COMMUNITY WASTE COLLECTIVES

TRANSITIONING LOCAL BUSINESSES TOWARDS
A CIRCULAR WASTE ECONOMY

A collaborative industry partnered approach to waste from high streets to high rise.
Below are the Material Streams we are tackling, select the stream to see where it goes...

STEP UP FOR CIRCULARITY AND REGENERATION

OUR PLANET IS IN PERIL

There’s a growing waste epidemic that’s harming our planet and represents a threat we must defeat.

Research has indicated that one million tonnes of food is discarded by the hospo industry every year, releasing methane, ploughing excessive plastic into our oceans, damaging the environment and wreaking havoc on our climate. It’s time for our businesses to rise up and take a stand. The Community Waste Collectives program was conceived for the Hospitality and Food Service industry in inner city urban precincts. Our campaign aims to spur businesses into action and be a part of a circular transition, to reduce annual wasted food and and improve overall business waste practices. Let’s rethink our waste and packaging choices, and help you switch up your business to circular products and services.

We’re on the precipice of change. Will you step up to the plate?

PROGRAM BENEFITS

We make circular waste programs accessible in our cities to enable local communities to transition towards zero waste practices.

Learn and engage with Circular Suppliers

Lower your carbon footprint and overall environmental impact

Save money on supplies and waste management fees by purchasing as a collective

Improve your value proposition to climate conscious customers

Overcome spatial constraints and increase your source separation capacity

Identify resources from your business that can go to circular and regenerative products

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SHIFT FROM LINEAR TO CIRCULAR AND REGENERATIVE

Lower your carbon footprint by streamlining waste - from procurement to operations. Our program works to make supply and demand mutually beneficial with our planet as the real client, as we broker circular solutions for waste generators and those who make good stuff out of waste.

BECOME A BUSINESS WASTE WARRIOR: A PHASED STEP BY STEP APPROACH

Be the change you want to see. Our phased approach lets you select which material streams to start with and then address other streams as your business is ready.

CASE STUDY: YOUR COFFEE GROUNDS + FOOD WASTE CAN GROW YOUR URBAN FOOD

By joining our program, our micro-collections for coffee grounds and food waste goes to our mycelium circular supplier to create an urban microloop, growing edible mushrooms for your food business.

CASE STUDY: MAKE REUSEABLE CONTAINERS THE NORM

It's time to say goodbye to single use plastic takeaway. One of our Circular Suppliers produces containers made from the world's first Certified Ocean Bound Plastic. They take plastic that would wind up in the ocean, and recycle it to make something that replaces single-use. Replated also recycle the containers at end of life, making reuse containers a truly circular product.

READY TO TACKLE YOUR WASTE STREAMS OR JOIN OUR CIRCULAR SUPPLIER NETWORK?

BUSINESS

I want my business to be more circular

BUSINESS

I want my business to be more circular

GET STARTED

SUPPLIER

I provide circular products and services

SUPPLIER

I provide circular products and services

GET INVOLVED

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Mobilise your neighbours and clan up for climate change.

Why have a Community Waste Collective?

While we've become a bit of the city's top urban composting geeks over the past 3 years, while engaging with our members - we realised we kept tripping over other tricky waste streams. Food waste is connected to not just food scraps, but the serving ware and packaging that comes along with it, be it compostable coffee cups and straws, takeaway containers etc. With the single use plastic ban looming in Feb 2023, a decision was made - why can't we do more? Instead let's create a circular economy family network and work collaboratively to supercharge our social and environmental impact under one unified urban waste program.

What is a Community Waste Collective?

The community waste collectives (CWC) is a circular waste program designed to tackle common waste streams from urban businesses. The CWC program is designed with a place-based approach, where our team will help each newly onboarded member identify present day waste management practices and costs, and help form a "community waste collective" to broker access to lower pricings, decreased transportation costs, improve waste infrastructure to handle increased source separaration. Through Cirque du Soil, The collective is able to benefit from jointly developed circular tailored solutions with industry partners and local businesses.

Why are there 9 material streams?

We started with 3 streams, and 3 suppliers, and within the span of a year this has grown to 9 material streams and 16 suppliers. Closing the loop on all the waste streams we have identified is a pretty painstaking labour of love and not an overnight process. Some of our suppliers are startups, while some are established organisations. This program itself is an evolving ecosystem in itself as we find ways to meet supply and micro recycling and manufacturing demand. What we're doing is fostering new Circular products and opportunities, and with it comes new businesses to bring in as an active solution to share with our CWC members. We don't have all the solutions yet, but we're working towards it!

