FOR THE RECORD : Council’s quality compost, mulch up to scratch

Today’s media coverage raising questions about the quality of compost and mulch is disappointing in its lack of balance and dispiriting in its impact on staff who work hard to produce these products.

It’s very appropriate that any local resident (or councillor) can raise hard questions about any service or product delivered by Orange City Council. Raising these questions can be the opportunity for delivering answers to those questions and produce a better-informed community.

It’s a shame when the coverage is superficially shaped only by the initial criticism and any informed, balanced, thoughtful perspective and context is only delivered in the coverage as an after-thought, at the end of an article.

Residents are again left with the impression that Orange City Council isn’t doing a good job, which again is far from the truth.

THE FACTS:

There are two different products that are available for sale from time to time at the Ophir Road Resource Recovery Centre.

Compost :

Orange City Council stands out from many in the local government sector for the quality of its waste management, and specifically for the way it produces compost, rather than by either putting waste into landfill or shipping this green waste to be dealt with by someone else.

Residents have a weekly food & garden waste (green bin) collection.

Waste from the green bins is shredded and taken to the compost tunnels at the Euchareena Rd centre. One of the facts supplied to the Central Western Daily that was not included in today’s coverage, is that at Euchareena Rd, the waste is turned into compost which is made to a very exacting Australian quality industry standard.

Unlike some commercially-available compost which is produced in open windrows, the high-temperature tunnel process at Euchareena Rd ensures the finished product contains no weeds, pathogens or other plant seeds.

Compost is generally used as a conditioner by gardeners to mix in with other soil blends to achieve a better balance of organic material. Compost isn’t generally used on its own, in situations such as top-dressing lawns. High levels of organic material means it will continue to break down as the surrounding soil improves. Gardeners know that, short-term, this can actually take nitrogen out of the soil, before the better soil outcome is finally reached. Then your veges will thrive.

While residents can buy a trailer load of the compost at the Ophir Rd Centre, most of this compost is sold in bulk by council’s contractor, JR Richards. Hundreds of tonnes of compost are sold each year to farmers, landscapers and garden supply businesses.

They spread this compost across paddocks and blend it with other materials to produce further soil products with specific purposes for specific markets.

Anyone doubting the quality of the Euchareena Rd compost could take a drive past the Jack Brabham Sportsground.

When Orange City Council re-developed the fields on the northern end of the site last season, tonnes of the high-quality Euchareena compost was blended in with the soil before new grass was planted. Now, the grass is lush and the sportsground has a soft, ideal playing surface.

Mulch:

From time to time, the Ophir Rd centre also produces and sells a very coarse wood chip.

This is produced from time to time when a travelling heavy-duty timber shredding machine, grinds dumped tree trunks and other large branches into a very coarse wood-chip product which is sold to residents.

Again, this process is another element of Orange City Council’s waste management strategy.

After branches and woody material are collected in the green bins, it is put through a shredder. Some tree trunks and large branches are too big for the Ophir Rd shredder. Instead these trunks are stock-piled until a travelling heavy-duty shredder pays a visit.

This wood chip is then sold until the pile is exhausted. Since the Ophir Rd site stopped being used for landfill, rehabilitation of the site has begun. Some of this wood-chip has been used on-site to add an extra top layer of organic material on top of the metre-deep soil, which covers the landfill site.

Compared to other mulching products available for sale in Orange, a finer mulch may be more suitable for household gardens. The very coarse woody product sold at Ophir Rd would work in a rural or landscaping setting to prevent weeds and moisture loss, but may not be as visually-appealing as finer wood chip products.

Other home gardeners prefer it as they say it helps create habitat for garden-friendly insects, and is very porous when it rains.

Either way it is a fit-for-purpose wood-chip product which can prevent weeds and retain soil moisture. A finer wood chip can be bought in Orange for around $50/cubic metre. This coarse wood-chip is sold from Ophir Rd for $19/cubic metre.

Council staff are exploring ways to make the coarse nature of the wood-chip product clearer to people before they buy it. Staff on the Ophir Rd weighbridge will now encourage customers to see the product first before they buy it, to avoid disappointment.

The bottom-line :

Orange City Council is doing a good job in the way it produces compost and wood-chip.

Coverage which highlights initial criticism and questioning without letting the answers to those questions inform a judgement about whether that story is worth running in the first place, might make an easy headline.

This kind of superficial reporting is another sign of why traditional media is losing its readers and relevance.

HEAVY-DUTY : Only the largest tree trunks, which are too big to be put through an on-site shredder, are converted top wood-chip by heavy-duty travelling machinery.