Sydney Markets generates 12,000 tonnes of waste a year, and the increasing cost of waste disposal was a primary motivator in encouraging the markets to look at doing things differently.
Over the past decade, both organisations have been working together to find solutions to everything from the market’s general waste and recycling services, trucks and motorised equipment for waste collection and delivery, cardboard recycling, and daily site clean-ups. Read more
Bringing together some 25 people, which included CEOs and chairs of regional councils, Keep Australia Beautiful, and private waste operators, the WIA for the first time, offered the sector’s stakeholders an opportunity to speak to the shadow minister about a dozen or so topics and outline their views on the various waste and resource recovery activities in the state.
“From our perspective, it provided opportunities on both sides. One, it gave the shadow minister the opportunity to discuss directly with the heads of industry what it is he’s considering for the waste industry if he were to become the environment minister,” Tim Piper, director at the Australian Industry (Ai) Group, which established the WIA, told Inside Waste. Read more
The Personal Property and Securities Act 2009 (PPSA) has revolutionised the way security interests in personal property (as opposed to land) are treated in Australia.
Security interests and timeframes for registration
Some examples of security interests in personal property include:
In October, the EPA released a suite of reforms in a bid to improve the quality and quantity of reusable C&D waste materials in the state, including the removal of the Proximity Principle, implementation of minimum inspection, sorting, recovering and handling standards, proper processing of C&D waste, and increased penalties for the unsafe transport of waste.
Consultation closed on November 17 and both the Waste Management Association of Australia (WMMA) as well as the Waste Contractors & Recyclers Association of NSW (WCRA) have submitted their recommendations and it appears that they are on the same page. Read more
Established in 1997, The Bower Reuse & Repair Centre began when a group of Sydney residents got together with aspirations to establish a reuse centre for household items.
They secured funding to build a warehouse – Sydney’s first straw bale construction – and over the years, The Bower has become an environmental charity and cooperative committed to stopping usable items from going to landfill.
In the past two years alone, The Bower has diverted around 291,108 tonnes of household furniture and goods away from landfill for reuse with their collection services workshops in Marrickville and Parramatta. Read more
Smartphone manufacturer OPPO has become the latest organisation to implement a better approach to managing the impacts of their various products and materials by joining up with the mobile telecommunications industry’s official recycling program MobileMuster, which provides a free take-back program for old mobiles and accessories to keep them out of landfill.
According to OPPO chief marketing officer Michael Tran, becoming a member of MobileMuster enables our customers to keep their old devices out of landfill, and instead recycle these products to put re-usable materials back into the supply chain. Read more
But treating e-waste should not simply be viewed as only an end-of-pipe problem. There needs to be a shift in thinking towards treating electronic equipment as a product stewardship and circular economy opportunity.
The time to act is now, says Telstra, particularly as the rapid evolution of technology continues to drive significant growth in e-waste around the world.
This year, the telco received 60% of old phones returned for recycling and has helped more than 600 small businesses recycle some 60 tonnes of e-waste. Read more
Speaking candidly to Inside Waste, Cat industry specialist Ayden Piri noted that Australia and New Zealand citizens generate some 3kg of waste per person per day, which equates to more than 30 million tonnes of waste every year.
“This large volume of waste has forced nations to build almost 400 landfills in these countries. The cost to build a landfill in the region varies from AU$5 million to AU$8 million per million cubic metre (100x100x100 meters space) so it’s quite costly to build a new landfill,” Piri said. Read more
Renault’s Go Green to Grow Green initiative aims to offset the expected carbon emissions of all Bamboo Green Trafics during the first seven years of their working lives.
Renault Australia’s managing director Justin Hocevar is confident that this initiative will make Bamboo Green Renault Trafic vans synonymous with reduced carbon footprints, and he encourages customers who are keen to be seen to be making a difference to buy one.
“We are working to provide our customers with a vehicle to express their commitment to reducing their carbon footprint,” Hocevar said. Read more
Under its legislation, the CEFC has access to $2 billion a year for five years and it is currently in its fourth year. To date, the CEFC has accessed $8 billion, of which it has invested about $2 billion. And among its target client sectors sits waste, bioenergy, and agriculture.
“Our funding is not use it or lose it. We’re not under pressure to do deals that aren’t ready to be done. But at the same time, part of our role is to accelerate the markets. The point there is that we’re not capital constraint, we’re project constraint,” Henry Anning, director – CEFC Corporate and Project Finance told delegates who attended the conference. Read more