Saturday, April 9, 2011
Congratulations Armidale Dumaresq Council!
Breaking news from the ABC! Welcome to the City to Soil family.
Armidale to get new food waste system
Updated Fri Apr 8, 2011 8:49am AEST
Armidale Dumaresq Council says it believes it is the first council in the New England North West to put in a residential compost system as a part of its waste collection service.
The City to Soil system sees domestic food waste collected, composted and distributed to local farmers and residents.
The council says it will soon be easier for Armidale residents to recycle their food waste with the unique program, due to begin in the second half of this year.
The Chair of the Waste Management Committee, Councillor Bruce Whan, says most of the infrastructure is already in place and the program shouldn't cost more then $10,000 to $20,000 to set up.
"Because we believe that it is going to divert so much of what is currently waste and make a useful product out of it, which farmers and residents can use as a high quality compost," he said.
"We have being looking at various composting processes for quite some time and this one is very low in terms of infrastructure and it also is a very easy process."
Councillor Whan says there is very little to do to finalise the progam and it will be easy to implement.
"Basically we've got most of the machinery that we need now, so it's simply a matter of just using ordinary tarps, instead of specialised tarps, which some of the processes use," he said.
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
Monday, April 4, 2011
Groundswell Information Sheets
To the right here ladies and gentlemen, we have links to the Groundswell Information Sheet series. You have to admit they sure look pretty. We really hope they are useful too.
Thursday, February 10, 2011
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
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
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
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
Groundswell Field Day - Goulburn District
Topic:
Agronomic evaluation of the use of composted urban waste in agriculture.
The Project:
The Groundswell project aims to have farmers and Councils working together to pull urban organic waste out of the cities and back onto agricultural land, reducing organic waste going into landfill and improving agricultural soils.
Background:
Through the City to Soil process residents in Goulburn Mulwaree Shire have been provided with a combined food scrap and garden waste collection which is composted at the Goulburn Waste Management Depot. Compost made through the project has been made available for three on-farm trials in the Goulburn district. See www.groundswellproject.blogspot.com for more information.
The trials:
The agronomic evaluation has been carried out by Chris Houghton Agricultural from Crookwell. The aim is to determine how the end product can be best used:
Why should you attend:
You will be able to see for yourself and discuss the trial outcomes of the agronomy evaluation to date. You will also be able to speak with the people involved in the project.
DETAILS
What the day will involve:
The day will start at Andrew Sieler’s property “Strathmere” (A on map below), at Yarra on the Federal Highway just south of the Hume Highway to the west of Goulburn. There will then be a visit to a cropping trial at Forest Lodge (B) on the Middle Arm Road, and then to the GMC Waste Depot (C) to see the compost being made. Finally we will visit another grazing trial and have lunch at Andrew Divall’s property “Narrambulla” (D), to the east of Goulburn.
Directions:
To get to Andrew Sieler’s property (A) on the Federal Highway, travel about 1.5 km south towards Canberra, and the gate is just before the Yarra “Rest Area”. Here will be a sign to get your attention.
Agronomic evaluation of the use of composted urban waste in agriculture.
The Project:
The Groundswell project aims to have farmers and Councils working together to pull urban organic waste out of the cities and back onto agricultural land, reducing organic waste going into landfill and improving agricultural soils.
Background:
Through the City to Soil process residents in Goulburn Mulwaree Shire have been provided with a combined food scrap and garden waste collection which is composted at the Goulburn Waste Management Depot. Compost made through the project has been made available for three on-farm trials in the Goulburn district. See www.groundswellproject.blogspot.com for more information.
The trials:
The agronomic evaluation has been carried out by Chris Houghton Agricultural from Crookwell. The aim is to determine how the end product can be best used:
- What happens when it is applied at various rates to agricultural land?
- Is it as a fertiliser or does it have a role as a soil conditioner?
- Does it restore soil carbon levels and/or lift moisture holding capacity or have any other unexpected benefits.
- What types of enterprises (pastures, crops, horticulture) is the compost best suited to?
- Are there any problems with its use?
- How available is the compost and where can you get it from?
Why should you attend:
You will be able to see for yourself and discuss the trial outcomes of the agronomy evaluation to date. You will also be able to speak with the people involved in the project.
DETAILS
- Date: Friday 15th October.
- Start time: 8.30am at Strathmere, Federal Highway, Yarra
- Finish: 12.30pm – 1pm at Andrew Divall’s property with a barbecue lunch provided by Goulburn Mulwaree Council.
- Travel: By private vehicles.
- RSVP: By 12 October via email on: leanne@chrishoughtonag.com.au or call/text Chris on 0409 816 433.
What the day will involve:
The day will start at Andrew Sieler’s property “Strathmere” (A on map below), at Yarra on the Federal Highway just south of the Hume Highway to the west of Goulburn. There will then be a visit to a cropping trial at Forest Lodge (B) on the Middle Arm Road, and then to the GMC Waste Depot (C) to see the compost being made. Finally we will visit another grazing trial and have lunch at Andrew Divall’s property “Narrambulla” (D), to the east of Goulburn.
Directions:
To get to Andrew Sieler’s property (A) on the Federal Highway, travel about 1.5 km south towards Canberra, and the gate is just before the Yarra “Rest Area”. Here will be a sign to get your attention.
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