said.

The benefits of the City to Soil collections include that it will:

• Support local farmers
• Reduce waste to landfill (and therefore prolong the life of Council’s landfill and save money)
• Improve agricultural soils
• Help address climate change

The City to Soil collections will encourage local residents to ‘become part of the solution’.

MEDIA INTERVIEWS:
Please contact Goulburn Mulwaree Council’s Facilities Manager David Rayner on 02 4823 4488 or Groundswell Project Manager Simone Dilkara on 0447 273 099.

MEDIA ENQUIRIES:
Please contact Goulburn Mulwaree Council’s Communications Unit on 4823 4412 or
4823 4548.

Groundswell Project goes www

Welcome to the City to Soil blog. Soon you will be able to see what is happening in the Groundswell project, and how each of the four Councils are going with setting up their City to Soil collections.

What is the Groundswell project you ask?

And what is City to Soil?

All will be revealed very soon!