Sustainability

Queen Victoria Market aims to provide its customers with a high quality lifestyle experience. We consider that running a sustainable operation is one element of this experience.

We are committed to ensuring that our operating activities occur with minimum environmental impact. Below are some of the initiatives introduced to ensure that we achieve this.

Recycling Program

Most of the Market waste is produced from the processing of food or from food packaging.

The Market has an extensive recycling program that includes recycling the following wastes:

o Fat and bone, which is used in blood and bone fertiliser.
o Fish offal, which is collected and processed for stockfeed and fertiliser.
o Fats from grease traps and cooking oils from deep fryers, which can be processed into stockfeed or converted to biodiesel.
o Paper and cardboard
o Plastic packaging
o Plastic and glass bottles and aluminium cans
o Timber / Steel

Waste Wise – Silver Certification

The Market has achieved silver certification for Sustainability Victoria’s voluntary Waste Wise Program. As part of this program, the Market has developed and implemented an action plan to minimise waste and maximise efficient use of valuable resources.

Waste Wise Events

At the Suzuki Night Market and Geelong Night Market, we are marking an effort to reduce our impact on the environment through litter control, reducing waste and recycling. Single-use plastic bags for packaging are banned; all packaging including take away food packaging, is either of paper, cardboard or recycled plastics.

Solar Energy

In April 2003, the Market introduced its solar panel project – 1,328 solar panels covering one third of the Market roof. At the time, the project was the largest urban grid-connected solar photovoltaic installation in the southern hemisphere. The system has the capacity of generate 252,000 kilowatt hours of electricity each year for the Market – enough to power around 46 average homes a year. The decision to switch to solar power offers the distinct benefits of a dramatic reduction in the volume of greenhouse gases being generated in Melbourne’s inner-city precinct. To help Market visitors understand more about the project, a permanent, real-time display is on site to show updated information.

Water Harvesting

Unfortunately the operation of the Market means that large amounts of water need to be used to clean the Market to ensure public health. The Rainwater Harvesting Project is designed to capture water from the roof of the Market that is then treated and recycled to provide an alternative water source for flushing the public toilets in Queen Street. This water would normally flow as untreated storm-water into Port Phillip Bay. It’s expected that this project will to reduce the Market’s potable water consumption by around 25%; saving approximately 6 Olympic swimming pools of water each year.

Storm Water Quality

Ground water run off is not captured for storage and is allowed to enter the normal storm water system. The Market’s storm water drains are designed to ensure that storm water entering the drainage system is of a reasonable quality. Filter baskets and specially designed grates filter out any solids, such as plastic and large vegetable matter. Diversion pits prevent the initial run off water that might be contaminated by organic material from entering the storm water system by diverting it to sewer. Only once the flow rate reaches a certain level is it diverted back to the storm water system. Litter Prevention Project – Storm Water ProjectWorking with Sustainability Victoria and Melbourne Water, the Market’s Litter Prevention Project (2008) was a great success in reducing litter loads originating from the Market by 25% through education, infrastructure and enforcement.

WaterMAP Program

As a significant water user, the Market is a part of the City West WaterMAP program. A WaterMAP plan has been developed and implemented to further reduce water consumption and improve water efficiency at the Market.

ECO-Buy

The Market is a member of ECO-Buy. ECO-Buy offers support to organisations to 'green' their purchasing, providing a wide range of services and resources, from policy and strategy development and implementation to practical tools and advice.

Fair Trade

The Market has been accepted as a member of the Fair Trade Association; having met their criteria of serving fair trade tea and coffee in our staff rooms. Fair Trade Association seeks greater equity in international trade for producers and workers in third world countries. They advocate paying a fair price to producers for goods and ensure better wages and conditions for workers.

Sustainability Officer

The Market has appointed a full-time Sustainability Officer, to work on projects to further improve the Market’s sustainability performance.

Green Team

All suitability initiatives are supported by the Queen Victoria Market Green Team.

The Future

The Queen Victoria Market is planning on constructing a new recycling building to better deal with the waste generated on site. In addition to providing better facilities for the storage and sorting of waste and recyclables, the building will also house a bio-gas/co-generation plant. This technology is already in domestic and commercial use in Europe but is little known here in Australia. Co-generation plants can take a variety of different organic waste streams, including a limited amount of paper and cardboard and convert it to green electricity and heat. It is expected that this process will produce sufficient green electricity to meet the Market’s remaining electrical requirements. This construction will also include additional rain water storage tanks for harvesting rain water from the neighbouring buildings. Other projects planned include water sensitive urban design treatments for the car park and internal streets. As well as greening and softening the space, specially designed garden beds will capture and filter out petroleum products from water run off, before allowing clean water to enter the storm water system.