Inside Waste August 2023

The roadblocks to infrastructure

By Inside Waste

“INVEST in infrastructure,” is one of the catch cries that have been heard over the years in the waste industry. We do have infrastructure – just not enough of it. This is especially so when meeting certain recycling and reuse targets. A government can set such targets, but what can you do if there is not enough infrastructure to meet those them? Or even more worrying, companies are not willing to invest? This and several other questions were asked of a panel at the Waste 2023 Conference held at Coffs Harbour recently. Facilitated by Katherine Driscoll from Impact Environmental Consulting, the panel consisted of Geoffrey Webster, president of WMRR; Chris McLean, partner energy transition, PwC; Phil Carbins, GM business development, Veolia Australia and New Zealand; Susie McBurney, GM NSW/ACT Remondis; and Richie Farrell, head of investor relations, Cleanaway.

Webster said that while there is a lot of new infrastructure in the pipeline, gaps still need filling, with the most obvious being plastics.

“We don’t have the production capability to deal with some of these products,” he said. “REDcycle – great initiative. The idea was great, but nowhere for the materials to go. Unless we can sort out some of those key fundamentals – get support from government and industry, as well as everyone working together in those sorts of spaces – then it makes life really hard.”

When it came to red tape Carbins compared Brisbane versus Sydney with the former only having one council to deal instead of having several local bodies. He also said guaranteeing feedstock was important for those looking to invest in such places.

“Imagine what you could do if you could guarantee feedstock to a service provider to provide the infrastructure based on said feedstock – for your FOGO bin, your recycling bin, your residual waste bin over a long period,” he said. “This is one of the pillars of success of a project for it to be delivered. You need policy and regulation settings that are fundamental to anything we do.”

He also stated that getting consents and contracts were important, but it can take years, or in rare cases, decades, to get these in place depending on the size and scale of the project. It’s also important to know what the objective is of such infrastructure. It can confuse some, especially as the parameters keep changing. Forty years ago, Carbins said most councils buried and burned waste. Then a little bit of recycling came in. Then more recycling. Then recycling and reuse.

He said it was a bit haphazard – a definition of what needs to be achieved should be underlined at the outset of a project. He gave the current situation of FOGO as an example.

“Don’t forget that FOGO processing is a manufacturing process for a compost product that will be applied to land,” he said. “That’s the objective. It’s not a waste diversion scheme. It’s a manufacturing objective. It’s not:, ‘let’s get everything and put it in the green bin and hope for the best that we can reduce our landfill’.”

(Continued on page 21)

28 Regional tyre waste 31 The importance of admin 37 2023 Consultants Registry

Delays don’t stop progress on plastics

By Inside Waste

NEARLY 1,700 participants from almost 170 UN member states, as well as representatives from more than 300 civil society organisations, academia and industry converged on UNESCO in Paris in late May to progress the preparation of the Treaty to End Plastic Pollution.

In addition to Australian government delegates, observers from Australia were out in force, with AMCS, Earthwatch, Engineers Australia, Friends of the Earth, Minderoo Foundation, No More Butts and WWF all having representation on the ground. Despite two days of delays, delegates were able to move discussions along and end the session with a mandate to prepare a draft of the Plastics Treaty

What is the INC?

The Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee was established as part of the adoption of a resolution known as 5/14, which came out of a United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA) meeting in March 2022. The resolution targets the development of an international legally binding document to end plastic pollution. The expectation is that this agreement will be negotiated by countries before the end of 2024. The first session of the INC (INC1) was held in Uruguay, concluding in late 2022. At the conclusion of INC1, the secretariat was asked to prepare a document highlighting possible objectives of the Treaty, as well as substantive matters including control measures, implementation measures as well as core obligations.

(Continued on page 24)

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Waste by any other name

IT’S a conundrum that has been around for the ages, and the waste and resource recovery sector is no exception – what came first, the chicken or the egg? Or, in relatable terms, ‘if I spend millions on infrastructure, will there be enough feedstock and government backing that I can make a going concern of my business?’

Our cover story looks at the panel at the Coffs Harbour Waste Conference, who discussed the many problems surrounding the lack of infrastructure – from government approvals, through to which parts of the industry need it the most. Then there’s the sticky problem of where it should be located.

But I think there is a disconnect between the public and industry. I’m fairly confident that in some cases, there would be a crossover between those protesting about not wanting any waste infrastructure in their backyard, and then writing to their local council wondering why there are issues surrounding pick-up and disposal of waste.

Those of you who have been in the industry a while probably shake your collective heads at how we can meet

the needs of the public if one hand is tied behind our backs in terms of getting infrastructure up and running. I think we need to look in the mirror – to a degree. I don’t think we sell the industry well enough. People hear the term ‘waste’ and it conjures up rotting food, broken bricks and smelly plastics.

One idea that has been mooted several times at conferences I have attended, by a variety of stakeholders, is changing the narrative. Maybe we need to start referring to ourselves as the resource recovery industry. This makes sense on several levels.

As well as negating the stigma of what the word ‘waste’ means, it is also a more accurate description of what our industry does – recover resources. And if the government wants the industry to meet its various targets regarding FOGO, packaging, and a slew of other goals, then waste ends up being a by-product of what we do, not the focus.

As you’ll see in the following pages, there seems to be a plethora of answers to our waste solutions - getting everyone on the same page is the problem.

Funding boost to reduce rubbish on Great Barrier Reef

THE Federal Government will invest $3.5 million to help protect the Great Barrier Reef from marine debris.

The monies will be used to fund local projects that clean up the waters flowing into the Reef and reduce rubbish and waste in the community.

It will also help establish partnerships to encourage greater community participation and involvement, including with First Nations groups.

The funding is part of the Government’s $1.2 billion investment to protect and restore the Great Barrier Reef.

Minister for the Environment and Water, Tanya Plibersek, said marine debris is one of the biggest threats facing the Great Barrier Reef.

“Cigarette butts, plastic bags and

single-use plastic bottles are the three most common types of rubbish found in the Reef’s marine environment. They can smother coral, choke turtles, and entangle dugongs and dolphins,” Plibersek said.

“Reducing the amount of rubbish entering the Reef is one of the most valuable, tangible actions we can take to protect it.”

Senator Nita Green, Special Envoy for the Great Barrier Reef said reducing the amount of waste that flows into the Reef is a key part in ensuring the safety and resilience of the Reef and the marine life that calls it home.

“We know we still have a lot of work to do, but we’re committed to protecting and restoring the Great Barrier Reef for generations to come.”

Paper Trade Processing (Aust) Pty Ltd convicted and nes for two breaches of licence o ences

Paper Trade Processing Aust) Pty Ltd (Paper Trade) has been convicted and order to pay a ne of $50,000 in the Liverpool Court for breaching a conduction of its environment protection licence (Licence) issued by the Environment Protection Authority (EPA).

e Licence authorised Paper Trade to receive up to 28,000 tonnes of waste per year at Paper Trade’s premises at 49 Heathcote Road, Moorebank NSW 2170. However, in the period 4 May 2020 to 3 May 2021, Paper Trade received 52,306 tonnes of waste in contravention of its Licence. Further, in the period 4 May 2021 to 31 December 2021, Paper Trade received 34,250 tonnes of waste in contravention of its Licence.

ere was no evidence of actual harm to the environment, however Paper Trade’s unlawful conduct was potentially harmful to the environment and undermined the regulatory regime for waste management and environment protection.

On 4 July 2022, Liverpool Local Court convicted Paper Trade of two o ences against s 64(1) of the Protection of the Environment Operations Act 1997 for contravening a conduction of its Licence in two separate periods and ordered it to:

1.Pay a Fine of $50,000

2.Pay the EPA’s legal costs; and

3.Publish this notice in Inside Waste magazine.

Plastic bags and bottles are just some of the waste that ends up in the Great Barrier Reef ecosystem.

Turtles become the unintended victims of people disposing of their plastic waste in the ocean surrounding the Great Barrier Reef.

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New reports detail the bonuses of stewardship benefits

A landmark Australian study of the benefits and effectiveness of product stewardship has resulted in six new data reports detailing how stewardship can provide a pathway to transition to a circular economy.

The reports provide timely evidence as governments, businesses, and the community place greater emphasis on creating a sustainable future.

The findings also confirm the importance of product stewardship as a business-focused approach to design out waste and pollution, keep products and materials circulating in the economy, regenerate natural systems and decarbonise the economy.

The Product Stewardship Centre of Excellence and consortium partners will unpack the content in the six reports during three webinars held recently.

Study co-author Dr Nick Florin, Institute for Sustainable Futures, said the reports and webinars would be useful for policy makers, product stewards and business decision makers.

“This is the most comprehensive data set in Australia on product stewardship with insights around what stewardship has achieved and how it can be extended and made more

effective,” Florin said.

“There is an intense amount of policy work underway as Australia continues to search for answers to our environmental problems, including the impacts of production, consumption, and waste generation. These reports can help inform the work of Environment and Water Minister Tanya Plibersek’s Circular Economy Ministerial Advisory Group, the work of State Government environment agencies and for brands and industries looking for sustainable solutions.”

The reports are:

• Evaluating Stewardship Benefits and Effectiveness, Summary Report

• Product stewardship benefits assessment 2022: General population report

• Product stewardship benefits assessment 2022: Business report

• Product stewardship benefits assessment 2022: Local Government report

• Effectiveness and Benefits of Product Stewardship: Themes from 60 Qualitative Interviews with Stewardship Actors and Experts.

• Environmental, Social and Economic Benefits of Product Stewardship Initiatives in Australia.

A series of reports on product stewardship look at how schemes can move the circular economy forward.

NSW EPA to improve regulatory environment

THE NSW EPA will improve the regulatory environment for a circular economy following the independent review of the resource recovery framework.

A plan has now been released outlining the actions the EPA will take to address the independent review’s 22 recommendations.

Priority actions include improving the clarity of guidance materials for orders and exemptions, developing an innovation pathway, and investigating pathways to enable an end-of-waste outcome for suitable materials. This work will include consideration of the current definition of waste and how it facilitates or hinders recovery and use of materials while ensuring protection of human health and the environment.

NSW EPA CEO Tony Chappel said this is a milestone in the organisation’s work to support industry in finding ways to divert materials away from landfill.

“NSW has the potential to drive one of the most robust circular economies in Australia and we’re ensuring the

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regulatory environment is conducive of supporting industry to innovate,” he said.

“To achieve the NSW Government’s

2030 target of 80 per cent resource recovery, it is critical new pathways for these materials are created.

“We know we can get the right results – in 2020-21 of the 22 million tonnes of the waste generated in NSW, we saw twothirds of this recovered or recycled.

“But more work is needed – there are still many materials we don’t have recovery or reuse solutions for and we must support industry to divert more materials from landfill.

“We look forward to collaborating with industry to find new pathways for recovered materials and achieve better circular economy outcomes for NSW.”

