We’re so excited for this scheme by the BCC – it’s a fantastic way to encourage households to get on board with vermicomposting their organic waste and diverting it from landfill. BCC is offering all eligible Brisbane residents a $70 rebate on their worm farm purchases.
It’s estimated that organic waste currently makes up approximately 60% of Australia’s total waste in landfill. That’s a crazy figure when it’s so easy to upcycle our organic waste into nature’s best fertiliser! When food scraps go to landfill, they don’t decompose as nature intended. Suffocated in plastic and sandwiched between mixed waste and garbage, these food scraps are starved of oxygen and will break down anaerobically, producing methane gas, which is approximately 25-30 times worse than carbon dioxide as a greenhouse gas. The process also produces leachates, a pollutant which often makes its way back into our soils and water. Nationally, food waste generates 6.8m tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. In 1 year, 1 worm farm can prevent up to 1.27 tonnes of waste going into landfill.
As we discuss in our vermicomposting vs composting blog, conventional ‘thermophilic’ composting and vermicomposting are both excellent solutions for reducing organic waste in landfill and returning organic matter back into the soil. But we reckon composting using worms is a game-changer and next-level solution for those who:
- Are impatient! (worms can speed up the decomposition process by 2-5 times and produce a finer, more homogenous compost compared to thermophilic composting)
- Want heaps less work & don’t want to be turning piles of compost on weekends – let the worms do the work for you
- Do not want nasty smells & do want less green-house gasses
- Want a natural fertiliser filled with significantly higher quantities of nutrients and beneficial microbes than normal compost – thanks to the uniqueness of the worm’s gut
- Want to vermicompost in a small space – on your balcony, in your garage or anywhere!
To be eligible for the rebate you simply need to:
Must be completed in the below order.
- Watch an educational video on Council’s website
- Complete a quick educational quiz (don’t worry, you get all the required information you need for the quiz in the video. Plus, if you have any questions we’re happy to help)
- You’ll receive a certificate of completion to your email. Upload this document to the Council website to receive your unique rebate code.
- Buy your worm farm. Worm farms can be purchased through our online store, or give us a call and we’re happy to chat through the right worm farm option for you. Make sure you keep your receipt – you’ll need this to claim the rebate.
- Complete the online rebate request via Council’s website
