Katie Toohey knew she would be helping the environment when she joined The Compost Hub but she didn't know the initiative would also help her make new friends.
When The Compost Hub was first trialled in 2017, one of the unexpected benefits noted by participants was the community building aspect of the scheme. Ms Toohey, who joined The Compost Hub in October 2018, could not agree more.
"The Compost Hub is so easy to use," she said. "I was given all the support I needed from council to set it up. I knew establishing a Hub in my neighbourhood would be rewarding because it was something simple I could do that has a great environmental impact. What really surprised me, though, was the wonderful friendships it helped me make. It introduced me to lovely people within my community I probably wouldn't have otherwise met."
Ms Toohey, who was living in Lawson at the time, registered to be a compost champion and was soon contacted by two nearby families who wanted to be compost contributors. One family lived close, the other had children who attend a nearby school and would drop their organic material at the Hub as part of their school drop off routine.
Once Ms Toohey and her neighbours got to chatting they found they had much in common. One compost contributor, Danny Wilson, who works at a bakery would drop in a loaf of day-old bread when he dropped his scrap vegies off. He and Ms Toohey discovered a shared love of bushwalking and now go walking together regularly.
When Ms Toohey moved house, her neighbours Paul Hobson and Patrick Tierney embraced the compost champion role. Not only do her friendships with her fellow Hub friends continue, Paul, Patrick and Danny have quickly became firm friends, too.
Ms Toohey is looking forward to setting up The Compost Hub at her new home in Hazelbrook soon and seeing who she meets. She said: "You don't know who you are going to meet and what friendships you might make. The Compost Hub really is a great way to connect with your community, to do something good for it and your environment."
Hundreds of tonnes of food waste goes from our red garbage bins into our local landfill each week. Once in landfill, food waste takes up valuable space, generates carbon emissions and causes other environmental impacts which are expensive to manage. The Compost Hub provides an innovative way for residents who are keen to compost, but find it difficult to manage their own compost bin, to get involved and reduce food waste to landfill.
The Compost Hub is free to join and free compost bins and kitchen caddies are available to The Compost Hub members. Learn more at https://www.bmcc.nsw.gov.au/composthub.
