Vegesafe
We are open for business - please send in your samples
The VegeSafe program began in September of 2013 at Macquarie University’s Open Day event, where we offered free soil metal testing to attendees.
In order to keep the program running and accessible to all, the VegeSafe soil metal testing program needs your support.
We ask that you consider making a small donation to support the work of the program. Donations received cover the time involved, costs of soil analysis and laboratory consumables and support for related research. For example a $20 donation (please feel free to provide more support) would cover the cost of up to five samples submitted for testing.
If you have a vegetable patch or are concerned of metal contamination in your backyard, we encourage you to participate. Follow these three easy steps:
Step 1: Complete the necessary VegeSafe
Step 2: Collect your soil samples by following our
Step 3: Together with the completed Consent form, send in your soil samples to:
VegeSafe
Professor Mark Taylor
Department of Environmental Sciences
Faculty of Science and Engineering
Macquarie University
NSW 2109 Australia
Things to consider before sending samples to VegeSafe
Soil sample size: An ideal sample size (per sample) would be between a golf ball and a cricket ball, and would fit inside a small ziplock bag (see below: $20 note for scale). If you have small ziplock sandwich bags, then the sample should take half of the bags space.
Turnaround time: We strive to provide a fast turnaround time (3-5 weeks) for our participants. However, we can often be busy with other academic duties at Macquarie University such as teaching, research, experiments, field visits and conferences. We aim to return your soil metal testing results within one month of recieving your samples, yet there may be instances where we recieve many samples at once, and results may be slightly delayed.
Your donation covers up to five samples submitted, it is not per sample. Soil samples can be sent with a $20 note (or more if feeling generous!), payment can be made to support our program via the following link: