Page 9 - Waterfall City Issue 10 October 2023

Composting process
Once Vibing Gardens is done, the Life Green Group – under
the auspices of Alfred Ayers, the division head of Life and
Earth and Wilro van Zyl, Waterfall City’s local compost guru,
step in to collect and transfer the food waste to the Heron
IVC, now situated on our local compost site.

Olives & Plates Restaurant in the From there, the food waste is weighed and added to the
Cassini Tower of Ellipse Waterfall
Heron IVC. It is shredded while an auger mixes the batch
and then ‘cooked’ to 60 degrees by the biological processes
taking place on a micro-level. The auger continues
mixing the compost, ensuring aeration throughout the
container vessel. After a few weeks of mixing, the waste is
transformed into pre-compost, where it can be mixed with
garden waste to obtain the right balance of nutrients and
maturity.

“We are looking at other residential associations to join
the movement as they are significant role players within
Waterfall City,” adds Spies. “Of course, this does not mean
that commercial activities have ground to a halt. For
instance, Food Lovers Market at Waterfall Ridge, under
the helm of Etienne de Kock, a passionate and forward-
thinking business owner, has retained our food waste
management services after the pilot project, which we are
thankful for.

this is the start of great things to come with more entities Another local contributor to the programme is Kyalami
keen to join,” says Spies. Estate. Even though these two suppliers fall outside the
Waterfall City precinct, we love our neighbours and hope
The statistics emphasise the impact. Before launching to assist as far as possible.”
the food waste management campaign, Waterfall City’s
recycling performance was at 31%, where general items For Ellipse Waterfall’s Estate Manager, Branden Lizemore,
such as bottles, cans, plastic and so on were the only initiatives such as these are essential to building a better
recycled materials. While this scenario can be considered par future for everybody. “Creating organic compost from
for the course for most businesses (industry dependent) and food waste is a good initiative as you create much-needed
residential entities in South Africa, the more than 2,000kg of jobs. All of us are looking for a cleaner environment and
waste going to landfill per month was not ideal. However, we want to continue raising awareness of this important
since Ellipse Waterfall joined this initiative in August 2022, programme. Rather than simply discarding food, our aim
there has been a complete turnaround with a 52% increase is to demonstrate how organic waste can be recycled to
in recycling performance. rejuvenate the environment.”

Furthermore, since the onboarding of Olives & Plates to the The success of any project of this magnitude is reliant
programme, food waste generation increased to 2,407kg on the collaboration of several entities. These range
in June 2023 compared to the monthly average of 885kg from private companies to municipal services working
generated from August 2022 to May 2023, which has together towards the common goal of centralised waste
significantly benefited the increase in compost and Ellipse management, driven by a circular economy.
Waterfall’s sustainability efforts.
Ultimately, Waterfall City is testament to what can be
“Reinette Schreiber and her team from Vibing Gardens achieved when communities prioritise sustainable and
have been instrumental in ensuring the quality control of environmentally conscious initiatives. Its revolutionary
the waste-sorting process. They make sure that the waste approach to waste management underscores the potential
streams are sorted accordingly, where separating wet and of integrating technology with traditional waste practices
dry waste is critical to maximise recovery,” says Spies. and the power of collective community efforts.

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