Bega's bid to become a circular economy to reduce waste ♻️ 🐔 🐄 🥛🧀 🗑️ | ABC Australia

The global population of just over eight billion uses nearly two planets worth of resources a year.
Organised and wide-scale recovery, recycling and reuse of those resources instead of throwing them away is known as 'circularity'.
Banks, big consultancies and universities are backing Bega in New South Wales to have Australia's first regional circular economy.
It starts with chooks, includes wood waste and whey, sea urchins and shells and ends with household green waste.
And it's all good for farming. Pip Courtney reports.
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[@debbierobins4155]

What a fantastic group of people, I hope more Australians hear about the work being done in Bega and follow suit. Great job Bega.

[@ichifish]

Thank you for this inspiring video, ABC. As an American I'm particularly impressed by the environmental knowledge and political will evident in this rural community. I have faith that Barry Irvin's ambitious plan will come to fruition. Good luck, Bega Group and the community!

[@bertanelson8062]

Glad to see this coming to fruition somewhere. These are ideas that flourished in the 70's, then again in the 90's with permaculture taking the forefront then. Perhaps finally the time has come for it to take hold. By the way, "dumps" or "landfills" always used to be open not only for people bringing but for those who were looking for items. When they were closed, that avenue for recycling stopped. Let's have more co-ops, volunteer groups & small farmers/gardeners get involved. Many people have great ideas they've worked out on their own.

[@abelangjq]

Reusing waste outputs from one organism(company) as inputs for another, truly an ecosystem, truly circular, very exciting! Personally, I feel every household should get into gardening, composting, and reusing their food scraps as compost as well.

[@stephenwhitworth7701]

Thankyou Land Line, thankyou folk of the Bega Valley, what a fantastic outcome. What a great demonstration of what people at the community level can ignite. The change that can be a blueprint, set repeat and set repeat. My sincere praise and thanks. wow

[@kevdimo6459]

Wow I’m one of those people who has never heard of Circular Economy. I’m 61 years old, and should’ve known about it. I’m not surprised by the fact that it’s happening in the Bega valley, i lived not far away in the Eurobodalla shire region. It’s a great part of Australia and deserves to be a leader in this endeavour. I wish all the players the best in their individual careers, that brings this philosophy to fruition. 👍🏼

[@caravanlifenz]

To be fair, circularity is just a new word for permaculture. Growing up in NZ, there was a family we hung out with that lived entirely off-grid, using a composting toilet, growing their own food, and wearing only woollen and cotton clothes. They called it a permaculture lifestyle, but these days people are calling it circularity.

[@seastar3909]

Brilliant! Needed Australia wide and worldwide asap!

[@cinemaipswich4636]

Mobile Chicke Coops have been praised for the single property holder. Now it seem to be a "block of flats" of chickens. Looks good.

[@amesbabom]

This really gives me hope, to see industry and farmers taking the lead

[@DiHandley]

This really is pure genius. The word “waste” needs to be changed to “resource”. It really is win win win. I’ll be watching this very carefully!

[@Janmification]

The chooks sound happy. Good idea.

[@thedudescar674]

Thanks Landline, we need to see the bright clever rural people doing and ' getting ' what many have been pushing for decades ' circularity'. The next push is to pursue this nationally and use the knowledge to improve all our landscapes👍

[@kellyyager3780]

Thank you so much for introducing this project to Australia, Bega! Brilliant! I regularly watch a Brit who has a monthly clip of Good News. I would love to see Bega’s Circular Economy on that channel. Europe and parts of Asia and North America are the headlines in the work they are doing to protect environments, reintroduce keystone animals e.g. the beaver has been reintroduced to London rivers; and the efforts of particularly Northern European countries to educate the everyday consumer that everything doesn’t go in the red bin. Different methodologies will work in different cities and towns but the end goal needs to be the same. Brilliant story ABC. Cheers

[@ommanipadmehung3014]

Haha I know that guy 😀

[@Uenaeons]

Introducing it to Australia? People have been doing this in the Northern Rivers for well over 20 years. :( sad, credit is only given where and when the media spotlight chooses.

[@michaelcauser474]

Fantastic view of a community working together to achieve a great result. My bins normally go out once a month, being a small Red general waste bin, a large yellow recycle bin and now a green food and similar recycle bin. I still see overflowing red bins out every week in this suburb and can only think how wasteful, or just plain lazy/can't be bothered, so many families are. I look forward to seeing this process grow throughout Aus.