The delivery plan outlines the scope of proposed work, timeframes and alignment with other EPA priorities.

The EPA is committed to engagement with stakeholders to develop and implement practical solutions that will achieve outcomes.

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Sustainability at forefront of Expo

SUSTAINABILITY is set to gain importance as Australia strives to reach its circular economy ambitions. Melbourne’s Inside Construction Expo 2023, will amplify the transformation.

Dedicated to commercial and civil projects in the Australian construction industry, the expo is being held from 20-21 September 2023 at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre.

The expo will feature a conference program involving top-level speakers, exhibitions showcasing the latest equipment and technology, and the Inside Construction Foundation Awards, celebrating industry individuals and businesses.

Show director, Lauren Winterbottom, says the event will be a platform to showcase successful sustainability outcomes and make new connections.

“Throughout the conference, attendees can expect to hear from executive-level representatives on topics including the role of circular economy, carbon reductions in the built environment, use of sustainable materials and designing for sustainable future,” says Winterbottom.

Speakers at the event will include Nick Alsop, senior manager buildings precincts and homes, Green Building Council; Clare Tubolets, chief executive officer at SmartCrete CRC, a Commonwealth funded Cooperative Research Centre focused on empowering research collaboration to support concrete sustainability and viability; Owen Buckley, general manager of the Infrastructure Sustainability Council; and Jason Zarifiadis, carbon innovation executive, TSA Management.

Inside Construction Expo is backed by support from several organisations and media partners. This includes Wurth Australia, which is a specialist in assembly and fastening materials.

Serge Oppedisano, chief executive officer of Wurth Australia, says 2023 Inside Construction Expo, promises to be a gamechanger for the industry.

“This event will provide an unparalleled opportunity for us to showcase our latest products and innovations, as well as to connect with fellow professionals and share insights and expertise,” Oppedisano said.

Intelligent positioning solutions provider Position Partners and

manufacturer Komatsu are also conference sponsors.

Current association partners include The National Association of Women in Construction; The Working at Height Association of Australia; The Concrete Pumping Association of Australia; The Institute of Quarrying Australia; The Crane Industry Council of Australia; The Formwork Industry Association; Landscaping Victoria Master Landscapers; and The Piling and Foundation Specialists Federation.

Foundation Awards

As part of this year’s Inside Construction Expo, the Foundation Awards will be held on 20 September 2023 to celebrate the individuals, businesses, and projects championing transformation in the construction industry.

The following awards will be given: The Rising Star of the Year, Industry Leader, Woman of the Year, Operational Excellence, Sustainability Initiative of the Year (sponsored by SAMI Bitumen), Safety Program Award (sponsored by Blackwoods), Technology Solution (sponsored by FRAMECAD), Major Project of the Year – Commercial, Major Project of the Year – Government, and Local Government Project of the Year.

Registration is free for both the exhibition and the conference. Tickets for the Foundation Awards can be purchased for $230 ex. GST for an individual ticket or $2100 ex. GST for a table of 10.

Inside Construction Expo will showcase successful sustainability outcomes.

Maryvale EfW project grant signed

THE Maryvale energy-from-waste (EfW) project, led by consortium partners Opal, Veolia, and Masdar Tribe Australia, has signed a $48.2 million grant agreement under the Manufacturing Collaboration Stream of the Modern Manufacturing Initiative (MMI).

The project received grand funding from the Australian Government as part of the Modern Manufacturing Strategy.

The Maryvale EfW facility will be the first of its kind in Australia to recover heat and power from residual nonrecyclable municipal and commercial waste to provide partly renewable power for large-scale manufacturing.

Speaking on behalf of the consortium, Edward Nicholas, general manager Masdar Tribe Australia, said that the grant demonstrates the Australian Government’s commitment to supporting innovative, alternative energy sources for manufacturing.

“The funding support from the Commonwealth not only demonstrates the importance of this technology in providing a waste management

solution to a whole-of-community problem, but it also accelerates our project towards completing the development phase and commencing

construction,” said Nicholas.

The Maryvale EfW facility will provide councils and businesses with a waste management solution that will divert residual waste from landfill and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Contracts will be offered on a waste arising basis, enabling councils to have the freedom to pursue future waste reduction initiatives without penalty.

“The social, environmental, and economic case to send non-recyclable waste to the Maryvale EfW facility is compelling,” said Nicholas.

The Maryvale EfW project is expected to attract investment capital of more than $600 million to the Latrobe Valley. It will create more than 500 jobs in Victoria and Gippsland during the construction phase, and support an estimated 450 Victorian jobs once operational, including direct and flow-on.

The EfW facility at Maryvale is expected to create approximately 450 jobs when it is up and running.

From the CEO’s desk

Integrated, systems-based approach required

Environment Ministers will meet for the second time this year on 7 December, following the rst 2018 Meeting of Environment Ministers (MEM) in April, which was in part a response to the import restrictions driven by China’s National Sword Policy and the e ects this policy has had across the Australian waste and resource recovery (WARR) industry. Key decisions derived from the April MEM

•Reducing waste generation, endorsing a target of 100% of Australian packaging being recyclable, compostable or reusable by 2025, and developing targets for recycled content in packaging.

• Increasing Australia’s domestic recycling capacity.

• Increasing the demand for recycled products.

• Exploring opportunities to advance waste-to-energy and waste-to-biofuels.

Australia must maximise the life span of resources and recover as much as possible for as long as possible, for many good reasons (including job creation, carbon mitigation and when we finally grasp that recycled/ secondary raw material really is as good as virgin – planet protection). However, I cannot help but feel that in the calls for ‘zero’ waste and creating a ‘circular economy’, we sometimes lose sight and knowledge of the essential role that our industry and facilities play in making this happen; particularly when one considers that while a ‘zero waste’, resource efficient society is desirable, it is not instantly achievable – and query if it is at all when we consider impact of natural disasters for example.

•Updating the 2009 Waste Strategy by year end, which will include circular economy principles.

It is time to take stock and examine what has been achieved since these decisions were announced. Now, seven (7) months may not seem like a long time, however in that time we have seen further markets close (Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam) and if you are an operator under continued nancial stress, seven (7) months could make or break you.

Australia is, to its credit, the home to a number of highly engineered, best practice facilities, led by fantastic people committed to safely managing the 76 million tonnes of ‘waste’ material generated and the 28 million tonnes of material that society still discards. By the way, we all know that this is far too much material (particularly given the current cost of living crises), but to date we are not seeing the necessary behaviour change campaigns that focus on consumption choices, nor funding and investment for re-use systems or policies that strongly drive (as opposed to meekly state) the use of recycled materials. The reality is that we are unlikely to see a great shift in the volume disposed without strong shifts in education, legislation, policy and funding approaches.

Following the April MEM, we have had three (3) states step in with varying degrees of nancial assistance for industry (councils and operators). This should be expected considering almost all states (except Queensland and Tasmania) have access to signi cant waste levy income each year. On the eastern seaboard, Victoria has approximately $600 million in waste levy reserves in the Sustainability Fund and NSW raises more than $700 million per annum from the waste levy. There is certainly no lack of funds that can be reinvested into our essential industry.

Funding helps but as we know, the money goes a much longer way with Government support and leadership, as well as appropriate policy levers.

VICTORIA

As a sector, we absolutely do want to recover material, be it through composting, recycling, anaerobic digestion, pyrolysis – there are a myriad of technologies that we deploy in Australia that can keep material circulating when designed well. Designed well means the right material that are free of hazardous substances like PFAS or other POPs. Having well built, strategically placed infrastructure including transfer stations, offers the ability to collect and aggregate materials to develop economically viable facilities at scale that can service multiple materials and streams. They also offer opportunities for the re-use sector to participate, including everything from tip shops, repair cafes, community recycling centres and collection points for source-separated materials under diverse product stewardship schemes.

Victoria has arguably been the most active and earnest in supporting the industry post-China, with two (2) relief packages announced to support the recycling industry, valued at a total of $37 million. The Victorian Government has also gone above and beyond all others states by announcing it would take a leadership role in creating market demand for recycled products.

SOUTH AUSTRALIA

However, even when designed correctly and supported by strong systems, at some stage these products and materials will reach their respective end of life. This is a time when they can no longer be safely recovered, and we will either need to capture energy from them, or safely dispose and manage them. So, we need to do these facilities well, too. In Australia, while possibly not sexy, we do this well, with many passionate engineers, operators, suppliers, consultants that are doing a brilliant job. They are doing a lot to maximise the amount of gas captured, methane mitigated, leachate managed and air space optimised.

However, to hit 80 per cent resource recovery, we need facilities across the hierarchy coming on stream across Australia at a far faster rate than we have ever

Government announced a $12.4 million support package comprising $2 million of additional expenditure, $5 million additional funding for a loan scheme, together with targeted funding from the Green Industries SA budget. The Government has also o ered grants for recycling infrastructure.

NEW SOUTH WALES

At rst glance, New South Wales’ eye-watering $47 million recycling support package was heralded as the spark of hope industry needed. However, on closer inspection, the bulk of this package that was funded via the Waste Less, Recycle More initiative and therefore the waste levy, was not new, making it very di cult for stakeholders, including local government, to utilise the funds as they were already committed to other activities. Some of the criteria proposed by the NSW EPA also made it challenging for industry to apply to these grants. On the plus side, e orts are being made by the NSW Government to stimulate demand for recycled content through the intergovernmental agency working groups that have been established, though no tangible increase in demand or facilities have developed… Yet.

QUEENSLAND

Unlike its neighbours, Queensland did not provide any nancial support to

industry however the Queensland Government has embarked on the development of a waste management strategy underpinned by a waste disposal levy to increase recycling and recovery and create new jobs. The State will re-introduce a $70/ tonne land ll levy in March 2019. There are also strong attempts to use policy levers (levy discounts and exemptions) to incentivise the use of recycled material and make it cost competitive with virgin material. However, little has been done to establish new markets and Government has not taken the lead in the procurement of recycled material. There are grants available for resource recovery operations in Queensland although no monies have been allocated to assist in 2018. This is troubling as Queensland rolled out its Container Refund Scheme on 1 November, which will likely impact the cost and revenue models of the State’s MRFs – as we have seen most recently in NSW.

seen. According to national waste report data there would appear to have been an increase in recovery of only one million tonnes over the last two reporting years, whereas we need over 10 million additional tonnes recovered over the next seven years (excluding ash recovery). With population growth and consumption behaviours, the material keeps coming while some states are running out of air space in metro areas and others do not know what their current capacity (or WARR infrastructure is), let alone what is required to deliver 80 per cent resource recovery.

What is clear, is that the system (and the facilities) is inexorably linked – if material cannot be avoided, or recovered, it will be disposed. To maximise material lifecycle, mitigate carbon and reduce reliance on virgin material, we need to make the system work at its optimum. To do this we need strong, sensible consistent policy and regulation that responds to (ideally individual) material streams, starting with avoidance, mitigation and resource recovery strategies. To maximise resource recovery, we also need consistent application of landfill levy both across Australia and within the system (note: this is not the same as having the same levy rate in every state), and dare I say we also need proximity principle applied.

WESTERN AUSTRALIA

The Western Australian Government set up a Waste Taskforce in direct response to the China National Sword. As part of this announcement, the State Government urged all local councils to begin the utilisation of a three (3)-bin system - red for general waste, yellow for recyclables and green for organic waste - over the coming years to reduce contamination. While this taskforce is a step in the right direction, we are yet to see any tangible results from it or any funding for industry. In October, the WA Waste Authority released its draft Waste Strategy to 2030, which comprises a comprehensive and detailed roadmap towards the State’s shared vision of becoming a sustainable, low-waste, circular economy.

An example of what this ‘system’ could look like is organics. We need to move over three million tonnes out of landfill over the next seven years to meet national targets. However, we need first and foremost to avoid/reduce the amount of food loss in production right through to the home, workplace and business. We genuinely need to buy better and waste less (this applies to all materials streams). Infrastructure needs to be built for the remaining residual amount, and it may not all go to compost due to challenges with packaging, contamination and markets. We need to consider all hierarchy facilities in managing organics, including energy and even landfill – particularly when one considers current gas capture rates at landfills, which will change once organics are removed. Landfills are not being stated to justify sending material there, but rather to recognise the linkages and considerations that need to be undertaken in developing policy. The WARR sector is an interrelated and complex system that we need to understand, to drive the outcomes needed.

COMMONWEALTH

Following the MEM in April, Australia now has a new Federal Environment Minister, Melissa Price, who in October reiterated to media MEM’s commitment to explore waste to energy as part of the solution to the impacts of China’s National Sword, which is troubling (EfW is not a solution to recycling). The Commonwealth has also backed the Australian Recycling Label and endorsed the National Packaging Targets developed by the Australian Packaging Covenant Organisation (APCO), which has to date, failed to incorporate industry feedback in the development of these targets. To the Commonwealth’s credit, there has been signi cant coordination in reviewing the National Waste Policy, with the Department of Environment bringing together industry players and States during the review process.

The updated Policy will now go before Environment Ministers on 7 December. The Commonwealth can play a key role – one that goes beyond the development of the National Waste Policy. WMAA is supportive of the Federal Government maximising the levers it has, including taxation and importation powers, to maintain a strong, sustainable waste and resource recovery industry.

The lack of linkages and need for greater understanding across the entire hierarchy is no more obvious than in the management of carbon and methane policies. At present, the landfill sector is doing a lot of the heavy lifting in mitigating and managing both these areas. Most current policies do not talk to each other and regrettably do not provide clear incentives for resource recovery as well as being overly complex, when we know that using secondary raw materials uses less energy and creates less emissions. There is an opportunity here for government and the sector to work together and get both policies and regulation in line to drive greater resources recovered, gas captured, carbon mitigated, jobs created, and investment delivered. However, to do this we really need an understanding of the entire system and to stop the ad hoc changes that have unintended consequences, when a myopic policy approach is taken.

AHEAD OF MEM 2

Let’s hope that with more conversations across the entire system, we can get there in all WARR policy areas, as it’s not an exaggeration to say that our planet (and our kids) is counting on us to get this right!

Gayle Sloan, Chief Executive Officer, WMRR

There may be movement across Australia, with some states doing better than others, but the consensus is, progress is still taking way too long. It is evident that there are funds available in almost all States to assist with developing secondary manufacturing infrastructure, however the only way that this will really happen is if there is government leadership around mandating recycled content in Australia now, not later.

Voluntary schemes like the Used Packaging NEPM, under which APCO is auspiced, are not working. We have 1.6million tonnes of packaging waste in Australia, which needs to be used as an input back into packaging. Barriers to using recycled content in civil infrastructure must be identi ed and removed, and Government must lead in this eld and prefer and purchase recycled material. A tax on virgin material should also be imposed as it is overseas. MEM must show strong leadership on this issue. Ministers have, since April, dealt directly with operators and councils that are under stress and we have a chance to create jobs and investment in Australia at a time when manufacturing is declining. Ministers have the opportunity to be leaders of today, not procrastinators – leaders of tomorrow and we are urging

Let’s

Powering the

talk impact.

Banning landfills would be a good start

By Inside Waste

(Continued from front cover)

Social licence

This brought up the topic of social licence. Currently, this is a hot-button topic for many reasons, he said. A social licence can solve everybody’s in-bin issue. The waste and resource recovery service needs to be thought of as an essential one, he said, and there to meet a community’s needs.

“The same as power generation, the same as a hospital, the same as a wastewater treatment plant,” said Carbins. “All essential services. And you know what? People don’t want them in their backyard either, but the reality is, as a society, we need essential waste management infrastructure.”

Having started at the coal face of the waste industry with her family-owned business Usshers, McBurney’s knowledge crosses over to both the top and bottom ends of the waste industry. Having been a general manager at Cleanaway and now in a similar role at REMONDIS, she knows the lay of the land not just in Australia, but Europe, too, which is at the cutting edge of waste infrastructure.

She commented that, as it stands, the NSW government, in particular, will not reach its FOGO targets, its resource recovery rate of 80 per cent, nor triple the current plastics recycling rate. Her solution to help those targets become a reality is simple – ban landfills.

“Those targets are certainly ambitious in the Australian context,” she said. “However, they are completely achievable in Europe. How? They have banned landfills. We talked about ‘How do you divert something from landfill?’ The quickest way to do that is for landfills not to be an option. It’s the fastest way to facilitate change. Germany banned landfills in 2005.

“Increasing the levy will get you there, but it’s much slower. It relies on landfill becoming more expensive than recycling. Banning landfill gives certainty to industry to invest in the relevant infrastructure and investment required for processing and recycling.”

Infrastructure investment key

McBurney is also a champion of energyfrom-waste facilities. She stated that if recycling reaches its zenith in terms of reaching the high 90 percentages, then materials need somewhere to go. Again,

infrastructure will be the key.

“Europe has onshore processing facilities within the EU for recovering material that is recycled back into raw materials for the circular economy,” she said. “This is similar to organics. Germany has required segregation at the source of organics since 2015, which is used as a feedstock. They have anaerobic digesters and composting facilities. This model facilitates certainty and risk sharing around feedstock, infrastructure, investment, and off-take –all things contractors need to provide the best services.

“It sounds simple, doesn’t it? To achieve this in the New South Wales context, the following things need to be addressed; banning landfill; revisiting the New South Wales energy-fromwaste precincts; segregation and source separation of organics; reviewing the CDS deposit value; planning and consent pathways; and timeframes when councils go out to tender.”

McBurney stated that the reinvestment of the waste levy is a touchy topic. However, there is $780 million in the fund that the government could use to assist the industry with infrastructure and give regulatory certainty.

On that last point, McBurney also notes that changes in government don’t help when it takes so long to get approvals for the various stages of a project. She believes that the government has a role in creating demand for off-takes, too.

“If we are serious about meeting the

New South Wales targets, and I really hope we are, this will require an act of political courage and conviction now. Otherwise, we’ll still be talking about this in another 20 years,” she said.

All about the community

Farrell took a more holistic approach. He would like everybody involved from the get-go – the community, investors, construction crews and government. He believes getting to the destination is important, and it doesn’t necessarily matter who leads the charge or what is in place. Working in synchronicity is the key.

“If you put the policies, the regulations, and the legislation in place and make it a society-wide problem and a society-wide opportunity, you can gradually get to the point that you want to,” he said.

“Whether it’s landfill diversion, increasing levies, removing recycling rates, whatever it might be. It doesn’t matter if my waste has been FOGOed, or your waste has been FOGOed, as long as we all eventually get there over time.”

The role of government

McLean touched on an area rarely brought up – government expectations versus the reality occurring on the ground. He believes that there is a disconnect between the two. However, this disconnect doesn’t mean the waste and resource recovery industry is not appealing to investors.

“My job is to bring private sector money into this space. And this is a really

attractive space,” he said. “Globally, about $30 billion went into this space in the past 12 months, but only 15 per cent in Asia APAC region.

“Recently, there was a transaction in the UK worth about $4 billion. The transaction multiples over there about 10 times to 12 times higher than over here. That means that when they invest, they have a lot of certainty about what will happen in 10 or 12 years. They think they’ll get their money back in 10 or 12 years. I don’t think there are many transactions down here where you can say that occurs. And that’s because we don’t have certainty for that length of time.

“We need to own one thing – building infrastructure will be inflationary. You can’t build new stuff to replace old stuff or stuff that doesn’t exist without driving up costs. We need to own that, and we need to put policies in place to mitigate the costs of living for people now.”

How can the government do that? McLean asked rhetorically. He believes their responsibility is to set a framework that brings the lowest cost of capital. Who wants the lowest return for the longest period in this space? Pension funds, superannuation funds, and infrastructure funds.

“They don’t want their money back at the moment, right?” he said. “They’re getting your money every week, all 10-12 per cent of it. They can’t deploy it fast enough. They don’t want money coming back to them. That gives them another problem to deploy.”

Most panel members agreed that the state and federal governments need to be more transparent.

McLean spoke of a similar situation occurring in the electricity industry in terms of infrastructure. He said that the states had to do all the heavy lifting as politicians at a federal level were not interested in helping.

“In the electricity infrastructure roadmap, what the state government does is underwrite supply agreements for a long period, 20 years, which guarantees an outcome for investors,” he said.

The government could also adjust the contracts to make them more appealing.

“Governments know that they’re going to build infrastructure for the next 10 to 15 years,” he said. “That’s a certain fact. However, they have rolling contracts for two or three years if, for example, you’re disposing of C&D waste from a tunnel. How can governments do a bit more than that? Rather than guaranteeing just one contract for two or three years, why not underwrite for 10? It’ll lower the cost of the infrastructure return and drive down costs for consumers.”

Collaborative approach

Collaboration was mooted as a key ingredient in moving forward in terms of getting infrastructure up and running, and that would mean the government being more open about their plans, according to Carbins.

“There’s a lot of information and data that’s collected and collated by the EPA,” he said. “I understand the sensitive nature of that. But I think there needs to be greater collaboration with industry to engage and understand their plan to deliver that future infrastructure. That’s the key message – what is that infrastructure plan, where it’s going to be?

“And policy. We’ve talked about it, I’ve talked about it, everyone’s talked about it. We need to know and understand, particularly if long-term planning and investment require long-term policy, whether it be council or state and federal governments.”

Carbins also said that there is a lack of consequences if government objectives are not met.

“We’ve got a lot of KPIs, and we’ve got a lot of objectives, but there are no consequences if we don’t meet those objectives,” he said. “We just go and rewrite the strategy. And how often has this happened? It’s been an ongoing topic that keeps reappearing, but there are no consequences.”

He also stated that there’d been a significant change in other parts of the world in that if these KPIs are not achieved, there are consequences. He wondered if Australia has the political will to change things because traditionally, on many levels, it has not been good at changing its sails and having the fortitude to enforce such rules.

If Farrell was pushed to prioritise the biggest issue, he believes it is energy from waste (EfW). He finds the messaging could be better, and it would be a good idea to stay away from ‘what-ifs’ and concentrate on the tangibles.

He believes there needs to be a more science-based approach when planning such projects – at a governmental level. Farrell comes from an electricity background, and he said the same issues, in terms of misinformation surrounding EfW plants, were similar to those that were being said about wind turbines when they first came on the energy scene.

“The negative effects of wind farms were all basically debunked,” he said. “When it comes to that, energy from waste needs to be revisited.”

Infrastructure Planning

Driscoll asked the panel about New South Wales’s Waste and Sustainable Materials Strategy, which according to Carbins, was mooted but has yet to reach its potential.

“It was a high-level document. We had a delivery plan that was released in December 2021, and there was going to be a lot of things going to happen in 2022,” Carbins said. “There were probably 20 activities or actions required in that space. There might be a reason to revisit that plan. I think an infrastructure strategy will help refine that.

“Let’s just do what we said we were going to do in the first place rather than spending the time and rethinking what to do next.

“There was enough action and activity in there that would move us forward… Let’s implement some of those and act on the things we’ve already discussed rather than trying to revisit.”

McBurney believes there is a missing piece to the equation for getting

infrastructure. There needs to be a data set to show much feedstock there is and who will supply it.

“Data is one thing, but what industry needs to do is invest in infrastructure is feedstock volume,” she said. “I think there’s a missing piece there. For infrastructure to be built, it requires council volumes.

“It requires joint procurement and certainty. This isn’t a ‘build it, and they will come’ scenario. As a contractor, [REMONDIS] needs certainty.”

Costs of recycling

Cost of living pressures were also a talking point. Driscoll mentioned that the landfill levies should be used towards building more infrastructure. Currently, some councils are mooting that their constituents are not happy as they appear to be paying more than they have in the past for lower levels of resource recovery. Are there any quick fixes to reduce the household cost of living? she asked. McLean quickly pointed out that any fixes need to be done at scale.

“Procurement at scale drives the economic process down,” he said. “When it is inflationary – and it will be – you need to drive the cost down as much as possible. The only overnight fix is that you have subsidised direct payments to consumers for some time. This is because we’re going through a transition. And be honest about it. Because that’s what’s going to have to happen.”

Webster agreed but went one step further – something McBurney had already mentioned earlier in the discussion.

“There is a lot of money sitting in the levy fund,” he said. “Companies are investing, and councils are investing –they have to get a return on capital. If the government can step in with some of

those funds, that will assist in offsetting some of the initial capital spent.”

Carbins was more specific in what he would like to see enacted. He believes that the current grants system could alleviate some of the issues around infrastructure but with a few conditions attached.

“My question would be – and I know that EPA reports on this – are councils getting bang for their buck?” he said. “It’s it seems to be spread quite broadly.”

He also said the maintenance costs over some time have to be considered, not just the initial capital spend, which will ensure the success of a project.

“If it can be reduced, then that’s one aspect of the financial model that lowers the impact,” he said. “A consideration would be allocating the grant funding to specific solutions and outcomes, rather than perhaps what I would consider a more broad and random approach that exists today.”

Finally, McBurney’s fix included all those involved in getting new infrastructure and being more transparent about what those needs are. A contractor will embed risks within a contract, but the more data they have, the more they can knuckle down on what a plant’s true capacity needs to be instead of taking what they think it will be once completed.

“We have to move along the maturity path by having far more transparent contracts – like genuinely sharing, especially if we’re going to a 10-year term, or 25-year term, contract, which is what you need [when building a new facility],” she said. “If you’re coming to me at the beginning of the contract, wanting me to accept 20 per cent contamination, and it turns out it’s five, I’ve had to build that facility for the worst possible scenario you’re putting into my contract. There needs to be a conversation about risk allocation.”

The lack of infrastructure is going to hit home, especially as government recycling targets fail to be met.

International treaty to end plastic pollution is one step closer

By Inside Waste

(Continued from front cover)

DELEGATES and observers were welcomed to provide submissions on these elements, prior to INC2 to help lead discussions. Since resolution 5/14, Australia joined the High Ambition Coalition to End Plastic Pollution, a group of more than 50 like-minded countries pushing for the creation of a legally binding treaty.

What does the treaty seek to achieve?

How would an international treaty differ to single-use plastic bans in Australia?

Ultimately, the treaty seeks to commit members states to a range of measures to restrict or remove the production of polymers of concern, as well as moderate the production and consumption of products to a sustainable level, deal with

legacy waste, promote a toxic-free circular economy, provide financial governance frameworks and ensure a just transition period for those impacted.

While there are voluntary initiatives and working groups for the prevention of litter and marine litter, there are clear gaps in frameworks to regulate plastic pollution, including marine plastic. This treaty seeks to correct this.

Ready, set …. wait

After some high-level meetings and side events on the days prior, delegates and observers were ushered into the UNESCO Plenary room on Monday morning to get down to business. Despite concerns around the capacity of the venue and opportunities for observers to be present and be heard, when the plenary started, there were several vacant seats, with others watching from adjoining rooms.

After some introductory keynotes from various dignitaries including French President Emmanuel Macron, people were keen to get discussions on matters of substance underway.

However, some countries interjected with procedural matters that they felt had not been addressed during INC1. Under the calm moderation of the chair, a tennis match ensued for a couple of days. Some countries noted that a consensus vote was critical for the implementation of the treaty. While most echoed the sentiment, many noted that a majority vote may have to be accepted if a consensus could not be reached. This also applied to the election of the remainder of the bureau, with debate about whether Draft Rules of Procedure to allow voting on the appointments had been adopted. There was a moment where it felt like there was going to be a vote on how to vote. The

election of the remaining members of the bureau ended up being decided by a majority vote via a secret ballot.

Delegates and observers were tiring of the constant interjections on superfluous points of order, in what could only be described as delaying tactics by expert negotiators. It became apparent that countries that were more vocal on procedural items had previously endorsed voluntary measures. There also seemed to be a correlation between interruptions and reliance on fossil fuel production.

Finally, items of substance

Late on day three, after all points of order had been addressed or adjourned, two Contact Groups were finally established. The potential options as tabled by the Secretariat had been split, with cofacilitators leading conversations in these groups over the following two days.

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These groups met late into the night and again each morning. During these sessions and thematic side events, it became clear that some consider recycling of plastics helps creates a circular economy and that more efforts should be made to collect, sort, process and recycle plastic at the current level, rather than focusing on restricting the production.

Conversely, many countries highlighted the necessity of regulating and banning problematic plastics to avoid contaminating the supply chain in order to ensure a toxic-free circular economy. There was also a call to focus on re-use as part of the waste hierarchy.

Informal waste-pickers also gained some attention. Millions of people spend their days sorting through trash as a job. There was a call from developing nations to ensure a just transition for these workers. If waste does not exist at the same levels, then what role will these waste pickers have in the future?

Some countries highlighted the importance of considering the impact on Small Island Developing States caused by over-production and consumption. There were also some good points raised by New Zealand about engaging and learning from

Indigenous knowledge holders, as well as considering the impact on their cultures.

There were differing views about whether time frames should be included in the proposed title of the treaty, or simply be an ongoing expectation to deliver outcomes. There was also debate whether 2040 is an acceptable date.

What was the conclusion?

Despite what many feared would be a loss of too much time, after informal consultations took place late on

Friday afternoon to discuss the way forward, late on Friday evening, a verbal report presented a decision that was subsequently adopted by the committee. This decision will see the chair and secretariat prepare a zero draft text for consideration at the next INC. This text will take into account the member and observer inputs and reports from the Contact Groups. In some instances, multiple options may remain and require further negotiation.

To try and satisfy concerns on

procedural matters, it was also agreed to include an interpretive paragraph on the Draft Rules of Procedure to ensure that they only apply on a provisional basis to the INC’s work. There was also the suggested to convene a one-day preparatory meeting adjacent to INC3.

Part of the outcome was also for the secretariat to seek submissions from members and observers on elements that were not included in the options paper. Examples on these elements were provided, such as principles and scope. There is also an opportunity for areas for intersessional, which may be important to identify the criteria for problematic and avoidable plastics.

A decision was also made with Nairobi (INC3), Ottawa (INC4) Canada, and South Korea (INC5) being confirmed.

As we progress through the next INCs, it seems that the major sticking points will be whether countries will accept mandatory targets and implementation, or instead push for voluntary arrangements and country implementation plans. Most importantly, if the treaty gets to a stage where parties are ready to vote, what will be the method of voting?

Delegates from several countries huddle on the sideline to informally discuss options that could enable a path forward to commence discussions on items of substance. (Photo credit: Shannon Mead)

Strong national leadership needed to progress industry

By Anne Prince

IN May this year, I was invited to speak at the Waste 2023 Coffs Harbour conference as a panel member and veteran of the industry. This put me in a reflective mood. We were asked to look back on what we’d achieved, what were the crucial step changes and what lessons we’d learned along the way.

Reflecting on a 40-year career, one that’s spanned the breadth of the sector — from council, community, commercial, charity and consultancy, including roles as diverse as managing the introduction of kerbside recycling in NSW, CEO of the Australian Council of Recyclers (ACOR) and as a board member at Zero Waste SA — I was thinking how this had given me unique insights into the multi-faceted waste and resource-recovery sector.

My career began at Ku-Ring-Gai, a progressive north-shore council in Sydney. Like many councils then and now, waste collection was contracted out to a third party, with residents offered 55-litre bins serviced twice a week. The many challenges ranged from a highly casualised workforce, as well as a high absenteeism from ‘sickies’, a proliferation of workers’ compensation claims from manual handling coupled with a general resident dissatisfaction about dogs upending and scavenging from bins to rubbish bins being thrown into trees, over hedges and regularly run over by cars. Then there was the habitual Sunday backyard incinerator sessions, where anything green or surplus to requirements was fair game, and leaf-burning in council gutters was acceptable, which generated huge plumes of choking smoke before airquality standards were introduced.

Council had both vision and leadership and looked overseas for solutions. It introduced Australia’s first 340-litre mobile garbage bins (MGBs) in 1978, and with them the first side-loading collection vehicles. The rest is history, with a tsunami of councils introducing wheelie bins nationally and thereby transforming the manual handling of waste collection into a system of skilled drivers working in air-conditioned comfort — Step Change number 1.

Recycling of scrap metal had occurred for decades, driven by economics and commodity value. By the early 1980s, South Australia had the introduced a container deposit scheme and ad-hoc approaches to recycling of glass by scouts

and waste paper for hospitals. Comalco introduced the highly successful ‘Cash for Cans’ program and glass refillables were being replaced by single-use plastic PET bottles. Milk came in glass bottles.

