01 Jul 2021
Pictured from left to right: Year 12 student Nick, Principal Andy Mison, Year 12 student Toby and head of
horticulture Megan Matthews
As the ACT moves from single use plastic to biodegradable and reusable plastics from today, Hawker College and the Education Directorate have partnered to pilot an on-site in-vessel compost system to process non plastic alternatives.
While many ACT public schools are active in composting their organic waste Hawker College’s system, known as the Rocket, can process up to 500kg per week of vegetable matter, meat, fish, paper, wood chips and other organic materials.
Exploring the links between curriculum and real-world practice is at the heart of college education and this compost system will provide a teaching and learning tool at Hawker College’s onsite horticultural facility.
Rich compost can be produced in 14 days through a process of heat, microbes and ventilation and will be used in the college’s horticultural class, diverting a large amount of the college’s non-recyclable materials from landfill.
Pictured: Year 12 student Toby loading the rocket composter with food waste.
“We’ll be able to compost garden waste that can take 12 to 18 months to degrade in two to three weeks. We can also provide extra compost we produce to our local feeder schools for use in their garden beds,” said Megan Matthews, head of horticulture at Hawker College.
Megan is excited at the prospect of other schools learning more about what is happening in urban horticulture by visiting the composter, adding that it is a great way to draw students into the horticultural space and a STEM subject.
“The Rocket is a great way for the college to connect with local schools and the broader community. It will be great for our horticulture class to learn more about modern sustainability, and other classes can benefit from this as well, including chemistry, hospitality and even our landscape designs unit,” said Megan.
The Rocket is an Education Directorate funded project designed to provide hands-on experience for students to explore sustainability and how it relates to what they study in the classroom. The college has plans to involve local businesses in composting with the Rocket once they perfect the compost making process.
The addition to the horticultural centre has provided the opportunity to explore other concepts in urban sustainability with water from the rocket’s roof space to be diverted to adjacent garden beds that will be converted to wicking or self-watering garden beds.
Hawker College will record how much waste they process over 12 months and report back on the pilot program as they launch into a new frontier of sustainable horticulture. You can find out more about the ACT’s move away from single-use plastics on the ACT Government Single-use plastics page 
.