Getting dirty with Costa in plan to change 'waste' behaviour

Well-known TV presenter and gardening guru Costa Georgiadis was once again visiting the Bega Valley to share his enthusiasm and knowledge with avid green thumbs of all ages.

On Wednesday, he joined a day of hands-on garden demonstrations with Twofold Aboriginal Corporation at Jigamy, including a cultural garden tour, garlic growing masterclass and "lasagne garden" workshop.

On Thursday he spent the day at Moodji Farm at Bermagui Preschool alongside Dan Bakker from Eat Dirt Permaculture for some community creativity and play in the Indigenous-centred urban farm focused on permaculture techniques.

Then on Friday, Costa helped launch a whole-school "waste audit" with the students of Sapphire Coast Anglican College.

Over the course of the next two weeks, students and staff have been asked to make sure all food and garden scraps were disposed of in a particular bin.

The contents of said bin would be then utilised in a bathtub worm farm - which was also developed as part of Costa's visit - and for compost for the college's market garden.

Students were also given the task to design potential caddy liners out of newspaper, with plenty of creative folding, crunching, rolling and tearing giving the pages renewed purpose.

The idea of the audit is to hopefully see a change in behaviour and "waste" separated into valuable compostable material.

"I'm always a bit shocked and surprised at how much waste we produce," Costa told one group of young students.

"You decide how big a problem waste is into the future.

"We have a decision to make every day. Once you start the behaviour of separation you don't go back.

""I got to the point of never needing to throw anything into a red bin." he said.

While planned Saturday morning activities at Grow the Future in Bega were limited given the wet weather, Costa was also a special guest at a panel discussion on "circularity" Saturday night.