A decade later, we had an ‘environmental awakening’, with a hole in the ozone, the first ever Rio Earth Summit in 1992 and a mandate to ‘think globally and act locally’. At home, we were busy planting trees. Clean Up Australia was born and, for the first-time, the federal government set recovery targets on the beverage industry and its packaging suppliers.

Industry responded by looking overseas once again, to the kerbside recycling ‘Blue Box’ program in Canada. The MGBs in Europe were designed to co-collect paper and containers or general waste, and recycling was at the forefront. Globally, communities were demanding more of industry and looking for government policy interventions to drive change and investment.

Back home, driven by Recycle Sydney and Recycle NSW, councils invested in black 50-litre crates. These were collected weekly or fortnightly on garbage day for glass, paper, cans and PET with materials sorted at the kerb. In Victoria, depots that were already up and running were converted into basic material recovery facilities (MRFs)

and poly-woven bags were provided to residents. These were the foundation of the current kerbside recycling.

Industry evolution

As packaging continued to increase and recycling opportunities opened up for more plastic polymers, crates became MGBs as more capacity was needed. Smaller companies were taken over by bigger companies with deeper pockets to finance bins, side-loading trucks and MRFs. Asset management was needed for bin stocks and contractors invested time and money in understanding compaction impacts. Contracts had risk-sharing clauses along with rise and fall as the norm. End markets were secured both locally and globally, quality specifications dictated sale prices, and recycled content increased in everything from detergent bottles to newspapers. Coca-Cola was able to reduce PET to its molecular structure and rebuild the polymer into a new food-grade container — Australia had the first, true ‘bottle to bottle’.

Today, 40 per cent of all 240-litre recycling bins are overflowing, leading some councils to offer 360-litre bins to help capture all recyclables. We see contamination levels heading north of 20 per cent, as paper use continues to decline and used beverage containers are diverted to container refund schemes.

We have more communication bombardment than ever before, although the messaging is diluted with the many and varied forums. We have seen the success of national campaigns that changed society. Remembers ‘do the right thing’, ‘click-clack, front and back’ and ‘slip, slop, slap’ campaigns, but where is the ‘recycle right’ campaign? Is it because we have confused ourselves?

At Coffs, I asked the audience, “should we have lids on or lids off or we don’t really know”. The sad reality is the response was about a third for each option. If we, as the waste professionals don’t know, how is the consumer going to work it out?

Back in the 1970s, someone decided to put the plastic polymer ID number on all packaging inside the recycling modus loop. What they didn’t consider was how it would be interpreted by Joe Public. Finally, after 30 years, in response to total consumer confusion, APCO has driven the adoption of the Australian Recycling Label (ARL) for its members to assist confused customers figure out which bin is correct for the plethora of used packaging.

The implementation of bin audits helped demystify what was really going into the bins. After recycling was conquered, we set our sights on garden waste. Another wave of bins ensued,

Have we confused ourselves when it comes to knowing what waste stream goes in which bin?

with alternate fortnightly services with recycling to maximise the fleet, another round of resident education (‘do not place garden gnomes, garden hose or plastic bags in the bin — just clean garden waste, leaves and plants, please’). Compost-processing facilities were tasked with cleaning up the mess and transforming it into a saleable commodity. A national roadmap set out the journey required to remodel the sector into a viable entity, including trials to prove what we already knew — organics help things grow better.

Today, bin audits tell us there are almost no garden organics in the rubbish bin and that around 15 per cent are recyclables even after three decades of tireless efforts. Approximately 40 per cent is food. NSW has mandated food waste recovery by 2030 from domestic bins and by 2025 for industry. We have many successful food organics and garden organics (FOGO) programs forged by the early work in South Australia more than a decade ago. We know the ingredients for a successful program — kitchen caddies, bio-bags that meet the Australian Standard (to reduce the ‘yuck’ factor), weekly FOGO or food only (FO) and fortnightly general waste.

However, the added complexity to be conquered this time, is the increased urbanisation, with medium- and highrise living becoming the norm. Here, waste chutes prevail and bin storage rooms are already full. Education and messaging for the highly transient resident population also presents challenges. A council’s job is never done. We must also develop new processing capacity for an estimated one million tonnes of new organics in NSW alone.

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Where will it all go? Resource recovery is only sustainable when there are markets and buyers otherwise we will all pay more.

Consumerism has driven more of everything. Industry responded with more products, packaging and increasing complexity. The advent of composites — multi-material containers and products that aren’t easy to disassemble or recycle — is of considerable concern. The proliferation of e-waste from mobile

phones, computers, laptops, monitors, TVs and peripherals continues to grow with ever shorter lifecycles.

Some manufacturers have stepped up and are taking responsibility for their contribution to the increasing landfill volumes. Many still don’t or won’t. Although extended producer responsibility (EPR) has become part of the vernacular, from my perspective, there’s a lot of talk and not much action. Decades were lost while industry made every possible effort to avoid regulation, achieving little progress toward tackling the problem. The same thing continues 30 years on. We are slow learners, but our new federal environment minister means business and has had enough and has put industry on notice. What we all desperately need is some strong national leadership.

While I’ve witnessed the most transformative period for domestic solid waste management, we can all only wonder at what lies ahead in the hands of a new generation of entrepreneurs, policy-makers and community members. It can be more of the same or we can be bold and brave and make some hard decisions and planet, people and profit can co-exist. Just maybe….

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James Foreman, Project Director Laing O’Rourke

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No easy solution for regional tyre waste

WHILE a lot of those who work in cities bemoan the lack of infrastructure in the main urban areas of Australia, spare a thought for those in regional and rural areas. Unless someone suggests an energy from waste facility, remote communities don’t have much infrastructure when it comes to resource recovery. And when end-of-life tyres are involved, even less.

Danette McLean, from consultancy firm Aurecon, spoke at the Coffs Harbour Waste Conference about the trials and tribulations of having to deal with such a troublesome waste stream out in the bush. She has spent a lot of time in Torres Strait Islands and Northern Queensland.

“There really is no suitable disposal method for tyres in those regional and remote areas,” she said. “People are putting them into landfills, and they’re stockpiling. They all want to do better, but they really don’t know how, and they don’t have any options. There are a lot of risks, particularly for local government out there.”

Although Australia has a Tyre Stewardship Australia (TSA) scheme, McLean said it wasn’t a suitable outcome for remote regions.

“It might work well in cities, but doesn’t work for regional areas,” she said. “Twenty-five cents of a tyre goes to TSA to help out. However, none of that

is coming back to rural or regional areas. They don’t have any facilities to collect the tyres.”

TSA has done a feasibility study on putting a processing facility in the northern climes of Queensland, but McLean is not convinced that is a viable solution, because no matter where it is built, a lot of communities will be too far away for it to be of any use.

A lot of the old tyres are at mining sites, with McLean saying she knew of at least one location in Far North Queensland where there’s an estimated 20,000 tonnes of tyres. She said that there were at least 45-plus landfills in the region with about 400 tonnes each of tyres, and an unknown number of other places around the state. One aspect that doesn’t encourage recycling of tyres is that a lot of the landfills are free. There are no levies, so people can go in and leave their tyres – any waste – anywhere within the boundary of the landfill. A lot of mines bury their tyres, too.

“Mines stockpile or bury, and they have very large tyres,” she said. “They are very difficult to transport. You can fit two on a truck if you want to bring them back [but it’s not economically viable].”

Considerations

So what are some of the solutions that have been bandied about in the

region? Until recently, exporting was an option, but legislation has meant this is no longer possible. McLean likes the idea of crumbed rubber and it’s a ‘great product’, but economies of scale means it’s not viable. Tyre-derived fuels (TDF) have been mentioned but have yet to be approved by the Queensland government.

There are several issues surrounding making sure tyres don’t end up in landfill and are recycled or disposed of properly. These include being technically feasible, legally compliant, reputational risks, as well as safety and risk concerns, said McLean. She also went one step further and wondered aloud as to where one person or company’s responsibility stopped, and another’s began. Do those who pay a third party to get rid of the tyres, still have a responsibility to make sure that third party disposes of them in an environmental and ethical way? What if the tyres are crumbed at a substandard crumbing facility and the roads that have been built using the crumbed tyre, fail?

Options

McLean and her team looked at some options to recycle and/or dispose of tyres used in the mining sector to keep them out of landfill. A mine site that is

currently in operation was used to test these ideas.

The first option was business as usual.

“Do we actually have to do anything?’ she said. “Why can’t we just leave them in the stockpile?”

From an economic and technical point of view, such an option ticked the boxes. However, when it came to legal issues, it wasn’t viable.

Then there was leasing tyres. While McLean noted that although the idea didn’t cover off on the legacy tyres in the system, it did look good as far as circular economy appeal.

“We just lease the tyres and then they go back to the owners,” she said. “No further involvement from the mining community was necessary. Then there is long-term stewardship, which is also a good idea, but isn’t going to help with the 40,000 tonnes of legacy tyres they have got.”

The ideas that made it past the assessment stage were common. The first was contracted waste removal. It was economically and technically feasible, and legally met all of those requirements.

“Another idea was that mines can also look at running [a scheme] themselves,” McLean said. “Should they process those tyres on their own site, turn them into crumb rubber themselves?

Hundreds of tonnes of used tyres are landfilled every year in regional Australia.

That one certainly ticked all the boxes as a possibility.”

Another option pushed by a mine operator and another entity was to join together in some format, such as the mine owning a plant and outsourcing the operation, to dispose of the tyres.

This operator of the mine site also pushed that idea of whether a traditional owner-business would work.

“We discounted the last one pretty early on,” said McLean. “We know everyone wants to do better in this space, but my question to them was, ‘This is a difficult problem that you can’t solve yourself. Why would you give it to another entity and set them up to fail?”

Some of the options created more questions than answers for the mine owners. For example: Who is responsible for the end product? When is it no longer my responsibility? If they sold the tyres to a contracted waste operator and they leave the site, are we done? If something happens to those tyres along the way does that come back to me/us? and, if we’re operating on site with an external operator, where is that line between who owns the tyre and who doesn’t?

McLean went through the different steps that had to be taken for the necessary outcome to be achieved. The first was the mine needed to procure all the equipment and put it in a building with connection to utilities. And if it’s on a mine site, it needs to meet all their criteria about safety.

The next step is to find a workforce that wants to shred tyres. A plant is needed to be commissioned and then the stockpiled tyres need to be brought to the site.

“Someone knows where most of

them are but not everyone, so we need to go and actually find them, bring them back. Depending on where they’ve been and how long they’ve been there, we have to wash them,” said McLean. “We then need to be de-aggregate them. Think about your small car tyre but also the metal rim needs separating.”

She said there needed to be a maintenance plan in place for the machines and the machines needed staff to load them.