[@fitnessfoodflow3785]

First time hearing these terms but as an environmental health scientist the circular economy is the only way to live. Product makers should also use circularity as their standard. I've had the same ideas (stop explaining and show to experience it, learn and allow adoption naturally. Am sure this will be a huge success, I hope all the world's eyes are watching your excellent work. Thank you! Now let's go! ❤🎉❤

[@SoniaH-m4g]

It’s a fantastic way to move back to, I really hate this throw away culture that we have adapted worldwide. When I was growing up my grandfather farmed with nothing new, implements and things were made to last a century - often 2nd hand, 3rd hand etc etc now they are made to last 10 years maybe….if you can find parts.

[@joblo341]

Great ideas. We need to see more like it. Innovation driven from the ground up rather than by government.

[@OR10777BE]

Absolutely inspirational people. It is really exciting to hear that seaweed farming can participate in this circular system Bega are championing! I’m not alone in hoping to see Australian seaweed become an affordable and readily available product at the grocer’s.

[@geekswithfeet9137]

There is huge additional benefit to bringing sea nutrients back into agriculture. Particularly iodine, which has been proven to reduce methane production of cattle by up to 99%

[@JohnFry-sm1fb]

Labiotech had an interesting article on that in 2021. Feed Additives Put the Brakes on Cattle Methane Emissions

[@brianohehir9515]

This is just fantastic! At last a strategy that moves towards the cycles of nature. Thanks aunty for spreading the word!

[@tazsnoop1044]

Good on them all , now the rest of Australia needs to take note and do

[@nksb3530]

It's wonderful to have some good and optimistic news reported about australian agriculture. Really enjoyed watching this.

[@peterohman8469]

It’s good to see Australia isn’t falling behind as usual. I hope to get there and have a look for myself soon.

[@loverlyme]

I love Landline. I only lived in the far west of NSW for less than a decade but I've been addicted to new (and some old revisited) ideas for doing farming better. I have no idea why there is so much waste around, except that there are far too many ignorant people who are stuck in their ways. I'm glad Landline can tap into some of what is proving to be helpful to transmit to those in agriculture and fishing industries. If only I could get more of my local coffee shops and businesses to see that their waste does not need to be wasted. I have to go outside of my local council area to pick up left over coffee beans to reuse! No-one in my area will donate them. They'd rather throw them in the trash. I use them to keep crawling bugs off my plants (in a tiny courtyard); to make mosquito repelling candles for use in summer; and to add to my compost bin. Thankfully, my local fishmonger has seen sense to supply me with some discarded parts of fish at a good rate. I've upped my protein levels by using discarded fish skins to make healthy keto or carnivore crisps and make fish stock. I'm sure there's so much more that can be done if only we, even as individuals, knew what supplies (ie other's waste) were available. It doesn't have to happen on a big scale only.

[@JohnFry-sm1fb]

You may find a use for the larvae of the Black Soldier Fly. If they're new, just search for related blogs and commercial websites. The BSF is a composter's dream critter, if the temperature they generate is managed. Darling Ingredients acquired EnviroFlight, which was the innovator that developed the industrial systems for growing the BSF larvae. They harvested prior to maturity and made dried meal for feeding poultry and farmed fish. Darling Ingredients describes itself as an enabler of Circular Economies: quote: As a world leader in circularity, we transform materials from the animal agriculture and food industries into valuable ingredients. Ingredients that nourish people, feed animals and crops, and fuel the world with renewable energy. This is supported through three segments within our operations: Feed, Food and Fuel. For those of us who are a tad more local than that, there's always Soldier Fly Technologies which has a great online presence, and there are also a number of hobby BSF sites out there that spun off the original BSF blog of a guy named Jerry who was a fishpond man in Georgia USA who routed his mature grubs via PVC tubing from their compost bins (which they leave when they mature to go find a dry place to pupate) to right over the center of his ponds, where the fish awaited their 30% protein 40% fat treats.

