Australian
Screen

Teacher’s notes

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This clip shows a segment from the television series The New Inventors featuring an inventor, John Walker, who describes two of his inventions – the TumbleTainer and the VermiTainer, which together turn landfill into compost. The clip shows the TumbleTainer (a very large container that is rotated mechanically), a bio-filter that extracts odours and the VermiTainer (a worm farm). James O’Loghlin, the host of the show, opens the clip and welcomes Walker into the studio. Music accompanies the clip at key moments.

Educational value points

• The inventions in the clip offer a solution to a significant environmental problem, the disposal of a city’s organic waste. Australians generate about 14 million tonnes of waste each year, and organic waste is by far the largest proportion of waste thrown out by Australian households. Putting garbage into landfill uses potentially valuable land, generates pollutants and creates odours and dust. The inventions shown provide a cost-efficient alternative to landfill.

• The format of The New Inventors makes serious subjects entertaining for television viewers. In the clip the host creates interest and sets up expectations in his brief introduction to the inventor by calling him a ‘modern day alchemist’. Graphics and a music ‘grab’ segment the show. Intriguing captions personalise the inventor. Filming is economical, and captions, swelling music and a voice-over explain and demonstrate the inventions.

• The huge scale of Walker’s inventions as depicted in the clip belies the simple principles that underlie their operation. The TumbleTainer is essentially a giant composting bin and the VermiTainer is a giant worm farm that turns organic waste into compost. Each VermiTainer can process up to 1,000 kg of green waste per day.

• Walker’s innovative adaptations of existing technologies provides an example of Australian inventiveness and ingenuity. Walker saw a way of adapting the compost bin and the worm farm to deal with large-scale waste disposal. He then adapted a product, available worldwide at an economical price, the sea container. Finally he saw the economic potential for using worm casts produced from the process as fertilisers.

• The inventions in the clip address important environmental considerations. TumbleTainers are made from recycled decommissioned sea containers, which can be transported using standard transport systems. Unlike current disposal systems the TumbleTainer and VermiTainer do not produce odour or health risks and they reduce greenhouse gases and underground pollution. TumbleTainers can be powered by solar or methane generators and require minimal labour.

• The clip is from one of the most successful Australian television shows, The New Inventors, a new series of The Inventors, which began in 1970. Many successful inventions have been featured including the Sarich orbital engine, the Swirlon rotary brush and the solar energy tracker. The essential format has not changed since the show’s inception. A host and three panel members quiz the inventor and then vote for the best invention on each program.