Tasmania, what is it? An unusual medical condition? I prefer “a (island) state of innovative waste management”. With Bass Strait often referred to as “the most expensive piece of navigable water for trade in the world”, the Tasmanian waste industry has planned for regional solutions to reduce the cost of transporting waste offshore for treatment and/or disposal (or “OS” as Tasmanians often refer to the mainland). By Brad Mashman.

Regional planning has resulted in a range of small to medium business (and the odd multi-national) successfully providing trade solutions that often ignore the mainland market for local solutions or export directly to competitive processors out of country.

Regional planning drives local solutions. The Tasmanian Government, regional waste authorities (local council) and business have worked together on a number of innovative waste projects.

Several collaborative projects have focused on developing a comprehensive regional waste solution for e-waste. Tasmania, like the rest of the country, plans to improve the reuse and recycling of e-waste. To this end a number of local companies and organisations have been exploring opportunities and innovating to more effectively manage e-waste ahead of the National Product Stewardship Legislation to be delivered by the Federal Government.

In this first column, let me focus on a project I know well. Recovery (Tas) has been working with the State Government and Glenorchy City Council to audit and improve the capture of e-waste in Southern Tasmania.

We designed and built the Recovery eWaste Facility, which has been operating for12 months and provided multiple outcomes. For starters, it has the delivered recovered and repaired electronic products back into the regional retail market. It also supplied experimental feedstock (primarily computer circuit boards) for a new recycling system.

SBBM Enterprises, a subsidiary of Recovery (Tas), has an exclusive agreement to commercialise a Tasmanian-developed advanced organic chemical (AOC) technology, which to date has focused on the application to e-waste recycling. It separates non-ferrous metals from e-waste components, including rare, non-renewable metals, and renders hazardous components inert.

The AOC technology is environmentally benign, producing inert emissions from a simple process requiring minimal infrastructure. A pilot factory has been set up in Glenorchy to continue commercialising the technology.

Tasmanian innovators tend to travel. Debra Mackeen and Rob Lord of Athena Waste Management are two. For the last year Deb has been working in Sri Lanka delivering new systems of waste management, and she is presently operating in Haiti. Both projects were delivered for the United Nations.

Innovation tends to come from the margins. But as Tasmanians are showing, it doesn’t stay there.

Brad Mashman is MD of Recovery (Tas). This is part of a regular series of updates designed to ensure we cover key developments in all jurisdictions. Tasmanians wishing to contribute to this column please email by the third week of every month.

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