who zero waste australia is a national ngo which is listed on the environmental register of the...
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Who•Zero Waste Australia is a national NGO which is listed on the Environmental Register of the Australian Government Department of Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts.
•Kim Russell, Director of Zero Waste Australia Inc Background
•Farmer, First irrigation farm to have ISO9002 Accreditation•Leader in the first on farm greenhouse Audits in Australia(1999)•Has been working in Greenhouse issues for a decade.
•Zero Waste Australia has a determined interest in the return of organic materials from the waste stream to agricultural soils.
Atmospheric CO2 and Deuterium Temperature Anomalies over the Past 420,000 Years (Vostok Ice Core Data)
150
200
250
300
350
-10 -5 0 5
Deuterium-based Temperature Anomalies, °C
Deglaciations
Glaciations
Atm
osph
eric
pC
O2
, at
m.
IGBP 2000International Geosphere Biospehere Project
400
Year 2007 385 ppm
Grandkids(X 5) up there
We are Farming Here
Grandparents Farmed in thisEnvironment
WHY?
Example of Lifecycle Analysis (LCA)– Corn Chips from Paddock to Packet Project identified
Pre-farm (5%)
On-farm and (35%)
Post-farm (60%) (To a box of 12 x 200gm packets) • Until then there was no clear understanding of which
component/s of the chain should be concentrated on to yield the greatest GHG benefit.
• 60% of post farm emissions were in the card board box that the 12 packets of chips were placed in.
Biggest opportunities.
1. Packaging-
2. Nitrogen management
3. Soil management-
4. Water use efficiency
1. composted instead of shipped OS and back.
2. Use of nutrients from waste stream
3. reduction in draw bar power requirements, improved
4. sequestration = greater efficiency
•.
What is ZWA’s role?
Develop a robust approach to track the pathway of microbial rich organic material, (MROM) from its source to its destination incorporated into or applied onto a soil on a farm. •In the nineties- “paddock to plate” QA.•We need “Plate to Paddock” with the same confidence.
Step1 Step 2 Step 3 Step 4 Step 5 Step 6
Investment dollars In a balanced PortfolioA balanced spread of investment not all steps owned but linked.
Two way communication allows market awareness and customer satisfaction.
$
$
$$
$$
This fundamental linkage is critical for us if we are to achieveour On farm objectives.
InputsR&D and Education
The key to marketing is to link the six steps along chain from the farm to the global market place.
Commodity managementAchieving scale Primary ProcessingManufacture
Marketing BrandedProduct
Land&Water
En
vir
on
me
nta
l o
utc
om
es
3rd party audit
Selfassessment
2nd party audit
Formal EMS
Environmental Stewardship Perfromance Improvement ProgramPathway of Performance Improvement for Individual Irrigators
Process and Content
Increasing level of documentation
Self-determined Externally determined
Number of elements increases
Level of performance (includes measuring) increases
Regulatedcontent
Hypothesis: Does increased rigour of process & content lead to increased environmental outcomes?
Question: What is the shape of the curve for different elements (eg, water quality, biodiversity)?
Note: All trials consider the whole pathway
Increasing level of externality of audit
BMP’s
LWMP
HACCP
TOPCROP
WDD
EPA
Vendor Decs ISO
But how do we create a pathway so that, Solutions for Sustainability can be found?
MDBC Model for Environmental Stewardship.
WWD=What Dad Did
En
vir
on
me
nta
l o
utc
om
es
3rd party audit
Selfassessment
2nd party audit
Formal EMS
Environmental Stewardship Perfromance Improvement ProgramPathway of Performance Improvement for Individual Irrigators
Process and Content
Increasing level of documentation
Self-determined Externally determined
Number of elements increases
Level of performance (includes measuring) increases
Regulatedcontent
Hypothesis: Does increased rigour of process & content lead to increased environmental outcomes?
Question: What is the shape of the curve for different elements (eg, water quality, biodiversity)?
Note: All trials consider the whole pathway
Increasing level of externality of audit
How does this approach help pull these Components together ?
Topcrop-plus
ISO
EPA
Topcrop
BMP’s
WDD
HACCP
Vendor Decs
LWMP
MDBC Model for Environmental Stewardship. (1996)
and we can compile these to clearly identify soil carbon Status measured perhaps in value of Carbon offsets and other values.
Importantly we can accumulate actionson a scale that can demonstrate
performance at all levels.
National
RegionalOr Catchment
Farm
Field
The products we are dealing with fall into three main categories
1. Compost2. Biologically active fluid products 3. Char or Agrichar These three products all have benefits in reducing
emissions (national level), reducing waste (regional level) as well as the listed agricultural benefits at the farm (local level).
The acceptance of such new approaches will be accelerated in the current situation where
• fertiliser input costs have more than doubled in the past year.
• There is an encouraging recognition of the soils place in addressing greenhouse and farm productivity issues.– Communiqué from Carbon Farmers of Australia and
the current process of waste management is wasting valuable nutrientswasting valuable nutrients
• Compostable, clean organic material which contains the nutrients necessary for the production of food is currently lost to landfill
• Plants need between 60 to 90 nutrients, minerals and trace elements to be healthy
• Chemical fertiliser only contains a few of these
nutrients are the vitamins, minerals, and other substances in food that keep your body healthy and help it grow
farming is about food production
food is about nutrients
nutrientsnutrientsnutrientsnutrients
seeks the capture of all nutrients in organic waste for conversion into a range of high grade soil amendments
used a standard barcode to identify and reward the individual household for clean source
separation of waste
• Increased yield
• Improved crop quality
• Reduced water use
• Improved water efficiency
• Improved soil structure
• Increased microbial activity
• Reduced nutrient leakage
• Reduced fertilizer costs
• Reduced erosion
• Carbon sequestration
• Increased land value
gives the farmer these benefits: