Council's 'black gold' still on hold

MEETING strict EPA guidelines is the aim of council staff as they reprocess and test compost ahead of opening sales.

BLACK GOLD: Keen Northern Rivers gardeners look forward to when Lismore City Council will have compost for sale again. Picture: Supplied

OFTEN called 'black gold', it's a highly-prized material for which keen Northern Rivers gardeners will happily queue.

But the sale of Lismore City Council's popular organic compost are still on hold while staff reprocess and retest compost that was contaminated

The council's Commercial Services Business Development Manager, Danielle Hanigan said sales will continue only when the compost meets strict EPA guidelines.

"Council is also waiting on other batches of compost to mature," she said.

"Composting our green waste and creating a product that helps us all grow and plant more food is a smart and environmentally sound system."

Ms Hanigan said at this stage there's no date set for when compost sales will resume, but she is confident stronger controls to limit contamination have been implemented.

"This is a small hiccup that we are resolving and we will soon have the composting system back on track," she said.

"As soon as compost is available for purchase council will advise the community".

Meanwhile, Ms Hanigan urged the community to be mindful and aware of what should and should not go in green organics bins.

"Managing our waste is a whole-of-community issue and we need everyone's commitment to make our composting and recycling systems work," she said.

"There's no one locale is to blame (for the contamination), the whole community has a part to play in ensuring we have a closed loop composting system that works."

She said the council is increasing education campaigns about green waste and will continue to promote more widely in the future.

While the council declined to name the exact figure for their loss of income for compost it would have sold over past few months, Ms Hanigan said they have back orders of compost to fill.

"Once compost is ready for sale, council hopes to recoup any lost income," she said.

"Lismore has been a leader in composting for many years and normally our closed look system works incredibly well."