Opinion

Hidden treasure beneath our feet
 Australia, Features, Online Subscription, Opinion

Hidden treasure beneath our feet

Wherever you go in the world, roadsides are rarely pristine. Various detritus including bits of cardboard, dust, glass, grit, metal, paper, plastic, leaves, wood and other organics often accumulate on highways. For this reason, street sweeping machines are commonplace on Australian streets, but what happens to the material they collect? Normally it is just seen as an irritation with landfill as the most suitable destination. In the past, there’s been little reason to view it any other way. Sorting through the volume and variety of material just hasn’t been worth the time, effort or cost. Read more

Progress to 100% renewable energy in Victoria
 Australia, Features, Online Subscription, Opinion, Victoria

Progress to 100% renewable energy in Victoria

These are ambitious targets and the following questions need to be asked:

  1. Are these targets being aimed for elsewhere?
  2. If so, what progress are these other countries making toward achieving these targets?
  3. In those countries what are the distinctive developments that are allowing such progress to be made?
  4. Does Victoria have similar policies, programs and progress to allow these goals to be met?
  5. What real actions are needed in Victoria to improve the chances of meeting these targets and goals?

Read more

The state of the waste data
 Australia, Features, Online Subscription, Opinion

The state of the waste data

The SOE concludes that: “Despite an overall increase in waste generation, Australia’s total disposal tonnage decreased from about 21.5 megatonnes to about 19.5 megatonnes (about 9.5%) between 2006-07 and 2010-11. During this period, the resource recovery rate in Australia increased from 51% to 60%. The quantity of material recycled increased significantly from 21.4 megatonnes to 27.3 megatonnes per year, or by about 27%.” (Australian State of the Environment 2016, p.90) Read more

Our climate is changing. Can the waste sector help?
 Australia, Features, Online Subscription, Opinion

Our climate is changing. Can the waste sector help?

Despite clear and overwhelming evidence that our climate is changing right now, the appetite for action at a political level is diminishing. In Australia, the Climate Council was defunded, the carbon tax abolished, and a general sense seems to be settling in that climate change doesn’t really matter.

Globally it’s even worse. Climate change is an opinion, a Chinese hoax, a conspiracy. Politicians here and overseas make straight faced assertions that the evidence doesn’t exist, or that it has been manipulated. Read more

Bulletproof your business against climate change
 Australia, Features, Online Subscription, Opinion

Bulletproof your business against climate change

With the climate warming before our eyes, it’s clear that climate change is happening – with annual global greenhouse emissions continuing to rise, or at best starting to stabilise.

It’s going to get significantly worse before it gets better, given the long time (many hundreds of years in some cases) that greenhouse gases linger in the atmosphere. Read more

NSW council amalgamations - lessons, trends, considerations
 Australia, Features, New South Wales, Online Subscription, Opinion

NSW council amalgamations – lessons, trends, considerations

On May 12, two proclamations under the Act commenced and 19 newly amalgamated councils began operations, including Armidale Regional Council, the merger of Armidale Dumaresq and Guyra Shire Councils, Inner West Council, comprising Ashfield, Leichhardt Municipal and, Marrickville Councils, and CanterburyBankstown Council, merging Bankstown City and Canterbury City Councils.

12 merger proposals are pending and the Minister has decided that 14 proposals will not proceed, including Manly, Mosman Municipal and Warringah Councils, as well as Tamworth Regional and Walcha Councils. Read more