My company, which specialises in aircraft engineering design, has offices in Melbourne and Sydney. The Melbourne office employs approximately 160 staff and the Sydney office approximately 30 staff. The company places a high priority on environmental friendliness.

Bokashi domestic buckets, which initially were placed in the office lunch rooms of both offices, have proven to be a great success in the Melbourne office. However, after a relatively short period of use, they were removed from the Sydney office for reasons I will explain later.

In point form, this has been our experience with the buckets:

1. How long has the system been in the workplace?
   Approximately 3 years.
2. How long do buckets take to fill up?
   At the Melbourne office, the buckets require emptying about every 4 to 5 weeks. This figure varies depending on the number of staff using the lunch rooms for meals, addition of waste from company lunches etc.
3. How do we deal with waste when the buckets are full?
   GKN relies on staff to take the full buckets home for emptying. This has not proven to be a problem in Melbourne where the gardeners amongst the staff have seen the benefits of adding the waste to their compost. However, in Sydney, where nearly all of the staff use public transport to travel to work, it was not possible to get the buckets emptied when full. Therefore, the company chose to remove the buckets from the Sydney office. There may well be a private service out there that will service the buckets but I'm not aware of it.
4. Is there any smell?
   Provided the Bokashi product is added to the buckets as necessary to keep waste food covered, there is absolutely no sell.
5. Who is responsible for the maintenance (i.e. adding of Bokashi)?
   At the Melbourne office, I look after the buckets. It's not a difficult task and only takes a couple of minutes of my time per day.
6. How much Eco Bokashi do you go through per month/ year?
   During 2008, the Melbourne office used 12 bags of Eco Bokashi at an average cost of $20.00 each (including delivery).
7. Do the staff need any prompting to use the system?
   No, our staff actually like the system and have no hesitation in using it. Also, as part of our induction process for new staff we introduce the system and explain how it works. The Bokashi system fits in well with the company’s environmental consciousness. Based on our experience, I have no hesitation in recommending the system to both commercial and home users.

Arthur Matcott
Office Manager
GKN Aerospace Engineering Services

 

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