In May 2021, as part of the National Soils Strategy, the Australian Government announced the Food Waste for Healthy Soils (FWHS) Initiative in the Federal Budget. This project is part of the supporting elements, which seeks to facilitate the production of clean and safe recycled organic products by reviewing and updating the Australian Standard for Composts, Soil Conditioners and Mulches (AS4454-2012) and/or by developing other supporting mechanisms and approaches needed to achieve these goals. The diversion of organic residues from landfill for use as soil conditioners and mulches has many potential benefits for soil health and production. The FWHS initiative aims to help support this through various mechanisms aimed at facilitating the production of clean, safe and high quality recycled organic products. Updating and modernising AS4454 is a key part of this strategy. DCCEEW required an expert group of consultants to deliver a complete review of AS 4454 and supporting elements.
The project is led by Dr Kevin Wilkinson from Frontier Ag & Environment supported by partners from Science into Action, Murrang Earth Sciences, Australian Environment Agency, and the University of Queensland – CROWN. Find out more information from the project website: www.as4454review.com.au
What we did
Starting in August 2023, this project has involved leading the collaborative engagement approach for the project team to deeply engage core stakeholders to review the Standard, and the supporting elements like feedstock inputs, contractual arrangements, regulatory levels, policy frameworks, circular economy benefits and impacts, and many more elements in the full supply chain from inputs to products.
Leading the engagement process and design, we created a process for input from participants across the supply chain akin to a lite co-design approach. Known as Core Stakeholders, these major players in the supply chain (e.g., processing industry, regulators, support consultants, end-users etc) assisted in defining the problems to be solved, testing options for solutions, and road-testing the practicality of the options suggested.
Updating (or supporting DCCEEW to update) the multiple layers of competing and interested stakeholders across the organics supply chain / circular economy on progress over the 18 month project duration.
Create a pathway for implementation for the preferred options, including articulating any R&D required.
The Result
This project concluded in December 2024. While the final reports were for DCCEEW use, there is a large amount of information publicly available on the project website: www.as4454review.com.au, including public project reports and a number of detailed stakeholder updates.
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