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Huge: ACT Will Cut Its Emissions By a Whopping 30%

There’s no point denying it: Composting is hardcore. You have dominion over the worms. You’re using the corpses of carrots and lettuce to make your garden stronger. You can reduce the amount of disgusting landfill you create to such a degree that Captain Planet would kiss all of your individual toes.

That’s why the ACT Government and the Federal Government’s new large-scale composting facility will be metal as heck. Here’s everything you need to know about this upcoming project.

Canberra’s New Composting and Recycling Facility Will Be Chungus-Sized

On August 8, our Minister for the Environment and Water, Tanya Plibersek, stated that the Federal Government is dropping $13 million to support the Food Waste for Healthy Soils Fund. This fund will be used to make a large-scale Food Organics and Garden Organics (FOGO) facility to process 50,000 tonnes of food and garden waste each year. If you’re curious, that’s the same weight as 30,000 cars.

“We expect the fund to help divert up to 3.4 million tonnes of food and organic waste from landfill nationally and put it to productive use on our agricultural soils as compost and soil improvers,” stated Plibersek.

She additionally asserted, “We are committed to halving the amount of organic waste sent to landfill nationally by 2030. This not only keeps the value of our food waste in the Australian economy but also helps to reduce Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions.”

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The Minister for Transport and City Services in the ACT, Chris Steel, was pleased as punch with this funding decision. Steel noted, “This new facility is a central part of our plans to build our circular economy – turning food waste into valuable compost that can be used to improve the soils of our whole region.”

The ABC reported that this project will cut emissions by a third. However, Steel has somewhat disputed this claim. He said, “Once built, Canberran’s food and garden waste will be collected in their green bin and recycled into nutrient-rich compost, cutting waste emissions by up to 30 per cent.”

While 30% isn’t quite a third, it’s mighty close, so it’ll be really rad when this hardcore composting facility is up and running.

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