“If you’re talking about the big mine tyres, that’s big machines that you need,” she said. “And you need to drop them into the shredder – even smaller passenger tyres for a local government – it’s quite an exercise. We load, then shred it, then we’ve got to collect it at the end, and then we’ve got to prepare it for transport it.”

McLean pointed out that the main issue if the mine company is going to do it itself is that it needs to find an off-taker – who is going to take the processed tyre and who’s going to manage that process?

Problem points McLean also made it clear there were some issues that need to be considered when taking up the challenge.

“There is a risk here. We’re going to build this processing plant, but does it become a stranded asset once we’ve got rid of all the stockpile?” she said.

“What if the tyres are in an even worse condition than was originally thought? What if there is a safety incident when we’re doing this? What if the road transport costs are suddenly twice as much as before? What if there is no off-taker at the end or they now want us to pay them even more? There

are risks galore for the entity to run it themselves.”

The easier option, said McLean, is still not without risks. It would be for a contractor to take the material. The contractor would need to locate the

tyres, collect them, de-aggregate them, wash and clean them, and move them to a central location.

“I’m not saying that this isn’t without risk, but most of that risk, if you’re a local government, is now being borne by someone else,” said McLean. “You can pay that risk away.”

McLean admitted that finding an all-in-one solution for tyres in remote communities is not going to be troublefree. Identifying the issue is the easy part, finding the solution, an ongoing conundrum.

“So far, all of these projects are at this point of, ‘where do we go from here?’,” she said. “We’ve identified the issue. We’ve identified some of the options. We’re still really struggling with this end market. We’re aware that there’s some potential new facilities going in at Townsville and Katherine, which certainly helped. However, most of these sites are still at least 1000 kilometres away from those townships.”

McLean finished by stating that tyres are not going anywhere in terms of being a waste problem in remote and regional areas. Finding feasible solutions is an issue, but one that can be worked through if all parties come to the table

McLean said solving the issue of legacy tyres in regional areas is complicated but possible.

AMTA: Voluntary schemes work

voluntary measures prove unsuccessful. Tanya Plibersek, Minister for the Environment and Water, has already signalled as such across several industry sectors including soft plastics, clothing, solar panels, tyres – and of course, electronics.

During a February 2023 speech at the VISY roundtable, for example, the Minister said the Albanese government is prepared to regulate the plasticsrecycling industry if voluntary codes fail to fix the crisis revealed by the collapse of REDcycle.

“I’m happy to let industry take the lead, but if industry is unable to act, then I have no problem with imposing obligations,” she said.

must demonstrate measurable product design improvements to increase the durability, repairability, re-usability and/ or recyclability of electronic and electrical products by June 2025.

However, voluntary schemes can be successful without regulation.

Regulatory product stewardship schemes can prove a necessary step, especially when there are poor policy outcomes – as in the case of soft plastics. But the assumption that all voluntary schemes will ultimately prove unsuccessful is exactly that: an assumption.

phone components for recycling, which had the equivalent benefit of reducing global warming by 42 tonnes of CO2-e emissions, saving 215 tonnes of mineral resources, and planting 11,000 trees.

Through partnerships with some of Australia’s biggest retailers including Officeworks, Woolworths, Australia Post, and Samsung, 96 per cent of the country’s population is within 10km of a MobileMuster drop-off site.

By Louise Hyland

AS the Albanese Government in Australia takes significant steps to prioritise recycling and promote a circular economy, the electronics industry is facing increased scrutiny – and the government’s intention for regulation can’t be ignored.

The government has signalled its intention to regulate the electronics industry, with the establishment of a regulatory product stewardship scheme for electrical and electronic products on the horizon. The Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water (DEECCW) is currently consulting on a proposed e-stewardship program, with an outcome expected soon.

The opportunity to strengthen and expand product stewardship for electrical and electronic products in Australia will help contribute to a circular economy, reduce environmental and human health impacts, and increase the recovery of valuable materials, including critical minerals.

Product stewardship is about taking responsibility for the full lifecycle of a product – from manufacturing through to end of life, and ensuring that the product doesn’t end up in landfill. It helps ensure the product and its materials are recyclable, and all materials are contributing to the circular economy.

However, addressing the challenge of electronic waste management will require a careful balance between voluntary initiatives and government regulation, with product stewardship at the core. Are voluntary schemes enough, or will the government choose stricter regulation as the inevitable next step?

Regulation is on the horizon

The government has made it clear that it is not afraid to regulate, should

More recently, in June 2023, the minister announced the National Clothing Product Stewardship Scheme, which is voluntary. Minister Plibersek said: “If companies choose to pull out, or free ride on the work of others, then I have no problem stepping in and regulating directly. The alternative to this program isn’t a weaker scheme with a lower levy – it’s government regulation.”

The same is true of the tyres and mattresses industries, which were added to the Minister’s product stewardship priority list for 2022–23. And with 90 per cent of solar panels ending up in landfill, the Minister has made it clear that federal regulation of solar panel waste is a national priority. The electronics industry is next in line.

The electronics industry is similarly within the Minister’s sight line, with the Department of Environment identifying an opportunity to strengthen and expand product stewardship for electrical and electronic products in Australia.

Electrical and electronic products, including small electronics such as mobile phones, are already firmly on the Minister’s product stewardship priority list for 2022–23.

The intention to develop a regulatory product stewardship scheme for household electrical and electronic products has been made clear.

Elements of the proposed electronics product stewardship scheme are similar to the National Television and Computer Recycling Scheme (NTCRS), a co-regulatory program that funds collection and recycling programs for the television and computer industry. Products covered by the scheme include end-of-life televisions, printers, computers, computer parts and peripherals.

In practice, any regulatory scheme would mean that manufacturers, importers, distributors and retailers

MobileMuster, a division of the Australian Mobile Telecommunications Association (AMTA), is proving that ‘voluntary’ and ‘successful’ can go hand in hand. The free mobile phone recycling scheme recovers and repurposes 99 per cent of glass, plastic, and metal materials used in mobile phones, batteries, chargers, modems, and smart devices.

Although industry participation in the scheme remains entirely voluntary, MobileMuster currently has 96.7 per cent mobile phone manufacturer industry participation and 90 per cent mobile phone carrier participation, with its success built around shared responsibility from industry participants.

Since first achieving accreditation in 2014, MobileMuster has routinely exceeded the annual KPIs set forward by the federal government, recycling 2000 tonnes of e-waste and diverting more than 96 per cent of donated materials from landfill. This is the equivalent of 5,000 tonnes of CO2 being removed from the atmosphere or planting more than 80,000 trees.

In 2021-22 alone, MobileMuster collected close to 109 tonnes of mobile

The success of the MobileMuster program has been built around the shared responsibility that the industry has taken to recycle mobile phones and related accessories. This relies on a collective responsibility that the mobile industry has voluntarily embraced for more than 25 years, with each member doing their bit to help the environment.

MobileMuster’s governmentaccredited program stands as a prime example of an industry-led, not-for-profit product stewardship scheme that is entirely voluntary, demonstrating the positive impact of shared responsibility and collaboration.

And for the small proportion of industry that hasn’t yet become involved in voluntary programs, the government’s clear warning around regulation is one that must be taken seriously.

As the Albanese Government moves forward with its intention to develop a regulatory product stewardship scheme for household electrical and electronic products, MobileMuster is clear proof that voluntary industry collaboration works.

Louise Hyland is the Chief Executive Officer of the Australian Telecommunications Association Limited (AMTA)

According to AMTA data, more than 96 per cent of the material collected by MobileMuster is diverted from landfill.

Why administration matters in resource recovery

By Lacey Webb

THE waste levy is often one of a waste management facilities largest monthly costs, but is often prepared by less experienced team members. Gatehouses are one of the only places where members of the community will interact with customers directly, yet those team members are often less informed and are not always a priority for upskilling.

Challenges of regulation and compliance are coming about because of failings to manage business processes rather than operational processes. Coupled with the struggle at facilities to find funding to roll out new programs or innovations. We need to take a step back, to take a leap forward and talk about the lack of investment into the invisible administration. Why does this happen? Because admin isn’t sexy. It doesn’t come in yellow or with a choice of attachments; it’s not a direct revenue generator; and it’s commonly left to be dealt with by employees with the least experience and on the lower end of the pay scale. But underestimating the importance of administrative functions and the individuals who perform them can lead to some of the biggest costs and challenges in our sector.

And it’s costing us millions.

Waste Levies

Waste levies are one of the largest costs of our facility operations, but they are often treated like an afterthought. Instead of designing a process to get them right the first time, we wait until after the fact. We amend our invoicing at month end when realising that a waste levy exemption has expired, or we wait until year end to properly audit our data, after obligations have already been met and cash has left the bank. There’s a general rule that a correction of waste levies that incurs a liability for a prior period will generate a new invoice and an interest charge, requiring prompt payment. However, expediting a refund when the adjustment results in credit is something that in some states doesn’t have a mechanism within the regulation!

We undervalue our admin process for levies because they are managed by our administrative teams – and while we value those staff, there remains an unconscious bias in industry that admin functions are lower priority. Whether it’s within enviro or compliance, whether

it’s handled by the finance team or by ops, a waste levy is still a function of generating a report or pulling together a spreadsheet. It is often allocated as a task to team members who may not understand the regulation sufficiently, or who may not understand some of the avenues and mechanisms that are available to them to improve how they administer data and lodgements, or how to effectively audit and adjust.

As someone who has overseen the submission of 300+ waste levy returns over the past two years, one of the most common risks I see is that the person preparing the waste levy obligation doesn’t understand the end result of the numbers they’re preparing.

Risk exists when there is a limited link between the numbers on a spreadsheet or return and what’s really going on at site. In Queensland, a tonne reported incorrectly to landfill will be leviable, but if that load is disposed of in a Resource Recovery Area, there’s no levy payable. In NSW, there is often a lack of understanding that if a site reports VENM incorrectly as soil, it will be missing out on the 90 per cent levy reduction. These seem like small matters. But when you add up the inconsistencies over a span of a year, the compound effect is costly.

Resource Hub was recently contacted by the NSW EPA to support calculating an accurate leviable position for a flagship landfill operation. There was a $700,000 levy liability pending completion of the review due to a discrepancy between tonnes reported to the levy portal (WARRP), surveys and transactional data. An assessment of data, operational process, and discussion with gatehouse staff identified a gamut of opportunities to improve efficiency and outcomes, but most also demonstrated that the levy liability did not exist. Data correction, retraining and an exemption application of operational materials would be the next step. The attention to detail that should be given to validating information surrounding waste levies, is often more than our teams know to give. We must start investing in the support needed by our administrative teams to ensure that they have the support and skill/ information to submit accurate reports.

Gatehouses

I love gatehouses. I love the amount of information that you can gain from a single transaction when a load comes

into a facility, and I love seeing the different ways in which this transactional experience is actioned. It comes down to the transactional software used, the people we hire, and the training and resources to ensure that staff can perform at their best.

