Two local businesses have teamed up as part of a joint venture to reduce waste and promote sustainable agriculture.
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Brady's Lookout Cider and Terra Preta Developments have adopted the principles of a circular economy, taking green waste from Brady's orchard and turning it into reusable biochar.
Co-owner of Brady's Lookout Cider Caroline Brown said the initiative sought to address what she saw as a need for more sustainable practices in the agriculture sector.
"So where before with orchard pruning we just put branches in a pile and burned them and that released all the carbon. With biochar we can store that in the soil," she said.
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She said traditional burn-offs were uncontrolled so the green waste burned down to nothing and expelled the carbon.
"When you put wood on a fire you're getting a high heat that burns down and what it does is effectively just burns the wood and released the carbon," she said
"With biochar, you're still doing a burn but it's a more effective burn and you're not burning that fibre down to ash. You're actually making charcoal so you're maintaining the structure of that material and it retains the carbon within.
"You're able to put that material in the soil as a fertiliser and it retains that carbon over time because you're not burning it down to ash."
Terra Preta Developments owner Frank Strie said he had been researching and producing biochar for 14 years and explained the process had benefits beyond trapping carbon.
According to Mr Strie, additional waste like animal manure could be added to the biochar process known as flood quenching.
"We have a certain way to inject liquid manure into the kiln so that it will quench and cool down the hot char, which means it gets coated. What was a very smelly affair in a pig farm turns into a completely odourless fertiliser," he said.
The project was being funded by the Northern Tasmania Waste Management Group and Northern Tasmania Development Corporation under their circular economy grant scheme, with Ms Brown and Mr Stire contributing additional funds.
Ms Brown said the project reflected the values of her business. "Our focus is very much on reusing, repurposing, up-cycling and reducing waste where we can," she said.
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