Our No-Waste Approach to a Greener Future
Australian Native Products prides itself on being clean and green, and through these three sustainability practices, we’re future-proofing our environment, our business and most importantly, guaranteeing our customers supply.
Lemon myrtle is native to Australia, growing naturally within the coastal hinterlands of central and south-eastern Queensland. Being a native botanical, lemon myrtle is perfectly suited to sustainable commercial farming – it knows how to live, adapt and thrive in the harsh Australian climate, which is prone to prolonged periods of drought as well as flooding rains.
Australian Native Products grows its lemon myrtle at plantations in The Channon in Northern NSW and Mareeba in Far North Queensland, both areas with ideal climates for lemon myrtle to thrive. But we don’t leave it all up to the natural climate. Through careful sustainable practices to manage our water, wastage and planting, we take pride in the high quality of our lemon myrtle’s quality, fragrance and flavour.
Keeping the water bills down
Water is scarce in our country and we must respect every drop and the important role it plays in bringing life to our land. As with any commercial farm, water is vital to our operations, but it is our responsibility to use it as efficiently as possible.
How do we do it?
On our The Channon farm, we’ve set up dams to catch water flow and collection tanks on all of our buildings to be more self-sufficient and not rely solely on the local water infrastructure.
We also use drip irrigation instead of overhead irrigation on all of our plantations. This allows us to direct water to the base of the plant, right where it needs it most.
Excitingly, we’re also currently breeding more drought-tolerant varieties of lemon myrtle to ensure we have sustainable supply well into the future.
There’s no such thing as waste
Any waste that we produce can have a lasting impact on our environment, which is why we’re committed to our zero-waste approach. Our sustainable farming practices ensure 100% of each lemon myrtle plant is used.
We use the stems and smaller leaf particles in our distillation process (the process used to create our 100% lemon myrtle essential oil) and further recycle the by-products from this process (steam and dried leaf) to manufacture our microfibre and hydrosol.
We redistribute compost as a source of organic matter back into the soil to nourish and condition both the soil and the trees throughout the year.
Planting and pest management
We give back to Mother Nature by adopting greener alternatives and maintaining the health of the insects and animals in our plantations.
We give our plants the best shot at thriving by mimicking conditions that exist in subtropical rainforest soils. One of the by-products of the distillation process is mulch, which is perfect for preventing weeds growing around young plants and slowing the evaporation of moisture from the soil.
To sustainably manage pests, we’ve set aside dedicated areas for biodiversity to flourish. This provides habitat and breeding sites for insects, frogs, birds, lizards and snakes – natural pest predators. We don’t use any synthetic insecticides in mature plantings to ensure the health of these critters is maintained.
Excitingly, we’re also working towards selling 100% organically grown product by 2021. We’ll keep you updated on this exciting development that will ensure that we can continue to provide our customers with the cleanest, healthiest and highest quality lemon myrtle.
