• Ellen Burns is changing the packaging on her health food bars from recyclable to home compostable in a bid to reduce waste. 
Picture: Lachlan Bence 
Source: The Courier
    Ellen Burns is changing the packaging on her health food bars from recyclable to home compostable in a bid to reduce waste. Picture: Lachlan Bence Source: The Courier
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Ballarat small business owner Ellen Burns is changing the packaging on her range of health food bars from recyclable to home-compostable in a bid to reduce waste.

The packaging Ellen Burns has chosen is made from renewable sources such as plant fibres, and she told The Courier there are "only a handful of businesses in Australia that have home-compostable packaging".

“As we have seen recently, we can’t really depend on our recycling bin," she said.

"With home-compostable, we are trying to keep it out of the waste stream completely.”

Those without home composting systems can add the packaging to composting at community gardens such as the Food is Free Laneway in Ballarat, Victoria, Burns says.

Until now, she has been hand-making We Bar None health bars and crackers in her mother’s Brown Hill kitchen, but a move to upscale and outsource manufacturing to a bigger Ballarat family business will allow her to move away from current recyclable packaging.

Burns is running a Pozible pledge campaign to bar plastic from We Bar None, where supporters can pledge funds to kickstart the move to home compostable packaging, and receive products after set-up.

Food & Drink Business

As the Australian functional beverage market continues to grow, emerging companies are still finding places to slot in. Alcohol recovery drink, Dodge, hit stores in mid-2022, and has taken off across the Asia-Pacific region with its science-backed formula and striking branding. Food & Drink Business spoke with co-founder, Braeden Leahy, about the product and plans for the future.

The former deputy chief of staff to the federal communications minister, Amanda Watson, has been appointed CEO of the Brewers Association of Australia (BAA).  Watson starts in the role on 14 July and replaces John Preston, who had been in the role for five years.

The Victorian government has invested $160,000 to support the sustainability and profitability of the state’s wine industry, matched by $240,000 from Wine Australia. The funds will help Wine Victoria to provide the wine industry with the knowledge, tools and resources needed to improve practices and outcomes.