Sydney office towers fight food waste

The war on waste has come to Sydney’s Grosvenor Place. In a bid to combat food waste, the premium complex with sweeping harbour and city views has installed a waste food recycling system using an enrich360 dehydrator. The dehydrator dehydrates the food collected from office and retail customers, removes the moisture, then heats and cleans the biomass, converting it into a fertiliser that appears much like dirt.

Located in the basement, the machine produces fertiliser for compost, which goes back to the farm for growing food — creating a circular economic system.

More than 10 tonnes of discarded food were processed into the biomass in the first three months of installation.

Grosvenor Place Executive Director Joh Derrick couldn’t be prouder of his team, which has embraced the project to make meaningful waste.

“We save on the bills to the tune of $20,000 a year in waste costs, plus we save on the environment by diverting literally thousands of kilograms from landfill and producing a useful, regenerated product to put back to use in agriculture,” he said.

In a CBD environment, composting is not an option, but the dehydrator’s ability to convert waste in less than 24 hours allows resources to be recovered, reducing landfill and replenishing nutrients.

Diverting food waste from landfill also contributes to reducing the methane waste food emits, so Grosvenor Place scores on many sustainability fronts with this new investment.

enrich 360 said the food waste fertiliser is a good way to stop soil degradation as it replaces the need to use chemical fertilisers and produces more nutritious and tastier food.

Derrick explained that Grosvenor Place is keen to share its experience and happy to showcase the solution to other interested commercial property building managers considering joining the circular economy of food waste.

The achievement of this sustainability goal follows the management team’s uptake of the Simply Cups scheme, which was introduced to the building in August 2019.

Image caption: The enrich360 dehydrator system converts food waste into nutrient-rich fertiliser.