The club, located in Flagstaff Gardens in West Melbourne, is able to compost 10 to 20 kilograms of food waste each day into nutrient rich soil using a closed loop composter. The system, which uses microbes and heat to break down the waste, was purchased with the aid of a $12,000 federal government grant.
The CEP was launched Australia-wide with the ambition of supporting small-scale local projects that aim to conserve, protect and manage the environment. The programme has approved 1,330 projects nationwide. The City of Melbourne Bowls Club was assisted in its grant application by the office of its local member. Programmes targeted at general community groups often first draw attention through flyer printing.
The composter has been in operation since January 2021 and the club is excited by the potential of the recycling project. Club Secretary Madeleine Scully said that the initial benefits in reducing waste have only increased:
“For the first few weeks we fed in 10kg of food waste each day, but now we are able to turn up to twice that amount of waste into compost daily. In those early weeks, we composted 47.5kg of waste.”
The City of Melbourne Bowls Club has been in operation since 1866.