Leura is moving to zero food waste, in an initiative launched at Leura Garage on November 25.
Businesses in Leura are being supported to cut their operational costs by preventing unnecessary food waste, as part of the Zero Waste Leura program being rolled out over the next year.
The project is is a partnership between Leura Garage, Leura Village Association, Blue Mountains City Council, the Institute for Sustainable Futures at the University of Technology Sydney, and the NSW Environment Protection Authority's (EPA) Love Food Hate Waste program. It is funded by the NSW waste levy.
Leura Garage owner James Howarth has been composting and dehydrating food waste generated by the restaurant for more than a year.
Using their super composting machine, the business generates 10-15kg of organic food waste each week. This equates to 3000 tonnes of food waste they have kept out of landfill, in the 12 months to May this year.
"This is converted to 30kg of dehydrated product that goes to the community garden in Blackheath," Mr Howarth said.
Associate Professor Dena Fam from the Institute for Sustainable Futures at the University of Technology Sydney, hopes to sign up 150 businesses to the program.
"This is a blueprint for other villages to go zero waste," she said.
The president of the Leura Village Association, James McHarg said this initiative was an important step in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and addressing climate change.
"We can become a vanguard for social and environmental change," he said.
"Leura is ideal with its high concentration of food businesses, B&Bs and hotels".
He can see the food waste generated in the garden village, going back into "Leura's beautiful gardens".
"It's a pioneering model. We will do all we can to encourage businesses to take part in this," he said.
"It's an innovative, attention-grabbing community exercise that will change attitudes and change the world".
Federal Macquarie MP Susan Templeman also attended the launch and welcomed the initiative.
With ABS statistics revealing the amount of waste Australia generates each year was increasing - 76 million tonnes a year in 2018-19, a 10 per cent increase on 2016-17, Ms Templeman said initiatives that help reduce waste were crucial.
"The key is getting every layer of the community involved," she said.
Blue Mountains deputy mayor Chris Van der Kley said: "The partnership between the business community, council, state government and the university sector is the type of innovative initiative that is needed to successfully overcome the issue of food waste. It will see Leura becoming a leader in the area of business food waste."
EPA organics manager Amanda Kane NSW said the initiative would help work towards the long-term goal of halving Australia's food waste by 2030.
The project team will begin contacting businesses in Leura, providing strategies for avoiding food waste, and measuring the amount of food waste generated over a matter of months.
The launch was the first in a series of promotions associated with the zero waste project and will be followed by case studies of local businesses reducing food waste, including a documentary that will set the blueprint for other villages to follow.
For more details of the project and how to get involved go to https://www.bmcc.nsw.gov.au/waste-recycling/zero-waste-leura.
