Funded project – Building Australia’s first zero waste hub for olive growers
Australia's largest olive oil producer will build an industry-first facility to upcycle up to 28,000 tonnes of olive waste each year into new products. This will reduce waste and deliver substantial greenhouse gas reductions.
Learnings will be shared with the local olive industry to accelerate awareness and increase uptake of solutions.
Background
The Sustainable Olive Mill Waste Management Project seeks to revolutionise the handling of olive pomace waste in Australia through the implementation of a combination of recycling technologies to de-water the biomass and extract valuable components from the waste.
The production of olive oil involves the crushing of olives and separation of the oil and stone (pit). The remaining components – the olive skin, flesh and water – are known as “wet pomace waste” - is in a state the makes it unsuitable for commercial use. Occasionally is it spread as mulch with no economic gain.
Boundary Bend Olives has spent 5 years extensively researching wet pomace to identify the most ideal solution to reduce waste and create value. This project will implement this solution on a large scale to capture more circular economy opportunities.
Objectives
- Create a new olive waste processing facility with the capacity to transform up to 28,000 tonnes of olive waste material into new products each year.
- Create 4 new circular economy-based products from olive pomace waste.
- Create a new service for other olive farmers in the region to sustainably upcycle their wet pomace waste.
- To deliver a new solution which olive growers in Victoria can adopt to sustainably manage their olive pomace waste.
- To develop fertiliser products to partially displace the use of commercial fertilisers at the Boundary Bend olive plantation in regional Victoria.
- To share this new approach with the olive industry in Victoria and Australia to increase awareness of the opportunity.
Drought resistant and water efficient, the olive tree is an ideal horticultural crop for Australia.