Bio-waste unit on verge of global big-time

By DITA DE BONI

An Auckland-made vertical composting unit is on the verge of international recognition in the world of bio-waste solutions, say its developers.

The manufacturers, Willson Brown & Associates, have just secured a contract to install their patented bio-waste treatment facility on Lord Howe Island, about 700km north-east of Sydney.

The contract is worth a "considerable amount," says chief executive Paul Brown, and is the first in a string of pending international contracts promising to boost revenues of about $1 million to almost $7 million in the coming year.

Willson Brown won the Lord Howe contract ahead of four international competitors.

The island has a population of just 400, but a seasonal influx of 185,000 tourists annually is creating an ecological disaster, says Mr Brown.

"The resorts were literally digging holes in the sand to bury waste and incinerating other materials, and sewage went straight into the island's sand dunes.

"It was absolutely horrendous and the whole island was facing groundwater contamination."

Installation of the composting unit and a cleanup of old waste on Lord Howe will begin in May.

The unit, patented in 1997, was developed by former chef Mr Brown and partner Graham Willson over four years and was tested on orchard and restaurant waste in Nelson.

The units are manufactured in Matamata by Rochtec and "always will be made in New Zealand," says Mr Brown, despite 80 per cent of business interest coming from across the Tasman.

The composters vary in price and size, with the largest unit able to process several hundred tonnes of wood, paper, food and garden waste a day, and producing mulch and soil conditioner at the end of the cycle.

The units are being pitched to city councils and large commercial sites, and are in use at the Unitec campus in Auckland, the University of New South Wales and Long Bay Prison in Australia.

Willson Brown has employed two people in Britain to promote the product.

This follows the sale of a unit to Sheffield Transfer Station early last month.

The composter was first tested internationally at Long Bay Prison in 1996, where the ecological entrepreneurs spent five months teaching inmates - "including two murderers and three rapists," says Mr Brown - how to process 3500 litres of waste a week through the system.

"The inmates got immense satisfaction at seeing the full cycle of waste processing - it had the most amazing effect on them."

Mr Brown predicts a great future for the units, saying just 5 per cent of the waste processing market in Britain, for example, is worth more than $1 billion.

But most importantly, he says, the relatively "simple and pure technology" was born from a love for the environment and an awareness of the need to get people thinking about their individual responsibility to the land.

"People think we don't have a problem in New Zealand, but like everywhere else, the only way to promote [environmental] sustainability is to develop energy-efficient ways to return nutrients to the soil."