Climate startup Goterra’s innovative new food waste management system has launched in Wetherill Park in Sydney’s western suburbs and aims to transform how the city deals with the thousands of tonnes of food waste generated each week. This represents a significant step towards creating a food waste circular economy.
Goterra – winner of Most Innovative Startup in this year’s Startup Daily Best In Tech Awards – has opened its doors to a brand new facility harnessing groundbreaking technology to tackle the mounting issue of food waste.
The system uses insects called Black Soldier Fly larvae to break down food waste onsite rapidly, at a large scale. Housed in deep-tech, shipping container-sized units dubbed ‘Maggot Robots,’ the larvae can devour vast amounts of food waste. The process saves up to 97% of C02 emissions compared to food organics being disposed of in landfill. This process yields high-value products for agriculture, including an organic fertiliser and nutrient-packed insect protein that supports a circular economy. Further Scope 3 emissions are saved by handling waste onsite here at Wetherill Park, avoiding additional vehicle miles to landfills that are fast filling up and running out of space.
Maggot ‘robots’ are deep-tech, shipping container-sized units
Woolworths is the site’s founding customer, sending food waste from its stores across the Sydney region, which isn’t suitable for hunger relief charities. Woolworths has been partnering with Goterra to process its food waste since 2020. Waste management company, Cleanaway, will be collaborating with Woolworths and Goterra to transport the food waste from Woolworths, along with other aggregated loads from its customers around the city to the new facility.
Goterra CEO Olympia Yarger said this decentralised model is transformative for Sydney, which produces over 500,000 tonnes of food waste annually, mostly trucked to landfills outside the metro area. “For too long, food waste has decomposed in landfills creating methane, a GHG with a global warming effect 25 times more potent than CO2. Our partnership with forward-thinking partners like Woolworths and Cleanaway will help change that,” she said.
The prominent Sydney site, processing over 100 tonnes every week, will create 10 new jobs for locals to Fairfield City Council and provide a blueprint for a system with the highest order of food waste recovery.
The larvae inside Goterra’s units work around the clock, enabling 24/7 waste processing. Sensors track temperature, humidity and waste levels, automatically adjusting conditions to optimise digestion.
Goterra is expanding its fleet of modular waste units across Australia, providing scalable, decentralised and emissions-reducing waste solutions.
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