Daniel Wright initially wanted to follow in his father’s footsteps, who was an accountant for Macquarie Bank, so he started a double degree in economics and science. Then he had an epiphany.
“I came to an early conclusion that anything in economics, I could learn through practice,” he said. “What I really wanted to do was spend three years diving deep into chemistry and get a deeper understanding of our molecular world. So, I swapped out of the double degree into a degree in advanced science (chemistry).”
Back then, Wright, who now manages the Kemps Creek Landfill at Cleanaway’s Resource Recovery Park, wanted to learn how things worked; how to break things apart and how to build them back together. He got involved early on in a research project into solar cells using indigenous plants. It involved grinding up the plants and using them as part of the makeup of solar cells. Wright loved the idea that he could use plants and nature to make the world a better place.
Having seen first-hand the difference like-minded people can achieve when it comes to making a healthier environment, he knew what he wanted to do for the rest of his life, but it was how to do it that became the problem. When he graduated, he found that there were not many openings in the areas he was keen to develop his skills.
“I couldn’t get a job when I graduated,” he said. “It was a tough, hard thing to face. I applied for almost every engineering, science and finance graduate program – mining companies, CSIRO, the four major banks – nothing.”
Then he managed to get a position with medical supply company Livingstone International as a quality assurance officer. The role involved testing and approving medical equipment before release to hospitals and surgeries around Australia, such as syringes, needles, gloves, and monitoring equipment.
While Wright knew he wanted to do more with the environment than the role offered, it did teach him about the importance of quality assurance and quality control – two essential skills that are needed in his current role.
The following year Wright took a year off to travel Europe and the USA before returning to Sydney. His next move would see him go down to Melbourne to work for multi-national environmental analytical laboratory company Eurofins Scientific. This role allowed him to put his chemistry degree to the test. After a year into the job, he finally saw a hint of what was to come in terms of his career.
“I joined their Groundwater Sampling Team as a field technician, and I started sampling groundwater/surface water from a few landfill and petroleum sites around Victoria.
“From Sale to Wangaratta, almost every landfill in Victoria,” he said. “I really enjoyed that job, very rewarding and a great way to establish connections in the industry. Sometimes I go back to old landfills to see how they are going.”
This job helped Wright in his subsequent roles because, when he’s dealing with contractors, he’s done what they’ve done. He’s had to pull pumps out of wells, install equipment, author reports and deal with clients. After Eurofins Scientific he went to Resolve Environmental, a growing environmental consultancy. Resolve is a consultancy that specialises in assisting petroleum and waste management clients to meet their environmental obligations. The role involved fieldwork, sampling, laboratory analysis and report writing and allowed Wright to further expand his knowledge of landfill facilities. And it was through Resolve’s client Cleanaway that he got his current position as landfill manager.
At Resolve, he completed environmental monitoring for a large number of clients in Victoria. Landfills, quarries, petroleum, and property development were our major clients. Within that role, Wright would complete groundwater, landfill gas sampling, analyse the data and provide conclusions and recommendations to clients. Wright found the role very rewarding, as it “required a mix of fieldwork and office-work and allowed me to expand my technical skills in data analysis and report writing”.
Wright managed to get an in-depth knowledge of how landfills work and the engineering controls in place that protect our environment once waste is disposed permanently to the earth. But as we know, landfill management has come a long way, and Wright learnt how important it is to design, construct and operate landfills properly.
While at Resolve, Wright was seconded to Suez for four months, then a three-month secondment at Cleanaway followed. At the end of the secondment with Cleanaway Wright felt compelled to join the company, where he could use his analytical and technical experience to work on landfill projects.
In March 2021, Wright relocated to Sydney to work with Cleanaway’s engineering team led by Barry Griffin, head of engineering – landfill and remediation. Wright hit the ground running working on an infrastructure project at Cleanaway’s Erskine Park Landfill site, a Mechanically Stabilised Earth (MSE) Wall to increase airspace and provide an additional three years of operational life. The project endured the 2021/2022 floods and the second wave of COVID-19. That award-winning project finished in 2022. This in turn freed Wright up to take up his current role.
Wright leads a team of 25. A big part of his role is to build and develop the team so that they can become the best of the best in terms of landfill operations.
“We have a vision to become a flagship site within Cleanaway and a benchmark of what good looks like in our industry,” he said. “We’re not there yet, but every day we are getting closer, and the team is fully committed to the journey. I am incredibly proud to represent our site.”
What does a typical week look like?
“We are really big on getting everyone to attend the morning toolbox at 7am, so all days start with a group toolbox at the Operations Office. It’s a great opportunity to get a feel for the day ahead and tackle problems early on,”
he said.
On Monday’s Wright starts with payroll, followed by a performance report on how the previous week.
“The report contains the usual KPIs of any landfill – safety, environment, tonnes in, density achieved, leachate treated, landfill gas extracted and a number of others,” he said. “It articulates what we are doing to improve site safety and drills deeper into any incidents, near misses – hopefully both of those are zero – and serves to spotlight how many HSE conversations we had with our team. I’ve found having face-to-face conversations (HSE or otherwise) at the morning toolbox, the most effective way of building good site culture”.
Part of Wright’s job is to look at the landfill’s gas performance; how much gas is being extracted from the waste cell each week. That gas is distributed to a pair of 1.4MW generators that allows Cleanaway to generate renewable electricity, which makes its way back into the grid.
A myriad of other tasks takes up Wright’s week – anything from scoping out future leachate treatment technologies to managing the sites landfill gas extraction system. There is always something happening, and Wright wouldn’t have it any other way. And what are some of the key issues facing the industry?
Flock is an opportunity worth looking into, he said. For the uninitiated, flock is shredded car parts. He said it is a relatively homogenous waste containing assorted plastics, sponges, insulation and other materials unable to be recycled from cars that have reached end of life.
“Of all the waste streams I see every day it’s about 20 per cent of what we get,” he said. “While most components of cars are recycled, the flock is the remaining material that currently can’t be. It’d be worth exploring government initiatives that promote a beneficial reuse of this material”.
He also wants to work closely with the NSW EPA when completing major projects and to further improve the current operational purpose deductions (OPDs) process. He believes that Cleanaway’s landfill assets are contributing to continuous improvement within the industry, always looking for the next opportunity to do more. Therefore, companies like Cleanaway and the EPA must work hand-in-hand
to make sure landfills have positive
long-lasting effects for our communities and the environment.
“The more we work together and think of it as a joint venture – not a Cleanaway way of doing things or an EPA way of doing things – then that would be beneficial to everyone,” he said. “We have very strong internal regulations because our CEO and executive team demand it, and consequentially have developed a good relationship with the NSW EPA”.
Bringing the private sector & NSW EPA closer together would be the final piece of the puzzle in achieving big things for the NSW waste sector.
“I am a firm believer that our waste industry needs greater recognition for what we do for society. Our industry is not a collection of isolated businesses working for the short term, but instead is a network of assets and operations that together, form the essential service that is waste. We are a service that is required for seven days of the week and at Cleanaway we have demonstrated our commitment to acting beyond today and working towards a more sustainable future together. I look at what the industry has achieved over the past 10 years, and it makes me excited for the next 10 to come.”