Lisa Dennis
As part of the Castlemaine Fringe Festival’s ‘Art Window Trail’, passionate local backyard composter Mikaela Beckley has created an art installation that celebrates microbes and the Yes in My Backyard community compost initiative.
The artwork on ‘The Hub’ Building in Barker Street incorporates paper mache, recyclable materials and a video presentation and celebrates the soil enthusiast’s fascination with the microscopic community living in our soil.
“It’s this microbial community that performs the miracle of composting!” Mikaela said.
The creative said her wish was to reflect on the two communities, human and microbial, that benefit from the care and attention of YIMBY, and how our collective health was inextricably linked.
“I am a keen gardener and was delighted be part of the second intake of community members to join the YIMBY initiative, which sees local volunteer composters take organics (kitchen scraps) from neighbours diverting them from landfill and turning them into valuable compost,” she said.
“To date, YIMBY has successfully diverted more than 12,000kgs of organics from landfill and turned it into quality compost by linking people keen to compost with those who aren’t currently doing so, within their neighbourhood.
“As we know these organics are incredibly damaging when they go into landfill generating harmful greenhouse gases and this initiative reduces the amount of organics going into landfill and teaches participants how to compost effectively to avoid emissions and use this wonderful resource to regenerate our soil and grow healthy, nutrient-packed produce,” she said.
Mikaela collects 40-50kgs of organic waste a week from 16 neighbours and uses ‘hot composting’ to create an end product that enriches soil with ‘good’ microbes.
“My neighbours pass on their organic waste to me and when I have excess produce I share it with them. Some of our YIMBY composters also have the capacity to share excess compost with the wider community. It’s a win, win,” Mikaela said.
YIMBY is currently preparing for its third intake of community composters and will also be holding a series of ‘Advanced Hot Composting’ workshops in April. You can check out the website for a short film on the project.
The next composter intake is just about at capacity but YIMBY would love to hear from community members who would like to register as a food scraps contributor or for the drop off service at The Hub.
To find out more or to register visit yimbycompost.com