What streams do you recommend we prioritise first?

As part of our program kick off, the priority material streams we'd love for you to crack on with first are:- Food Waste - Reuse Containers / Bags - Compostable / Edible Packaging - Soft PlasticsWith these alone, you'd make a significant dint in your waste management practices and we've made these to be as easy as pie to adapt to.

Who can join?

For now, all hospitality businesses in the City of Yarra can participate in our Year 1 pilot - that includes cafes, restaurants, takeaways, pubs, bars (and wine bars!), bakeries, breweries, deli's ... if you sell food we'll be there!

As our program and networks mature, it will be offered to development projects including retail, office blocks and apartments.

What does it cost?

Currently we are offering the first 10 hospitality businesses in the City of Yarra free 1 year membership to join our circular waste program. Once all the spots are filled, our membership cost is $9.90 a month (Ex GST).

Why is there a membership fee?

Your membership to our program includes bespoke consultation and your initial circular waste proposal to help your transform your business's waste practices, and supports the continual development and evolution of our circular waste initiatives, allows us to build out our team and provide on the ground training to be, on the ground (pun intended), increase awareness and knowledge of climate issues and to directly engage with communities for our street campaigns. Any profit propels our purpose for planet.

What does the phased step by step approach to the campaign window stickers mean?

Committing to 9 material streams right off the bat is a bit crazy, we know. This isn't an overnight process. So we've designed a phased step by step approach to the window sticker badging system, specific to your chosen material streams that you'd like to tackle first. Once you know you want your business to show your customers the commitment to going circular and zero waste, you will receive a base window sticker and a choice of 2-3 initial material streams. Once you've got these locked down with your team operations and want to go for more, you can roll the dice for the next material stream. Dealer's choice!

What are the benefits of becoming a CWC member?

- Access to our Circular Supplier Network pricings for cost benefits and discounts with collective purchasing power for services and products.
- Lower (not just yours, but your street's) carbon emissions by streamlining waste management logistics
- Increase team knowledge and education around zero waste and Circularity to anyone keen to learn how to go beyond just being “sustainable”
- Increase neighbourhood sharing capabilities and conversations with your trader neighbours. We help you identify the opportunities and connect you but bin sharing is unfortunately something that we don't manage.
- Map a business’s journey to circular transition and measure carbon emissions saved from being a CWC member, including economic, environmental and social impacts
- Increase your public visibility to customers with our window badging system, to show your commitment to fighting climate issues through your changing business and waste practices.
- Regular updates with the latest in circular products and services.

What is a Circular Supplier Network?

We had a dream... of creating a circular economy familia because quite honestly - waste is an epic issue and nobody mad enough should tackle this alone! We're creating a growing network of aligned and like minded purpose partners in the waste space who fit our circular supplier criteria.

What is your Circular Supplier Criteria?

Our circular supplier criteria is a set of data points and measurements designed to help assess potential and existing members of the Cirque du Soil Circular Supplier Network. We use this as a guide while working with each circular supplier network partner to understand the overall circularity of their business model, services and product/s, and to ensure alignment with the Community Waste Collective program goals.

What is the benefit of joining as a Circular Supplier?

Think of us as your outsourced community engagement team. Our goal is to:

- Build up our industry partners profiles and showcase their circular products and services.
- Weigh in on “circularity” in improvements to our business models through our circular supplier criteria assessment.
- Instead of a single business measuring individual environmental/social impact, to harness our collective impact across purpose driven Australian startups and organisations.
- We identify urban resources for local makers/manufacturers needed for the manufacturing of circular products and encourage a member buyback scheme.

Why are some of the material streams activated and some not?

We care about who our circular suppliers are and where they’re at. We also don’t have all the answers - yet. The CE community in melb is growing fast, and with CWC program framework in place, this is intentionally designed to be an evolving network of both suppliers and members collaborating to establish new micro loops for new local and circular waste initiatives. Our climate problems are not going to go away overnight, so as the circular products/services market grows, so will community interest - it's an exciting thing to watch!

What's the difference between this and the Community Compost Collective?

The Community Compost Collective is now tucked under the CWC program umbrella, to honour our origin story of our composting micro loop. Basically anyone who just wants to get started with a single material stream (or if the CWC feels a bit overwhelming) can just start with composting first - hey that's 50-60% of your bin already!

READY TO TACKLE YOUR WASTE STREAMS OR JOIN OUR CIRCULAR SUPPLIER NETWORK?

HAVE A QUESTION?

Want to join the fight against urban waste? Change the narrative around our food systems?
If you’re a values aligned volunteer, NFP, business or organisation...