Case Study - Drysdale (TasTAFE)

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The project

• Establish best practice internal processes for waste management and small scale composting and an associated training strategy for students undertaking Certificate IV in Cookery.

Background

• Teaching staff had established a Sustainability Committee and wanted to introduce a culture of sustainability and recycling.​ A successful grant application provided funds to purchase a composting machine.

Objectives

• Develop a model for waste management for TasTAFE and the Tasmanian hospitality industry.
• Achieve cost benefits by reducing food and other waste to landfill​.
• Establish a training and assessment strategy for students participating in the implementation of the model developed.

Targets

• Reduce waste to landfill by 50%​.
• Reduce or maintain service cycle times​.
• Reduce or maintain product cycle times.

Outcomes

What was implemented?

• The composting machine was installed and commissioned.
• Procedures have been established for separation of all wastes, including measurement and monitoring.
• Students are learning by doing through their implementation of the procedures put in place.

Key issues

• Not knowing what I didn’t know​ about commissioning the composting equipment.
• Internal administrative delays​.
• Allowing time to experiment with the composter​.
• Standardising procedures – who is responsible for what?​
• Figuring out what to do with all our compost!

Performance against targets

• 80-100% projected reduction in food waste to landfill​.
• 36% reduction in cardboard waste from re-use​.
• 50% reduction in paper waste to landfill.
• Service and product cycle times maintained.

Lessons learnt

• Waste reduction, landfill re-direction and opportunities for resource efficiency are everywhere.​
• At every step of the way, you need to have buy-in from the people you are relying on for success.​
• I learnt about the ​action learning process and ​how it was applied in the BREP program.