Local and large-scale systems to turn waste into worth

How can on-farm innovation, community composting, and large-scale systems reshape the future of food waste reduction? Here’s how.

For Andrew Collins, founder of Hunter Soil Solutions and Circular Organics, treating food waste as something that needs to be thrown out or landfilled is the wrong way of thinking. Rather than treating food waste as a burden, Collins believes it should be recognised as one of agriculture’s most valuable assets.

At a recent panel on the subject at Waste Expo Australia in Melbourne, Collins explained that from a farmer’s point of view, much of what is labelled as waste is a resource. With a background in farming, he has long seen the potential in material that would otherwise be discarded. Through composting and worm farming, Collins’ businesses focus on turning organic material back into something that enriches soil. It is, he said, a way of getting organics back into the soil that they once created. For him, the process restores value to what has already nourished crops once before.

Collins argued that when organic matter is returned to the land, it produces food that is richer and more nutrient-dense than commercial produce grown without that natural cycle. The work, he said, is not about building large facilities far from the communities that generate the waste. Instead, he champions small-scale, community-based systems that allow contamination to be controlled and local involvement to flourish. His collection services partner with people who want to make a difference, ensuring that the material gathered is clean and usable.

He described himself as someone grounded in practical farming. His approach is rooted in the idea that solutions to waste can be found close to where it is produced. By creating local systems for composting and soil enrichment, communities can take ownership of their waste streams, transforming them from problems into productive assets.

Collins said the local, community-led model is about creating value for local communities. For him, the attraction lies in keeping both the waste and the jobs close to home.

“Local employment gives lots of jobs in this space,” he said. “Our local community in the Upper Hunter and our FOGO bins get trucked hundreds of kilometres away. Our vision is that smaller-scale systems can control a lot of these waste products.

“We’ve been doing it for a couple of years now, and it really shows that community-based models work,” he said. “People buy into it, and sometimes you don’t have to go to that large scale.”

He sees the benefits as social as well as environmental.

“It’s the story of that restaurant owner and their staff who change the way they work,” Collins said. “They don’t put the plastic in the bin anymore. They start to think differently about waste.”

That behavioural change, Collins said, ripples outward from businesses into homes.

“They go back to their families, they spread the word,” he said. “They realise that waste isn’t a problem. We can actually use this as a valuable commodity in agriculture.”

He believes this circular approach makes communities more resilient. Smaller systems can adapt quickly, rely less on transport, and generate products that directly benefit local farms. They are also easier to manage for contamination and quality because they are run by people who have a personal stake in their success.

Understanding food waste across the chain

SMEC’s regional manager – waste and resource recovery, Dr Wade Mosse, was also on the panel. He said he enjoyed being on the panel with Collins because their experiences represented opposite ends of the same system.

“Andrew is talking about small scale, very close to the land, close to the farm. My work has been on the larger end,” he said, referencing experience across composting, retail, food rescue and consulting. “It’s interesting when you follow food waste through the value chain, it’s a little like what we’re seeing in energy generation – a kind of duck curve.

“At the very start of the chain, we see about a third of all food waste generated on farms, you then see about another quarter of total food waste come through in the primary manufacturing stages. Then the waste on the way through the supply chain really drops down. Through wholesaling, through logistics, through retailing, there’s very little food waste.”

He explained that about 30 per cent of food waste is generated on farms, another 25 per cent in primary manufacturing, and around 35 per cent in the home. The difference, he added, lies in what kind of waste it is. He said that in the home, about two-thirds of what is thrown out is avoidable. It is edible food. Only a third truly needed to end as waste.

Mosse said that the fate of food waste, where it ends up, is as important as the amount produced.

“On farms, most of it either stays there, gets ploughed in, or goes through composting,” he explained. “The real problem comes when it ends in landfill.”

He drew attention to the global scale of the issue. If food waste was treated as a country, he said, it would be the third biggest greenhouse gas emitter. Only the US and China are higher.