Nine times out of ten, gatehouse staff are part of the administrative portfolio. They often come from an administrative background but their primary role is to be customer facing and transactional. Everything that we know about what comes into or out of a facility should be touched by their hands. And if we don’t invest in those people, how can we expect the decision-making derived from that data to be well informed? It’s imperative that we invest in the administration of the front end of facilities.

Consider this: if a manager makes a strategic investment decision, they will use the transactional information that staff at a weighbridge or a nonweighed site has collected. If they make a decision about opening hours of sites they’re going to use the information that the gatehouse have captured. And if they don’t have confidence that the information is correct, how do they make the right decisions? There are a number of ways to invest in the people and processes of the gatehouses:

• Ensure that training schedules and checklists are in place for staff onboarding. Don’t assume that an existing operator training a new operator is going to be sufficient.

• Ensure that gatehouse staff have annual refresher training in areas such as use of transactional software, regulation and operational best practice, and even customers service training. And keep the gatehouse looped into regular toolboxes.

• Keep communication flowing. Gatehouses can be isolated, so keep the team on top of changes to site, new processes and empower them to share the risks and opportunities they identify.

The Invisible Administration

While waste levies, gatehouse management and compliance are big ticket challenges to address, the compounded other hidden “administrivia” takes a toll on our effectiveness as an industry. Neglecting the invisible administration can result in inefficiencies,

missed opportunities for improvement, and increased costs, but we can learn from our neighbours. Investing in these areas is essential to ensure accurate data collection, streamlined processes, and effective compliance management. This is often the best way to learn what works to resolve the smaller admin functions is by chatting with others in industry.

Collaboration between organisations, sharing and even defining best practices, and utilising regional resources can alleviate the burden on individual facilities and promote industry-wide improvements. We hear that facilities don’t have sufficient funding to invest in rolling out new programs or innovations, however, by improving investment in our administrative efforts, the savings seen at the other end can create the budget we need for these new initiatives.

We need to invest in:

• Ensuring that people are regularly trained.

• Have access to adequate support networks.

• Shared learnings, standardisation across sites and within industry.

• Specialist help for important administrative tasks.

The question we need to ask ourselves is: How do we take the opportunities to create a new framework for best practice that focuses on the front of our facilities, and not only on the back of house.

At the end of the day, we need to remember that it’s the ‘boring’ foundational administrative tasks that can add up to big numbers and make a big difference in the industry. Because a site can do a lot with a $700K levy reduction.

Lacey Webb is the managing director of Resource Hub

Training of gatehouse staff is imperative if the admin part of a business is to run smoothly.

Level playing field needed

E-WASTE could be both a boon and bane to the resource recovery industry, but it needs to be done right. And it starts at the top. This is what Zoltan Sekula would like to see. Sekula is the product stewardship manager for resource recovery specialist Ecocycle and has been involved with the e-waste industry since its inception. He supports the current formal review of the NTCRS Product Stewardship framework, it is very timely, in his opinion.

What this entails is the inclusion of small electrical and electronics household equipment and solar panels, possibly energy storage device, too. The proposed restructure with the creation of a single, coregulatory arrangement and multiple network collectors would be more transparent for those involved in the collection and recovery of e-waste. Most think that the amount of e-waste being created is only going to get bigger and underpin a circular economy.

An interesting set of facts came out of the Federal Government’s Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment’s E-Product Stewardship in Australia Evidence report, which was released in 2021. It stated, among other things:

“In 2019, 975,000 tonnes of e-products were estimated to have entered the Australian market…Approximately 8.125 million tonnes of e-products were in use, about 8.5 times the amount of product entering the market…[By] 2030, 976,000 tonnes of e-products are projected to enter the market…with 11.999 million tonnes of e-products in use, which is about 12.3 times the amount of product entering the market. [There will be] falls in e-waste tonnage between 2019 and 2030 for TV and computing equipment (-32 per cent), and other small equipment (-15 per cent), offset by large increases in temperature exchange equipment (+66 per cent), large household appliances (+83 per cent) and solar PV and battery storage (+1700 per cent).”

In other words, there is going to be a huge influx over the next decade in e-waste. Sekula said legislation needs to be put in place now that will take care of a plethora of issues that could arise over the next 10 years.

“Back in 2006, it was like the wild west out there,” he said. “I was working for one of the first e-waste recyclers in Australia and stayed for seven years. We developed great advancements – put e-waste on the map, serviced the analogue to digital switch from CRT TVs to flat-panel displays, and product stewardship legislation became a reality. I was on the team that reviewed the initial regulations, and then wrote the relevant Australian Standards still in use today.

“Ten years after it was first introduced, the legislation has been reviewed. We have the Recycling and Waste Reduction Act 2020 in force now that supersedes the original product stewardship legislation. Unfortunately, the flaws that became apparent in the original product stewardship regulations are still present in the current rules for the NTCRS.”

What are some of the issues? Sekula feels that outcomes could be better in terms of the compliance, auditing and enforcement.

Such as? One of the main sticking points he has is that those who select the downstream processors and choose them to recycle/process the e-waste they have collected, are the very same people who audit them – ie, the police are policing themselves. Sekula and Ecocycles’ owners are more than happy for independent auditors to be appointed to audit whatever Ecocycle is doing.

However, said Sekula, the same independent auditors need to be appointed to audit the downstream processors doing the separation and recycling of the collected e-waste. This is where the transparency comes in with the current review.

“Currently, the Federal Department responsible for the scheme has no jurisdiction over the auditors. They only have jurisdiction of the five product stewardship organisations as far as scheme outcomes are concerned,” he said. “The internal audits of the downstream processors of the e-waste are totally left up to internal auditors of the five companies with the licences running the scheme. How can you change that?

“These professional, specialised auditors simply need to be independent, registered third-party auditors and not internal auditors controlled and engaged under the ownership of those companies running the scheme.”

Also, there is the issue of viability in

terms of the amount of money being generated so it makes the scheme commercial for those who have licences. According to Sekula, Ecocycle is earning very little on the collections it makes, but the scheme requires collection services to every town that has a population of more than 4000 people. It’s not currently economically viable or sustainable and it has to be addressed.

“We’re doing it at the prices that are roughly at one third to one quarter of what they used to be back in 2012,” Sekula said, “when diesel certainly wasn’t at the price level it is now, and inflation wasn’t running as high.

“Hence, the e-waste processors resort to cutting corners to survive with every trick in the book. E-waste export bans already have been in place for a number of years, but it is still happening. A significant number of the parties responsible for funding the scheme are not really supporting the needs of the recycling industry to achieve best environmental outcomes. So, the system is not right and had to come under a full review.”

One side-effect of this low-balling of pricing, according to Sekula, is it won’t encourage investment in infrastructure for future efficiencies to be achieved and e-waste will be lost to landfill again. As mentioned, the federal government is expecting the number of e-waste products in use to have increased by half again by 2030.

In saying that, Ecocycle has invested in infrastructure and trucks based on what the government has predicted. However, if there is no level playing field, it might discourage recyclers to get on top of a hazardous waste stream that has the potential to continue to cause pollution issues.

Effectively there is at present the issue of competitive advantage or lack-there-of for co-regulatory scheme administrators as the outcomes to be achieved are set in regulation and were transferred to the current NTCRS rules. Ecocycle is more than happy to be involved as long as there is a level playing field. Currently, Sekula said, there is no level playing field and they are but a small player in the market.

Ecocycle became involved as an option when one company handed back its licence because they couldn’t make a reasonable profit from the scheme. Another had a fire, which burned its Victorian factory down. Another two companies were added and later Ecocycle was included with its national presence, as the fifth licensee. Ecocycle has invested heavily in AI and robotics to safely and efficiently recycle e-waste.

And why isn’t this scheme open

to all and sundry like a lot of product stewardship schemes?

“Because the NTCRS is the only coregulatory scheme with the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water (DCCEEW),” said Sekula. “The NTCRS is a compulsory scheme, other schemes are voluntary. Everybody else has the Recycling and Waste Reduction Act 2020 as the overall governing legislation with support and approval of the ACCC in the background, allowing competitors to discuss and develop industry supported schemes without risk of anti-competitive conduct allegations being raised. The NTCRS has got the same Act, but we have additional specific rules that the government has devised for industries that did fail to agree in the time frame set in 2009. We have all learnt from that, but the problems remain to date.”

According to Sekula, product stewardship administrators and their perceived competitive advantage to create value-add propositions to attract new funding members have found limitations in distinguishing their services with scheme outcomes set by the NTCRS rules. Naturally, if customers are unable to recognise or distinguish between service offerings, the market will be price driven. This may be good for parties funding the scheme, but a race to the bottom always pushes recyclers into survival mode and is further demonstrated by the exit of long-term licensees in 2021. The social, economic and environmental benefits conceived by the original product stewardship framework produced unintended negative recycling industry performance.

“The scheme now encompasses five Product Stewardship Arrangements utilising down-steam processors with an estimated 50 operations nationally,” said Sekula. “These vary from social enterprise to commercial and industrial recyclers; all should adhere to the same stringent OH&S and environmental standards and reporting requirements, but this is where problems arise. Auditing and compliance checks have not ensured a level playing field.”

Further, all e-waste generated in Australia must be processed within its shores, unless export permits are granted by the DCCEEW. Some industry sources continue to indicate that whole e-waste equipment is exported illegally, driven by the sub-margins and negative commodity values of materials with current price points paid to recyclers for their e-waste processing.

A review of the NTCRS scheme is timely and Ecocycle supports the DCCEEW in its consultation process to create a

Companies will spend money on capital investment as long as there is a pay-off.

world-class recycling and waste reduction framework not only for e-waste but also to stimulate the recycling industry to process 80 per cent of all waste diverted from landfill by 2030. E-Waste is the fastest growing waste stream in Australia.

Ecocycle has invested in robotic dismantling for computer monitors, laptops and televisions, with a dedicated mercury distilling plant for mercury bearing waste coming from e-waste.

Having automated processing plants that shred and remove all of the steel components, the company is commissioning state-of-the-art fraction separation equipment to exceed the NTCRS outcome requirements.

Further focus now is on Australia’s Critical Materials Strategy in support of a domestic and international circular

economy from low and high value e-waste.

It is imperative for the proposed extended NTCRS scheme to provide fair returns on investments with the community’s willingness to pay for quality outcomes that are compliant and independently audited.

What does Sekula and Ecocycle think needs to come into play to make it an even playing field? Although Ecocycle has done the hard yards in making sure the infrastructure is there to process e-waste, the company is finding that maybe it hasn’t been worth it. Or has it? It depends on the framework and rules that will emerge from the current consultations.

“We work with stakeholders and the DCCEEW with high hopes that changes will provide a opportunity for the industry to invest in best practices, safety and

superior outcomes beyond current expectations,” said Sekula.

