With food waste driving a measurable share of Australia's emissions, efforts to divert it from landfill start in unexpected places — including a Sydney warehouse where startup founder Olympia Yarger is busy sweeping up mouldy bread.
Yarger is hands-on at her factory in the city's west, where piles of discarded vegetables and stale loaves arrive daily from supermarkets and food producers.
Yarger, a sheep farmer turned entrepreneur, has built her business around keeping this waste out of landfills.
"We've developed a technical system that accepts and manages food waste using insects," she told SBS News.
The approach centres on automated, modular farms that use black soldier fly larvae — technically maggots — to break down food waste and convert it into animal feed and fertiliser.
Olympia Yarger, a former sheep farmer turned entrepreneur, has built her business around preventing food waste from going to landfills. Source: SBS / Sandra Fulloon
"But these are really great insects because they consume food waste as their job, and they are a non-vector, non-pest species. So they are easy to farm without risk," she said.
The environmental stakes are significant.
Lisa Bai, a research fellow at the University of Queensland's School of Chemical Engineering, said when food rots it releases methane, a greenhouse gas far more potent than carbon dioxide.
"So separating our food waste and turning it into compost has real benefits for the environment by reducing emissions," she told SBS News.
Food waste currently accounts for about 3 per cent of Australia's annual emissions, according to the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water.
Food waste accounts for about 3 per cent of Australia's annual emissions, according to the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water. Source: SBS / Sandra Fulloon
"For each household, that's around $2,500 wasted each year — a really shocking number," Bai said.
State governments are responding with new requirements for food waste separation. From next year, several states including NSW will extend obligations to many businesses.
Alexandra Geddes, executive director, programs and innovation at the NSW Environment Protection Authority (EPA), said from 1 July 2026, large food-generating businesses such as hospitality venues, educational institutions, correctional centres and supermarkets will need to separate their food waste from their general waste under the new rules.
"By 2030, all households across NSW will also need to separate their waste," she told SBS News.
Australia is facing 'a landfill crisis'
One reason for the shift is simple: we are running out of space.
"There is a landfill crisis and we will run out of landfill capacity by 2030," Geddes said.
"Between one quarter and one third of all the waste generated is food waste. We need to keep this out of landfills."
According to federal government projections, halving food waste by 2030 could deliver a net economic benefit of $58 billion.
For Yarger, that transition is already evident on her factory floor, where tonnes of spoiled produce arrive each week. The work starts with shovelling and sorting — and ends with waste that never reaches landfill.
At the company's Wetherill Park facility, portable crates full of fly larvae grow fat on the leftover food.
"The insect part is not unique; there are great companies across the world that have been using insects as a food waste solution. However, we are the first in the world to commercially manage food waste as a boxed solution," Yarger said.
"We created a box that's a unit of processing capacity. So, one box can process 1.7 tonnes of food waste a day.
"We can take a box to someone's business and manage their waste on site."
The clever system allows her business, Goterra, to address the food-waste problem while also turning a profit.
Halving food waste by 2030 is expected to deliver a net economic benefit of $58 billion, according to government projections. Source: SBS / Sandra Fulloon
Justin Frank, Goterra's chief sustainability officer, told SBS News: "The chickens love it. They are designed to eat larvae and bugs, and the feed is really good for their gut health."
"The feed is also full of amino acids which are essential for chickens to produce eggs."
The 'biggest' problem is contamination
Despite the benefits of turning food waste into fertiliser and feed, the sector faces significant challenges.
"The biggest problem for food waste treatment and management is contamination," Bai said.
"Contamination levels are rising. We're not just finding metals and glass in the waste, we are also seeing PFAS and microplastics. And this is introducing a real risk for composting and anaerobic digestion."
This is why the EPA is calling for better sorting habits.
"The rules are incredibly clear. Only food waste and food scraps go into source separation — no plastics, no metals, nothing else," Geddes said.
"This is what businesses must do when mandates come in next year because it is so important to keep the stream of organic material clean for products like compost."
Fertiliser produced by fly larvae can be used on farms and gardens. Source: SBS / Sandra Fulloon
"Next, we are expanding in Victoria and building out the network in Sydney with three new sites and then we are going into Western Australia," she said.
Yarger is flipping the script on Australia's waste of a food resource that is costly to produce and then costly to dispose of.
"So, if we can leverage technology to create a circular economy, we win at both ends of our value chain," she said.
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