Residents invited to get their hands dirty at new Observatory composting site

Located on the corner of Oak Street and Ive Street, the Observatory Improvement District (OBSID) officially opened its new community composting site on Monday.

OBSID CEO, Matt Tyrrell, said the facility, located on a parcel of land beneath the bridge owned by the Passenger Rail Agency of SA (PRASA), will provide residents with a convenient place to dispose of organic waste, which will be converted into compost.

“We want to offer the community a sustainable way to manage organic waste while creating a valuable product that can be used in gardens and green spaces,” he said.

Tyrrell said OBSID purchased compost bins from a local City Bowl-based business for the project.

OBSID also got permission to use that patch of land from PRASA.

Residents will be able to drop off organic waste such as fruit and vegetable scraps, coffee grounds, tea bags, crushed eggshells, small amounts of bread and rice, cut flowers, and dead plants.

However, meat, dairy products, oils, plastics, and animal faeces will not be accepted.

OBSID has partnered with a local garden maintenance business, which will also operate a nursery from the site.

Once the organic waste has been processed into compost, it will be sold to the public.

Revenue generated from sales will help maintain the facility and support the business partner.

Ward 57 councillor, Yusuf Mohamed, welcomed the initiative, saying it would help divert waste from landfill sites.

“We already have recycling programmes in the community, and now we are taking more organic waste away from landfill and into this composting site,” he said.

Mohamed added that urban communities need to find innovative and sustainable ways to process waste.

“I am grateful to the Observatory Improvement District for this initiative,” he said.

Local business partner, Llewellyn Nomdoe, said he assisted with establishing the site and designing its layout.

“It is a brilliant initiative that can help get the community involved,” he said.

The OBSID Community Composting Site will be open from Monday to Saturday, from 9am to 5pm, and on Sundays from 9am to 1pm. 

For more information, visit OBSID.

The community initiative comes on the back of the newly launched Coastal Park Material Recovery Facility (MRF) in Muizenberg.

The R434 million City-funded facility diverts recyclable materials from landfill by reselling it back to manufacturers to produce new products.

The state-of-the-art facility is designed to receive recyclables collected through the City’s door-to-door recycling collections programme.

The mixed recyclables – such as plastics, paper, cardboard, glass and metals – are then separated and prepared for re-sale to manufacturing industries where they are used to produce new products.

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