Kensington Community Compost Hubs process tonnes of organic waste locally 

Since 2018, the Kensington community has been building a neighbourhood composting bay system that processes organic waste locally and produces valuable compost for community use.

This free compost is a resource for local community gardens; food growing initiatives and residents to replenish their neighbourhood’s soil fertility and grow nutrient-rich food.

The Kensington Community Compost Hubs (KCCH) consist of a group that formed to manage six composting hubs around Kensington. The hubs consist of compost bays, tools, signage and bins for browns.

These hubs are situated at the Kensington Community High School, the Kensington Child Care Cooperative (KCCC), The Venny inc., Christ Church in McCracken St and the Kensington Estate.

“It’s wonderful to see the tangible benefits of producing compost locally through the compost bays the Kensington community has built. We are effectively keeping waste out of landfill and supporting our community gardens with nutrient-rich compost,” community development specialist at Kensington Neighbourhood House Esther Sadek said.

After the City of Melbourne established the first compost bays at the Kensington Town Hall, The Venny Inc., Unison and KCCC were approached by community to expand this local system.

“Having the compost bays, along with our existing worm farms and chickens, enables The Venny to deal with 100 per cent of our organic waste on site,” The Venny Inc. CEO Carolyn Webster said.

Since 2020, $155k has been secured in various grants from the City of Melbourne and Sustainability Victoria to build compost bays, fix existing bays, run education workshops, erect signage, purchase tools and bins to store browns and pay compost hub workers.

A young local resident has been appointed as a Compost Hub Worker to look after several of these hubs and capture important data.

In a six-month period, the Community Compost Bays processed around 13.3 tonnes of organic food waste, producing more than nine tonnes of compost. The actual figures are estimated to be more than that and the new compost worker will track this data for the group.

This group consists of Unison, Kensington Neighbourhood House, The Kensington Child Care Co-operative, The Venny Inc., Transition Town Kensington and Kensington Community High School.

Compost Hubs are a highly effective solution and add value to the City of Melbourne’s green bin and FOGO systems. Several residents, especially those in high-rise apartments do not have access to the green bins so the compost bays provide a low carbon option to putting their organic waste into landfill.

“The compost bays are also a learning tool to help children and young people to care for the environment. Just recently we had a group of Year 10 work experience students help turn one of the bays. They couldn’t believe that the beautiful rich soil at the bottom was once kitchen scraps,” Carolyn said.

If you would like to volunteer with The Kensington Community Composting Hubs contact the group via its Facebook page: Kensington Compost Hubs. •