A successful food waste recycling trial by our Facilities Management team has given added momentum to the City of Sydney’s push to achieve zero waste by 2030.
The six-month trial conducted at two major properties – Town Hall House and the Pittsway Arcade food court – resulted in the collection and recycling of a significant volume of food scraps.
For the period November 2018 – February 2020, both sites collected and recycled a total of 33 tonnes of organics. This equates to a reduction of about 63 tonnes of carbon emissions that would normally be generated from food breaking down in landfill.
The two properties are part of the City of Sydney’s portfolio of 251 facilities for which we provide all hard and soft facilities management services.
The successful completion of the trials has led to positive outcomes which we are proud to have contributed to:
- Food scrap recycling has now become a standard option at both Town Hall House and Pittsway Arcade.
- The City of Sydney will look to extend the food recycling initiative to 10 more buildings where high proportions of food waste can be recycled.
- The City is now exploring more innovative solutions, including converting collected dry waste into fuel and using dehydration to reduce the volume of wet food scraps.
“The food scraps recycling trials have highlighted how much food waste can be generated in a single CBD building,” says Jeff Kennedy, Ventia’s Project Director. “They also demonstrate that small changes in behaviour can lead to significant improvements.”
The food waste initiative is one way in which we are supporting the City of Sydney to reduce waste at the 70+ City-managed properties where it has responsibility for waste management.
The City is seeking to increase the amount of total waste diverted from landfill from its properties from 30% in mid-2019 to 70% by mid-2021. Its longer-term strategy is to “leave nothing to waste”, by focusing on waste avoidance, reuse and better recycling.
