Originating from Japan, Bokashi means “fermented organic waste” in Japanese - and it is a product that is used to treat food waste, including cooked foods, protein, egg shells and bones, in order to stop it from rotting and to keep it out of landfill.
The Bokashi Bran ferments the food waste so there are no unpleasant odours or flies. The fermented food waste is then mixed with garden waste to convert into compost within a couple of weeks in a commercial composting environment.
According to Bronwyn Jones, founder of Bokashi Bran, the casino has a staff canteen feeding 1450 employees and 12 food outlet tenants. The company was landfilling around 47 tonnes of waste per month.
“The company was acutely aware of this and constantly tried to improve its recycling initiatives and focused heavily on separating at source – but food waste was the contaminating waste stream that essentially hindered this endeavour.
The Bokashi Bran Food Waste Recycling system was implemented on 17 February 2016. Each tenant was trained using a custom-design video demonstrating the Bokashi Bran process. The tenants and canteen staff are given 50 litre blue drums with a screw-on lid to collect waste. After each shift – breakfast, lunch, or dinner – the cleaning staff take the food to a central waste area. At the waste area, the food waste is processed through the Bokashi Bran WasteStation machine where it is macerated and dewatered. The macerated food waste is then layered with Bokashi ready to be commercially composted.
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