The environmental impact, Mosse argued, shows why food waste reduction must be central to climate action. He believes there’s a tight nexus between how food waste is handled and the climate change issue itself.

Balancing packaging and food waste

Mosse also reflected on the complex relationship between packaging and waste prevention. Packaging can aid in reducing food waste by extending shelf life, he said. So if food waste is to be mitigated, more packaging may be needed. On the contrary, if packaging is reduced, more food waste is generated.

He acknowledged that plastics and soft plastics are a difficult challenge but argued that the trade-offs must be understood in context.

“It’s like you’re damned both ways,” he said. “It’s just about finding a balance.”

To illustrate, Mosse shared a story from his retail experience. One of his favourite examples is the cucumber. Those wrapped in plastic film last about 12 to 15 days. Unwrapped, they last five.

He explained that by the time a cucumber travels from the farm to a distribution centre and then to a store, two or three of those days are already gone. If a consumer buys an unwrapped cucumber, they’ve got about two days to consume it before it goes ‘off’. The plastic film takes that out to about 12 days. That’s the difference between an edible cucumber and a not-edible one.

Mosse said the story demonstrates the tricky challenges of where food waste gets generated along the way. He acknowledged that there was a trade-off between food life and food waste, which underscores the need for nuanced thinking.

The discussion turned to what has helped reduce waste in retail and wholesale sectors. Mosse said the key factor was the availability of solutions. Large companies have the scale and logistics to manage food waste, but smaller operations often lack options.

Finding solutions for every scale

“In a retail setting, if a store doesn’t have a food waste solution, it has to put everything in landfill. Once we give them options, we can start improving.” Mosse said, who has rich experience on both the consulting and retail sides of the equation.

He pointed to the value of partnerships with food rescue organisations. He said that organisations like SecondBite, Foodbank and OzHarvest are all doing a great job.

In regional areas, supermarkets often work with farmers to divert unsellable products from landfill. He said a lot of farmers can take food waste, such as pig farmers for example. Bread was once a chronic problem to get rid of without landfilling, but supermarkets have found partners who can turn it into animal feed. He added that providing stores with organics bins has made a huge difference.

“If you’ve got a bin that can take food waste, the education becomes easier,” he said. But he pointed out the challenge faced by smaller businesses without the volumes of a major supermarket. “For small stores, even though organics disposal is cheaper, running extra bins and collections costs more. Sometimes it’s still cheaper to chuck it in landfill.”

Mosse suggested that stronger policy support could help. If governments start mandating food waste solutions – i.e. everyone’s got to have one – then diverting food waste from landfill becomes the norm, he said. Landfill levies alone don’t offset the logistics challenges of picking up small volumes from dispersed sites, whereas increased participation will help drive down costs.

Local action complementing large systems

What about both local and large-scale approaches working together?

“That’s where we land,” Collins said. “If we have smaller, community-based systems, we can eliminate all those days of transport. The food’s fresher, it’s grown in your local community, and the waste stays local too.”

He said the model has been tested in Newcastle with strong results.

“We’ve been doing it for a few years now, and it works,” he said. “We can control it, and we can complement the big business side.”

The session ended with a question about the environmental trade-off between plastic and food waste. Mosse responded plainly. Everything’s trade-offs, he said. Plastic in landfill is basically inert; it just sits there. If you landfill a cucumber, it rots and produces greenhouse gases.

He said that in this case, the comparison is clear. He said he wasn’t voting for all packaging all the time, “but in the cucumber story, it’s a no-brainer, the plastic waste is the lesser of the two evils”.

Towards a circular agricultural future

The discussion revealed how solutions at different scales can reinforce one another. Collins’ model of community composting keeps value close to the soil, while Mosse’s experience demonstrates the systems needed to manage food waste nationally.

Both agreed that progress relies on changing how people think about waste, not as an endpoint, but as part of a living cycle. In that vision, waste becomes a starting point for renewal, feeding the land, supporting communities, and reducing the impact on the planet.