PROGRESS REPORT
End-of-Life
As industry leaders, we’re taking responsibility for our product’s disposal and end-of-life. Founded by BioPak in 2021, Compost Connect is a not-for-profit platform committed to education, lifting composting rates and connecting foodservice businesses with commercial composters.
This year, our focus was on growing access to composting infrastructure in all of our operating countries by collaborating with local composters, governments, food producers, retailers, and packaging companies. Using the Compost Connect platform, businesses can enter their postcode to find a composter in their area. These valuable industry partnerships will drive waste recovery and normalise organics recycling. Not only that, our recently redesigned website provides information and resources for individuals and businesses to learn more about the world of composting.
Richard Fine
Founder
Compost Connect Objectives
All Compostable Packaging & Food Waste in One Bin
Save on General
Waste Costs
Divert Food Waste From Landfill
Reduce Greenhouse Gases & Help Fight Climate Change
Increase Customer Loyalty
Tackling Food Waste, One Compost Bin at a Time
GOAL 1:
Increase Composting Rates
Reduce landfill waste by boosting organics collection in the foodservice sector and beyond, leading to higher composting rates and a substantial decrease in greenhouse gas emissions, contributing to a greener future.
GOAL 2:
Deliver Composting Education
Expand the compostable packaging market by educating consumers about its benefits, certifications, and logos to reduce contamination in composting facilities, ultimately motivating more composters to accept certified compostable packaging.
GOAL 3:
Collaborate with Packaging
and Recovery Sectors
We aim to enhance collaboration between the packaging industry and recovery sectors, forming a network of experts to prioritise composting in government agendas and achieve a sustainable composting ecosystem.
Compost Connect So Far
Servicing 2,200+ suburbs across Australia and New Zealand, and is available in London and Birmingham in the United Kingdom.
5,585
Tonnes Tonnes of Waste From Landfill
3,909
Tonnes of Compost Created
390,936
Bags of 10kgs of Compost
2,848
Tonnes of Carbon Avoided and Sequestered
25
Composter Partners across Australia, New Zealand and
the UK
Compost Connect Redesigned!
Refreshed website offering more education for foodservice businesses and end-consumers.
Here’s What Happens to Your Coffee Cup When You Use Compost Connect
Do you ever wonder what happens to your compostable cup after you throw it away?
Our certified compostable BioCups can be composted and turned into nutrient-rich compost instead of going to a landfill, where harmful methane emissions are released. In this video, you’ll see how it works.
Compost Connect Has Won Awards, Too
It’s by working together with our customers, industry advocates, end consumers and government that we can achieve our goal of building a sustainable and robust composting infrastructure. Our efforts will benefit everyone – reducing waste to produce high-quality compost that can be used to enrich the soil and promote plant growth.
Innovation by Design 2023 – Circular Design Honoree
Compost Connect
Read more >
AFR Sustainability Leaders List 2023
BioPak & Compost Connect
Read more >
Composting Success Stories
Here are three examples across different industries showing how Compost Connect turns waste into nutrient-rich compost.
Adelaide: A Composting Success Story
Adelaide City is a shining example of successful composting initiatives, including commercial, residential and public place collections. Through the Rundle Mall Public Place Organics Recycling Pilot Business Incentives Program, over 20,000 plastics have been replaced with compostable products.
Toast Martinborough: The Journey Toward a Zero Waste Food and Wine Event
This wine, food and music festival is a 1-day event held at 8 different sites with 6,289 visitors. By partnering with Nonstop Solutions, BioPak, and Compost Connect, the 2023 Toast Martinborough festival achieved a 93.6% resource recovery rate.
DeeJays: Teaching Students Sustainability
The Papatoetoe East School in Auckland, New Zealand, provides approximately 51,000 meals to their students per year. Thanks to Compost Connect they divert 6 tonnes of waste from landfill. This is a perfect example used in their student’s sustainability and recycling educational program, teaching the children about the importance of composting and correct waste management.
Our Progress
ON TRACK
Increase research funding
We have commissioned research projects with industrial compost partners, food producers, and retailers to identify successful strategies for increasing composting rates across Australia. Our research is measuring contamination levels, access to composting facilities, consumers’ knowledge of labelling on compostable products and other factors that affect composting rates. By measuring and collecting data, we hope to build a solid collection of research-based models and lessons learnt that will allow us to advocate for wider availability of composting for compostable packaging and food waste.
Add more composters to Compost Connect
In almost two years, we have increased our list of compost partners from 17 to 25 – including major international companies like Veolia. That number doesn’t include composting partners in NSW, where compostable packaging has been excluded from the organic waste stream by the NSW EPA. Nor does it include our composting partners in VIC, where composters are currently at capacity and do not accept compostable packaging until more composting infrastructure is built. We are working hard with federal and local governments and industry bodies to get packaging accepted again in those states.
Increase businesses composting packaging
273 businesses are part of the Compost Club. We have been offering incentives and waste recovery trials to businesses to expand this number, which involves educating their teams and understanding the challenges and opportunities to improve system efficiency.
Expand Compost Connect industry members
We aim to inspire our competitors to join our brand-agnostic industry product stewardship initiative, collaborating to drive positive change in the sector and facilitate the expansion of the local composting infrastructure.
Advocate for more councils in Australia to accept certified compostable packaging in the green FOGO bin
The Australian Federal Government is committed to a National Waste Strategy, aiming to halve food waste by 2030. In line with this, they aim to provide all households with a compost bin for food and garden waste (FOGO) by 2030. This will have a massive impact on composting infrastructure, help build the Compost Connect network and help educate people and businesses about composting.
BioPak and Compost Connect released new data detailing the type of residential composting offered across Australia – see Compost Connect. 53 councils accept compostable packaging in their residential waste collection. We will continue funding research and petitioning more councils to do the same. Read more >
Educate consumers on compost certification
Launch Compost Connect in Singapore and Hong Kong
DELAYED
Overcome composting roadblocks in NSW, Australia
In July 2022, the New South Wales EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) in Australia announced that certified compostable packaging isn’t accepted in residential organic waste bins. We are currently working with the EPA to obtain a Specific Resource Recovery Order and Exemption (RROE) that will allow BioPak’s certified compostable packaging to be composted via FOGO household bins – this is in addition to our existing Australian Compost Certifications AS5810 (home) and/or AS4736 (industrial). This process has been delayed but we’re expecting a resolution in 2024.
We will continue to operate with transparency with all regulators, industry bodies, councils and businesses to help find a solution that supports a circular economy.Compostable packaging is successfully accepted in residential composting streams in Queensland, Tasmania, South Australia and Western Australia.
Emissions Reduction
