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2:18PM Wednesday 03 December, 2008

Market plans scheme to reduce carbon footprint

28 August 2008

| By Blythe Seinor

The loop goes something like this.

First, the farmer brings his products to the Eumundi Markets.

Then stallholders buy products from the farmer and serve their cooked food on packaging that can be composted.

The people who eat the cooked food put their scraps and packaging into a well-marked compost bin system.

The compost material is taken to a storage facility before it is transported back to Eumundi State School and added to a worm farm.

The P and C and the students run the worm farm and sell the worm juice at the Eumundi Markets.

The farmer buys the worm juice from the school, he takes the juice back to his farm, and the whole loop starts again.

That’s the plan to reduce the carbon footprint of the Eumundi Markets.

“We’re a long way down the track to it as far as our head space and where we’re going,” market manager Peter Homan said. “We’re in the final throes of getting all the infrastructure in.”

Mr Homan said the idea had been talked about for years but was finally taking shape.

“We’re going to reduce our carbon footprint and make this among the world’s best practises.”

The Eumundi Markets has also taken part in a waste audit to see how it can reduce its landfill and to ensure resources are not being wasted.

Permaculture teacher Janet Millington said it was vital for communities to band together the way Eumundi had to ensure access to food supplies in the future.

She was the driving force behind the Sunshine Coast Transition Region, a group which encourages local people to develop relationships with local food suppliers to reduce reliance on petrol.

“It’s important to try and build up a relationship between consumer and producer, so that when food becomes expensive or hard to get relationships will hold strong and we’ll have food security,” Janet said.

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