As the population continues to rise, so to does the country’s waste levels. Organic Recycling Group offers simple solutions to prevent coffee grounds and food waste from heading to landfill.
Organic Recycling Group’s (ORG) philosophy is centred on three concepts: flexibility, sustainability, and reliability. These pillars are the foundation the company is promoting in the war against waste.
To help achieve this goal, ORG provides cafés with recycling wheelie bins to collect food scraps and coffee grounds. ORG maintains its hands-on approach with cafés through regular follow ups, meetings, and a 24/7 customer hotline.
“We provide a service that helps increase cafés recycling rate, collects their waste, and generates a monthly or quarterly report showing them how much organic waste they have diverted from landfill,” says ORG Sales Manager Jon Shaw.
“The cafés are in control of when they get their bins collected. We understand small businesses are busy, so we wanted to make this as simple as possible. We can also provide signage, so consumers know what goes into the bins and we train staff on why it’s important they use them.”
Jim McBurney, General Manager of ORG, says he learnt of the need for an organics waste system from observing the increasing rate produce and materials were being sent to landfill.
“From there, it became a passion project. There is a need to preserve our planet for future generations. There is seven million tonnes of food waste generated every year in Australia, and most of that goes to landfills. Our system not only provides a solution for your organic waste, but a complete recycling system for all waste streams,” he says.
In addition to the environmentally friendly services they provide, Jim hopes that ORG’s waste program will help cafés see cost saving benefits.
“Coffee grounds are very heavy. If cafés are disposing of them in a general waste bin, overweight charges can be applied. Organic bins are designed to have a higher weight limit for coffee grounds, food, and waste, saving cafés those additional charges,” he says.
ORG’s service can also accept compostable packaging such as BioPak coffee cups and can ensure they are transported to the appropriate facility and converted into compost.
“We’re taking our organic waste to an anerobic digestion facility called Earth Power in New South Wales, which converts organic waste into green energy and organic fertiliser. If an organic waste bin has compostable packaging in it, we take it to Soil Co, a composting facility which converts food, garden, and compostable waste into nutrient-rich compost over a six-week period,” he says.
Jim and Jon agree that the buck doesn’t stop with cafés and are encouraging shopping centres, restaurants, and businesses to employ recycling services as landfills rapidly fill.
“As the population grows, we as a country are running out of landfill space. ORG provides a total waste solution for businesses, ensuring the highest percentage of waste is diverted from landfill and recycled or converted into green electricity, compost and fertiliser,” Jim says.
For more information, visit www.org.com.au
This article appears in FULL in the June edition of BeanScene Magazine. Subscribe HERE.
