00:00Don't stand too close.
00:07This is a big dump of plant waste, coffee and the excrement of dozens of animals,
00:13including giraffes, tigers and great apes.
00:16So there's bone in there, there's fruit from all of our animals,
00:20so all sorts of organic rich materials.
00:23Australians love coffee and that means coffee grounds.
00:28Untreated in landfill, it's terrible for the environment, creating methane gas.
00:34Across Australia we generate about 75,000 tonnes of ground coffee waste every year.
00:39So 11 years ago, Melbourne barista Nina Larsen started Re-Ground.
00:44It's a social enterprise that collects coffee waste to be used as compost
00:48where no methane is created.
00:50The enterprise now collects from 400 Melbourne cafes,
00:53collecting three to four tonnes of grounds a day.
00:57We have diverted two million kilos of coffee grounds,
01:01which is the same as 58 million lattes.
01:05And one partner that has a constant supply of its own waste that needs to be dealt with
01:09is Zoos Victoria.
01:11Animals at Melbourne Zoo generate tonnes of excrement daily.
01:14The biggest contributors are the giraffes.
01:17Plus, the zoo has garden and food waste too.
01:21We produce about 1,000 tonnes a year of organic waste,
01:25but that equals about 3,000 kilograms a day.
01:29And putting that plus the grounds through a 10 metre long machine called the Hot Rot is the answer.
01:34And this is the end result.
01:36Dark and nutrient rich and ready to be used.
01:38And surprisingly, it doesn't smell bad.
01:41I mean, it has an odour, but it doesn't smell pungent or wrong.
01:44And it's something that it smells like you could happily have in your own garden.
01:48The Hot Rot is mainly used to enrich the zoo's own gardens.
01:52But zoo fertiliser was sold to the public in the past,
01:55and there are plans to do it again soon.
01:57Bree Ground is also expanding its operations into Sydney.
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