Table To Earth

How did Table to earth begin?

TabletoEarth is a small start-up business whose mission is to provide businesses with sustainable packaging solutions and the opportunity to divert that packaging, together with food waste, from landfill through composting.

Why do you do what you do? What is your mission and vision for the future

TabletoEarth mission is for a zero waste society, through using certified compostable packaging and closing the loop by composting food and packaging waste.

Composting organic materials at home and in large-scale facilities is part of a growing trend in Australia to better manage and re-use organic material. How does Table to earth fit into Australia’s composting story?

TabletoEarth is a compost collector for Hospitality, Schools, Offices and residential. The compost is then taken to an industrial compostor for composting

How do you manage the risk of contamination to organic waste? I.e. non-compostable waste making its way into the waste collection bin.

TabletoEarth manages the end user contamination. We do this through educating the end user in the form of staff talks on contamination and the benefits of composting, school talks on composting.

Have you had to adapt your processes to accept certified compostable packaging?

No.

Do you have to maintain any standards or certifications for the compost?

EarthPower, our composting partner, holds the certifications.

As a compost collection partner, Table to earth is facilitating the waste collection and commercial composting of food waste and compostable packaging. What happens after the waste is collected? What does the composting process look like at Table to earth?

TabletoEarth has partnered with EarthPower Australia’s first anaerobic digestion facility where the gas from organic waste is harnessed for Energy and the residual organic material is converted into nutrient rich compost/fertiliser for use throughout Australia

Who are your major customers?

Cafes, Schools and Offices

What are some of the challenges with composting?

Hygiene, most compost bins are outside and can be heavily influenced by weather and bugs. Which can then turn a lot of customers away from composting

How much compost do you produce in a year?

Over 50 tonnes.

What is the best way for people to advocate for commercial composting in their city?

We need to have better infrastructure in place for composting. At the moment, a lot of cities are not set up for large scale industrial composting. We need the infrastructure first and more industrial composting facilities, as well as more trucks on the road being able to collect compost frequently. We also need to drive the price down for collections. Once we have achieved that then we can start to look at mass scale composting