[@myrasri9688]

Looks like ‘circularity’ is the new term for Cooperation or Collaboration…. Great to see what Bega Valley is doing!!! 👏 🌟

[@grahamtempleton6479]

Fantastic, absolutely fantastic.👍👍👍

[@joshmarean9307]

Wow! Nice work everyone. You’re inspiring me here in the states. Thanks for reporting on this 💜

[@fredrickmutyaba-nw1vj]

Our environment is in better balance with such innovations.🎉

[@2Looo88]

@SouthAfrica please watch and learn. There are really smart people in this world, thanks for the inspiration. I have 270 hectares of farmland and absolutely nothing is happening on it 😢😢 what a shame!

[@jolindo6724]

A commercial pig farmer in SA uses their effluent to breed flies that become feed for the commercial chicken farm next door, so the thinking is there already keep youe research

[@JohnFry-sm1fb]

@@jolindo6724 synchronicity - I just responded to @loverlyme right above your post about that very subject.

[@sharonbryce7724]

❤ smart move. I will look into moving to Bega. This is the kind of community I want to live in

[@Bennie32831]

This is how many larger farm's could get chicken poo on crops with minimal cost it's a good diversity plan for the farmers and the people who want to farm animals stack away

[@orionbetelgeuse1937]

So, tell me how chickens eating plants that contain the nutrients from the soil and then taking the eggs which contain those nutrients and leaving only the poop which contain only a small part of the ingested nutrients will make the land more fertile. Also the chickens cannot produce nitrogen compounds from the air, they tae the nitrogen from the soil and only a part of them are excreted the rest remains in the eggs and in the meat of the chickens. In fact without fertilizers the land will be depleted.

[@kitsurubami]

This is the best video i've seen in a long time

[@cassandraknight8804]

Excellent. Good to see.

[@MichaelSmith-px1ev]

Seaweed and kelp discoveries are the biggest opportunity of the world. Amazing stuff.

[@janeandrews4850]

I worked in sugar industry years ago. Apart from sugar products the bagasse was used to run mill and mill mud went back to the farms to fertilise soil

[@nikiTricoteuse]

Well done Bega. I hope many more people will follow your example. I'm only sorry your eggs aren't available here in Aotearoa.

[@fleachamberlain1905]

Buildings being able to be recycled is great as long as the buildings are made to last as long as possible first (something that isn't current practice), which I don't think was mentioned. Reduce (in this case, through longevity) is the first principle. Recycle is the third.

[@treefarm3288]

I built my own house in the 1980s and part of my plan was to make it easily disassemblable, while still being cyclone resistant. I'm still in it.

[@heavyduty2280]

nice one Barry and everyone involved

[@user-ms1uz7th1w]

Excellent ideas!

[@Lili-ls7um]

That is wonderful I like Bega anyway but now I have even more incentive to keep it up.

[@lansvale28]

Good on em. Great people doing great things.

[@courtneynewey]

Can't wait for updates!

[@lesliedevlin8501]

Thanks i all ways watch LAND LINE on Sunday 12.30pm ABC Les from Perth 🎯🎯🎯

[@bertclements]

You forgot to mention the "Right to Repair". Too many things we buy are unrepairable and end up in the landfill. Also, companies practice the sinister act of "planned obsolescence" so you will have to buy another one of the same item in a few years.

[@salivadriven]

How inspirational. I live on Kangaroo Island and this model would fit so well into our community. Transport costs on and off island are crippling.

[@ConstableRinkels]

Damn my Dutch banker friends didn't tip me off :(

[@earthtreeangel]

So wonderful 👏

[@ray.shoesmith]

God bless all these people

[@jolindo6724]

Thank God we are addressing the waste of consumerism and using nature's attributes for solutions.....very long overdue, this is the future. Work with nature not arrogantly against it by destroying it, this is sustainable

[@shirleyal-jabi1503]

Just drop WEF and net zero Carbon talk . This is common sense and win win .

[@hydrosonic]

Fantastic concept, hope it goes far. Loved the story more of this please.

[@Sale-qh5ns]

I used to live a round Lockyer valley , Ipswich and i can see some of these.

[@GloryDaze73]

❤Thank you for good news! Wish the governments would integrate more of this.

[@roblaing7706]

Awesome Folks!👍

[@TheRightONe-et3gh]

Basically what small farmers did for centuries...

[@cmw3737]

This is what we all need more of but who calls something as traditional as cooperative farming "enterprise stacking"?

[@CourtneyBryceHilton]

Awesome stuff!

