Sly, dubbed the ‘Compost King’, has recently been given the nod to expand his Waste to Wilderness operation, which turns hotel food waste into nutrient-rich compost, at a Gorge Rd site.
The project aims to divert 50 tonnes of waste and carbon each month by collecting around 25 tonnes of food waste and mixing it with the same amount of brown organics to produce compost at the 3.6 hectare site beside the Queenstown Community Gardens.
Sly says the land — under Queenstown council’s park management — couldn’t be more perfect due to its close proximity to Queenstown’s hotels, which reduces his carbon footprint by 80%.
Council’s also helped fund the land’s development through co-funding via the Environment Ministry’s Waste Minimisation Fund, which has helped cover health and safety and consenting.
Sly says he’ll be filling up to three skips with compost each week — because the compost takes four weeks to make, there’ll be 12 skips on site.
And once the compost is good to go, the community will reap the rewards.
Sly says it’ll be shared between council’s parks team and various reforestation and community groups, such as KiwiHarvest and the Queenstown Community Gardens.
Last year, Sly worked with KiwiHarvest on KiwiHomeHarvest, through which planter boxes were created and sold to residents to help them establish a home garden, using his compost.
He estimates the compost he’ll produce at the Gorge Rd site will produce enough for about 1000 families a year to get a garden up and running.
"I was talking to some people that had recently started up a couple of garden beds, and they were saving around $100 a week.
"Imagine that you do have 1000 families saving $100 a week — that’s millions of dollars a year of community impact.
"Being able to have tourism directly impact people in our community is great because it’s not only growing food, but gardening’s good for the soul, it’s great for kids and family engagement, and letting them learn to cook with what they’ve grown," he says.
