From waste to worth for Australian mushroom growers

The Growth Drivers (TGD) is an Australian design consultancy firm solving some of Australia’s complex problems, and on 11 October it received an award from Good Design Awards in recognition of its strategies to solve a mushroom waste issue.

Australians are wasting around 20,000 tonnes of fresh mushrooms and 250,000 tonnes of mushroom compost every year. The fresh mushroom waste is created when stems are cut in preparation for retail sale, and for every 1 kg of mushrooms harvested, up to 3 kg of unusable spent compost is left behind.

Spent compost is reported to have zero to minimal value to growers while the cost of producing virgin mushroom compost is rising annually.

The solution

Working side by side with mushroom growers and Horticulture Innovation Australia, TGD was able to devise a Mushroom Waste Strategy, which included four unique solutions that have a direct and measurable impact on business performance and convert waste into worth for Australian mushroom growers.

According to TGD Managing Director Dr Scott Needham, the first step on the project was to organise a focus group activity to define the objectives.

“We asked growers what they meant by ‘waste’, and waste to them was two things: actual edible mushroom waste — what they call subprime or imperfect mushrooms — and what they were throwing away as compost.”

The strategy solutions devised included a mushroom compost recycling plan; a compost pelletiser system for allowing easy storage and use of spent compost as an energy source; nutritious mushroom powder product using waste mushrooms; and edible shelf-life extender for fresh mushrooms.

Valuing results over reports, TGD continually tested and iterated the suitability of these solutions to the needs of Australian growers at each step of the development process, from on-farm trials to detailed financial models assessing the ROI of capital expenditure.

For example, this project produced successful results for the recycling of spent mushroom compost back into the production process, a method of production never previously trialled in Australia.

“Scott Needham and the team were really adept at very quickly gaining an understanding of the waste stream challenges facing the industry and producing some really innovative ideas for adding some real value,” Australian Mushroom Growers Association (AMGA) Chair and Director Geoff Martin said.

“I’m sure that in the future when some of the economic drivers change that several of the more promising proposals will be taken up by industry.”

Good Design Awards celebrate innovative design projects from around the world in all areas of design, architecture, engineering, research and social innovation. During October, it was also announced that The Growth Drivers received another four Good Design Awards for four different projects in addition to the mushroom project — thus winning five Australian Good Design Awards for five nominated projects.

Dr Needham said being recognised by the Good Design Awards for five projects, two of which were awarded Gold, is confirmation of the company’s methods and systematic approach to designing real solutions that work.

“I’m really proud of our team and the work we have done with these incredible clients and partners[, and] that we deeply care about making an impact by delivering a result, not just writing an interesting strategy and moving on to the next project; their problem becomes our problem, and we work hard to deliver a result that helps them achieve the growth they are after.”