From Kitchen Scraps to Coast Cash: Meet the Gosford Entrepreneur Turning Waste Into a Thriving Business

Tianna Morello launched her composting and organic-waste brokerage, Coastal Loop, out of a shed on Faunce Street, Gosford, in March 2024 with $12,000 in savings and a ute she bought secondhand off Facebook Marketplace. By June 2026, the business was processing more than four tonnes of food scraps per week, servicing 37 restaurants, two aged-care facilities, and the Erina Fair Food Court precinct under a new trial contract worth roughly $280,000 annually.

The timing is not accidental. National awareness around food diversion has accelerated sharply after hospitality operators across the country began looking seriously at the cost savings and reputational gains from redirecting organic waste rather than sending it to landfill. On the Central Coast, where the hospitality sector has expanded steadily along the Mann Street and Terrigal Esplanade strips, that shift is producing real commercial opportunities for operators quick enough to move first.

Building the Loop, Block by Block

Coastal Loop's model is straightforward but operationally demanding. Morello's team collects pre-consumer and post-consumer food waste from client venues, then on-sells or co-processes it through two partnerships — one with a horse agistment and hobby-farm network in the Yarramalong Valley, roughly 25 kilometres west of Gosford, and a second with Somersby-based soil conditioner producer TerraCarbon Pty Ltd. The resulting compost and soil blends are retailed through several Central Coast Bunnings outlets and, since April 2026, directly via a subscription box that ships regionally.

The Yarramalong arrangement is central to the margin story. Morello negotiated a split-revenue deal rather than a flat tipping fee, meaning Coastal Loop earns a percentage every time the compost sells at retail rather than simply charging collection. That structure took eight months to negotiate but has since produced per-tonne returns she says consistently exceed $180, compared with the $40-to-$60 a tonne that many operators receive under standard green-waste contracts.

Gosford's Central Business District has seen a cluster of circular-economy startups take root since the Central Coast Council introduced its Commercial Organics Diversion Pilot in late 2023, which subsidised collection equipment for small businesses willing to separate food waste at source. Coastal Loop was among the first six businesses formally registered under the pilot. Council data published in May 2026 showed the pilot had collectively diverted 312 tonnes of organic material from Mangrove Mountain Landfill in its first full year — a 41 per cent increase on the preceding 12-month baseline.

The Numbers Attracting Outside Interest

Three Sydney-based impact investors have made informal approaches to Morello since January, according to documents she filed with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission relating to a proposed Series A raise. She is seeking $1.1 million to add a second collection vehicle, hire two additional drivers, and build a small processing shed at a leased site in West Gosford's industrial precinct on Kangoo Road.

The pitch is helped by a broader national context. Australia generates roughly 7.6 million tonnes of food waste annually, according to the most recent figures from Fight Food Waste CRC, and commercial hospitality and food service accounts for about 25 per cent of that total. Tightening EPA guidelines in New South Wales, which take effect from 1 July 2027, will require businesses generating more than 100 kilograms of organic waste per week to separate it — a threshold that captures virtually every full-service restaurant on the Coast.

That regulatory deadline is, in practical terms, an 18-month sales window for operators like Coastal Loop to lock in contracts before the market fills with competitors. Morello has already submitted a proposal to the Central Coast Tourism Industry Association to become the preferred organic-waste partner for members along the Entrance Road dining strip in The Entrance. A decision from the association is expected before September.

For other local entrepreneurs watching the space, the Coastal Loop story underlines a familiar lesson: early movement on incoming regulation almost always delivers better margins than reactive compliance. Businesses in the food, events, and accommodation sectors along the Coast who haven't yet audited their organic waste volumes would be wise to do so before the NSW 2027 rules remove the voluntary advantage entirely.