Two South Australian entrepreneurs have developed a composting technology that will turn organic waste into fertiliser within a matter of hours.

The device, which was developed by Lewis Dunnigan and Benjamin Morton, promises to reduce the amount of green waste going to landfill and provide a simple, efficient alternative to traditional waste disposal processes.

The prototype is known as the VitaChar and it converts green waste into fertiliser within two to three hours, providing an efficient alternative to traditional compost bins. The bins are named after the organic charcoal-like material produced by the bins.

Adding value

Commenting on the invention VitaChar co-creator Lewis Dunnigan, notes that before VitaChar a lot of the methods to recycle green waste were very time consuming and required a lot of effort and weren’t generally very pleasant.

“It’s a very high carbon content material that when you add it to the soil it increases the soil organic matter and increases the ability of the soil to retain water. All the nutrients that were present in the feedstock are retained in that char and when you add that to the soil they become available again,” says Dunnigan.

A carbon negative alternative

“When the green waste that we put into the VitaChar bins grows, it gets its carbon from the CO2 in the air. We convert that carbon in the plant into a really stable form that lasts for thousands of years. So essentially there’s a net reduction in atmospheric carbon dioxide,” Dunnigan explains.

The first VitaChar bins are set to be released in Adelaide, Australia early next year, introduced to the market initially for restaurants that have large green waste disposal needs.