Six residences in Spring St, West End now convert waste from the Boundary St food precinct into eggs and vegetables, building the dream of a sustainable urban environment.
“We can sit and make plans for a zero waste suburb or we can go out and do stuff … or both” says Buzolic. “Planning feels a lot better when you’re doing something as well.”
This time last year Buzolic approached Charlie and Liz’s Fruit Shop on Boundary Street to see if they were wasting their waste. And what do you know – they were.
“The good folks at Charlie and Liz’s are very community minded, always helping out with events like the Kurilpa Derby. Good deeds are the best form of advertising but they didn’t even look at it that way – if they could help then they would.”
“Be careful what you wish for” says Buzolic “They became so effective at channelling their waste in my direction there was a point when I couldn’t cope with the volume. That’s when I had to enlist the support of my neighbours. There started to be so much compost my chickens and worms couldn’t keep up with it and it was piling up in the back yard. So I letterbox dropped the street to get some help. Now, while the Council is busily removing rubbish from our street I’m delivering it!”
Buzolic and his neighbours love the results.
“I don’t know if there is a financial benefit” says Buzolic, “but I want to live in a community where people interact. I want the local fruit and veg shop and my neighbours to get to know each other and work together to make our collective lives better.”
“The system is simple” says Jamie, who works and Charlie and Liz’s.
“Adrian brought us a new rubbish bin and I make sure all the fruit and vegetable rubbish goes in there. He comes in every day with his bucket and picks it up. But sometimes it a whole bin full so I send him away to get his truck.”
“I help out too”, says Matthew, Jamie’s offsider, “I think I’m stronger than Adrian so I lift the bin into his ute for him. We don’t want the poor old guy to do his back in.”
There are now six residences that benefit from Charlie and Liz’s generosity and there is an estimated 1000 litres of organic material a year that no longer has to be transported out of the local community.
“The eggs from my chickens are not just free range; they’re happy eggs from happy chickens. I’d like to think that the bright yellow of their yolks is the happiness shining through but I’m told that it’s the green leafy material in their diet. They’re so bright I can almost see to read by them at night time”.
Do you know of someone who is taking the initiative with a community recycling project or some other project?
Readers wanting to recycle their organic waste can visit Jane St or Paradise Park Community Gardens.