[@Yuo23]

This is awesome I’m game this will definitely work . I’ve thought it’s only a matter befor landfills become metal recovery

[@glenpryce]

A great news story😊

[@atanacioluna292]

Bega and its neighbors can do one more big service for Australia. Pluvicopia shows how they could harness the plentiful moisture in the air during the humid months to produce massive water for the watershed into Adeleid. The process produces arable land, consumes CO2, and produces vast electrical energy flows. Please read it. The book has contact information if you are interested.

[@christianhendry7136]

My home town ❤

[@denisross2923]

An exciting project but so many other problems intrude associated with intense urbanisation, housing and the throwaway society

[@fanaticforager6610]

Biomimicry ~ Bega the Better 💯%✅

[@sandrahughes3821]

Well done..

[@feemcdonald4423]

Brilliant 👏

[@sventer198]

I’m moving. You speak my language Bega valley!

[@markumbers5362]

Barry is a very smart person. I wonder what he thinks about precision fermentation. This could completely wipe out the dairy industry world wide. It would be interesting to get his take on it.

[@monalisas1074]

As a child (who nobody listens to) this is what I imagined when I read the 'Old Macdonalds had a farm and on his farm he had some .. xyz's' Circular economy. This news brings me so much joy. Projects like this should shift the population. Australia is an amazing country, Green and Gold it is.

[@loverlyme]

I hope the chicken's are doing well in Bega still- with no sign of bird flu!

[@KellyMPVM]

Pioneers? How colonised is that perspective and language!

[@nevnuance3480]

Great story - thank you!

[@jolindo6724]

Over packaging is a big contribution to waste

[@3rdrock]

I'm going to make a point of buying Bega cheese from now on.

[@Withnail1969]

A circular economy is impossible according to the laws of thermodynamics.

[@kremesti]

Very very good video

[@tioraytm]

The truth is most cardboard and plastics may be put into recycle bins in homes but most then still goes to waste, and they hide this fact.

[@Ibanezboy21]

love this

[@tathradjs5824]

Better stop calling it " Waste " better to call any byproduct "Residue ". This is one of the most inspiring motivational process's I have seen. Good on you Barry. This will go a long way. Doug. A Bega Valley Resident.

[@deesalkelly3069]

more info please - what a great video....please keep following this

[@gartjone1846]

Love it. Well done

[@ommanipadmehung3014]

So brilliant 👏

[@tristansilk4754]

Almost enough to convince me to move back!

[@jolindo6724]

If you create a product be required to address the recycling of it for the future

[@norkhach1715]

Its excellent, but don’t do as Netherlands did forcing farmers going out of business; do it right slow and efficient!

[@darcyw3174]

Awesome to see. Great stuff Bega 🤙

[@harrypotter506]

That's living Barry!

[@cassieoz1702]

Bega cheese is absolutely NOT what it used to be. Bland, un-matured, not worth buying. Did Barry do that?

[@EveryoneWhoUsesThisTV]

Nice work Barry! :) I hope more publicly listed companies follow BEGA's example and see more investment as a result....

[@goldcoasttime]

19 million dollars, seriously someone making bank

[@EmilyBieman]

It’s great you have comments now

[@donfields1234]

Community, power to the people, circular economy, or I like to call it permaculture society. Everything and everyone helps everything and everyone else out... no waste only supply for other necessary components of the society. Waste not want not, nature/the universe has been successfully operating this way from day one. Humanity just needs to see and understand the big picture, then it is blatantly obvious that is the best structure for stable, harmonious, strong, enduring, logical societies. Common sense becomes common when living this way. Free your minds and your butts will follow. 🎉

[@richardmartyn7865]

Still have to feed the chooks...and they naturally graze under trees..Many big birds will attack

[@gareth5000]

They'll put your rates up!

[@lokesh303101]

Yes! Green Solutions for Fuel, Energy, Metal, Materials, Green Compounds, and Biomass, Requires Bioeconomy for Environmental Friendliness.

[@Insafpassand]

It’s a good idea, but top soil is full of glass and wood chips…

[@TheKingsGarden1]

Exciting to see results and I'm all for it. This is pioneering to the next gold rush. But realistically unless it creates jobs and flow on effects to communities. It will appear as a hippies pipe dream.

[@kali5587]

Well done 🎉

[@treefarm3288]

Perhaps a plan could be suggested for smaller areas, like our Cassowary Coast Region.

[@WSWC_]

Good trade

[@leighmurrell5494]

Great story.