“The solution is practically already on the table. The current consultation process will be completed and there is a lot of interest in getting this right.

“Public feedback is due shortly with government modelling in progress. There will be one new scheme administrator appointed by the Federal Government that’s going to administer the scheme with current co-regulatory organisations becoming network operators for the collection of the designated e-waste streams in support of local government, retailers and other public collection events. A lot of details will still need to be worked out, but it makes sense to redesign the NTCRS and improve the current scheme.”

Sekula said, in other words, network operators will contract recyclers for the scheme outcomes with stringent controls set by the government, and they will continue to service their clients and collection areas.

This will offer superior value for parties responsible to fund the scheme and the environment will be at the centre of all works, and offers recyclers the opportunity to be fairly paid.

“We’re going to be responsible for the collection and recycling outcomes but won’t have to address the issues of liable parties that support the lowest cost margins” he said.

When the new rules come in, Ecocycle will be ready to go.

“The reviewed product stewardship scheme is going to change and require capable, responsible recyclers that do the right thing. We have a national reach and new equipment, and further investment strategies in place,” said Sekula. “We’re reorganising everything, not just for the NTCRS, but battery recycling, as well as metal recycling.”

He is also adamant that now the company has built the infrastructure, ‘they will come’. In other words, once the new rules kick in, not only is Ecocycle ready to go, but stakeholders will recognise the true value in supporting Ecocycle and its sister organisations for the real recycling value they provide to society, the circular economy and the environment.

“As long as government product stewardship schemes are transparent to the consumer, the willingness to pay is there. We just need better auditing transparency and compliance,” said Sekula.

25-26 October 2023 Melbourne Convention & Exhibition Centre

Waste Expo Australia returns in 2023

Ecocycle has invested heavily in trucks and equipment that will help the circular economy grow.

Keeping secrets safe with shredding

HARD drives, USB sticks, even PlayStations can hold all sorts of secrets – anything from spreadsheets and salaries, through to 10-year plans aimed at getting ahead of the competition. Over time, these devices, for a variety of reasons, reach their end of life and they just can’t be thrown away, or even recycled by traditional means. They need to be disposed of in a way owners can be assured that their personal, sensitive information will never be revealed.

Over the past decade there have been many stories in the mainstream press about data breaches. These breaches could not only have put a client’s private information in the hands of its industry rivals, but also harmed the reputation of their business.

Back in the day, making sure nobody got their hands on sensitive hard drive information entailed drilling a hole in said hard drive, or physically destroying

each drive with some form of mechanical assistance. And while that is still the preferred method of some, talking to Steven Batumalay and Dave Rogers from secure destruction specialist Shred-X, people are making a whole lot of unnecessary work for themselves.

As the name of their company infers, shredding or disintegration is the most effective and bulletproof way of making sure a hard drive doesn’t give up any of its secrets. This is just one of the services that the company offers the industry.

Shred-X began as a paper recycler and started down the data destruction road just over a decade ago. The company also got into the business of repurposing and/ or destroying hard drives and e-Waste assets. A lot of the work must be done manually due to the sensitive nature of what can be on the devices, but also it is the only practical way to separate the various components.

“So, with a desktop computer, the plastic will go to plastic recycling, the metal to a metal recycler,” said Rogers, who is Shred-X’s national e-destruction and repurposing manager. “Inside the unit, the green boards usually end up in Japan in a smelter and other commodities are recycled through Australian local approved partners.

“We started to work with partners for our downstream recycling, which means we would take the asset, remove the disk and destroy it, and then give the remainder of the units to an approved downstream recycler. Steven operated his own e-Waste recycling and ITAD business, which was one of our recycling partners operating from within our Sydney facility for a few years. That relationship grew, then over a couple of years we acquired him and his business. That’s how some of our growth occurred.”

Batumalay, Shred-X’s ITAD Solutions and Relationship Manager, company, RCube Solutions, specialised in decreasing data theft and reducing the amount of e-Waste going to landfill. When Shred-X bought his company, he found that while he liked the agility of what a smaller business can do, the economy of scale meant he was working for a company that has a much bigger footprint throughout the country. And there is a lot of work to do as their niche part of the industry is set to expand.

“A few years ago, this was a $20 billion industry,” he said. “The last forecast I heard is that it is set to double in the next 10 years. Everything is electronic these days. The big thing at the moment is the Internet of Things, which necessitates a lot of electronic devices. We do data erasure, and physical destruction. We also do buyback and selling equipment and that sort of thing.

Dave Rogers (L) and Steve Batumalay from E-waste destruction specialist company Shred-X.

We’re recycling, we’re breaking things down to the component level to become a commodity.

“Shred-X has been one of the fastest growing companies in the e-Waste and secure data destruction industry. It’s been making the right technology and resource investments to service clients with a focus on providing sustainable and environmentally friendly solutions.”

Due to data breaches, a lot of companies are adopting General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) designed to safeguard personal information and data. Despite extra vigilance surrounding security, redundant IT equipment can hold the aforementioned data that can compromise individuals, a business, its customers or employees, which is why Shred-X and its capabilities are becoming essential in today’s environment.

A lot of the work is manual separation. In this day and age of automated MRFs, is it worth it in the long run in terms of making a dollar? Absolutely, according to Rogers who is passionate about the e-Waste industry.

“There’re a few companies in the US where the volumes that they do in a week, we do in a year. They’ve got massive plants that probably have 40 or 50 people working in one line along with

robotics and automation. They’re pretty amazing, but you need volume for the investment.”

Shred-X knows the importance of making sure data is erased properly and responsibly. Batumalay said that the key to the company’s success is that it has been able to satisfy customers that their data is not only being destroyed, but in a safe, ethical and sustainable manner. Convincing some of his clients on the best way forward can sometimes be hard to do, due to them being stuck in the old ways of doing things, as options and technology of processing equipment evolves.

“We need to educate our customers on how that has been done,” he said. “Some organisations seem to be still using manuals on how to destroy data that were written 20 years ago, and they want to stick by it. They don’t see the change in the industry and technology, even though they understand that things have changed.”

For example, he said some of its overseas customers, such as large banks,

still believe in drilling a hole through a hard drive.

“Interestingly, we have a few customers at the moment who are well aware of the Morgan Stanley breach a few years ago,” said Rogers. “So, it’s very surprising that they still drill those hard drives because shredding is much more secure and thorough. We can now just put it through a shredder – it just takes a few seconds, and they’ll be shredded down to minute particles.”

E-Waste is a global problem and is only set to become more of an issue as the use of electronic devices starts to increase. Batumalay said e-Waste is the fastest growing waste industry not only in Australia but globally, which means there is more investment from local and international businesses and government. But there are still tweaks needed here and there. The National Television and Computer Recycling Scheme (NTCRS) is one example, he said.

“It says television and computer recycling in its name, and we get paid by the government for every kilogram

of electronic waste that we recycle from that scheme,” he said. “We report our figures back to the scheme. The problem is some types of electronic waste are not part of that scheme. For example, you may want to recycle an old VHS video recorder, which has a lot of electronic components.

“But it’s not in the scheme. That means if you are someone who recycles thousands of them, you can’t report that into the scheme to get money back from the government, even although it’s still electronic waste. The scheme has some challenges and there is a lot of room to improve when compared to the US or Europe.”

According to Batumalay, the company’s e-Waste solutions deliver a compliant, sustainable solution to end-of-life asset management plans and can also be integrated into a business’s corporate social responsibility project.

“We promote a circular economy, providing environmental sustainability and financial benefits to business, that’s our purpose,” he said.

Shredding sensitive hardware is becoming popular as data breaches become more prevelant.

New technology separates and recovers difficult plastic stream

company in its R&D journey on a solution for e-waste plastics. Currently all mixed recyclable hard plastics are banned from export under federal government legislation that was introduced in July 2021. Scipher Technologies intends to continue its innovative push to invest and develop solutions to separating out further valuable single polymers from mixed bonded hard plastics.

The pre-processing occurs through one of the company’s existing recycling lines, that has been specifically designed to process TVs, PCs, tablets as well as mobile phones.

“The new equipment is a sophisticated piece of kit and it’s part of our technology strategy, in that we’re not investing into processes that involve the use of chemicals or are energy-intensive. We’re supporting environmentally sound recycling solutions,” said Sayers.

Australia,” Sayers said. “We also deal with intermediaries who supply us through their own e-waste collection capabilities.”

As for the end-product, while there is no active market for it in Australia, it is of export quality, said Sayers.

“There are markets in Asia that we’re sending our clean plastic to, where there exists manufacturing capability for electronic equipment,” he said. “We’ve recently programmed the machines to a point where it’s producing export quality outputs – no hazardous elements and 98 per cent plus pure grade.”

One of the considerations when installing a key piece of equipment is making sure there is readily available backup service from the manufacturer. This is not a problem with the MSS kit.

SEPARATING and recovering fractions from hard plastics contained in e-waste to commodity grade is no easy task. However, one company is working on a solution that can help make what has been considered by some, a troublesome waste stream, into reusable raw material.

Chris Sayers is the chief executive officer at Scipher Technologies, a company that believes in the circular economy and is willing to invest in advanced machinery and unique process engineering that will help make sure it plays its role in making it a reality.

The piece of equipment the company has commissioned is called a multi-sensor sorter, which is manufactured in the US by MSS. How does the system work?

According to Sayers it uses a number of sensors including a near infra-red based camera placed at the end of the conveyor belt to scan pre-processed fractions according to size, colour, and metal contents. The data is analysed through a series of algorithms that identifies each fraction. This is then fed back through the machine’s computer to drive a series of air-jets located at the end of the conveyor, to separate the different fractions.

“This piece of equipment represents downstream value-add capability to one of our existing processing lines,” he said.

“It produces a clean stream of recyclable single-polymer plastic, which is significant in itself, because bonded hard plastics, as opposed to single polymer soft plastic such as PET, is difficult to separate and recover to a grade that is considered exportable, or recyclable. And it’s not just us, it’s our industry compatriots, and e-waste recyclers abroad that are trying to crack the equation here. We’re partway there and we now produce a valuable plastic stream that is exportable”

Sayers said this is just a step for the

The machine is capable of processing one tonne an hour. Sayers said a typical batch of e-waste contains around 30 per cent by weight mixed bonded hard plastics. Included in this is a range of highly valuable single polymer plastics such as ABS, PP, HIPS and PMMA. PMMA, a unique resin manufactured abroad, is used in flat screen TVs and PC monitors as a glass substitute, otherwise known as acrylic.

“We went through a testing period and we’ve now tuned the equipment and programmed the algorithms to yield specific single-stream products, and one of those is clean PMMA,” he said.

Sourcing feedstock is another issue, but one that Scipher is proactive in addressing. It collaborates with local councils across the country, as well as B2B clients.

“We have direct arrangements with councils in Victoria, NSW and Western

“The technical support is excellent,” he said. “They’ve online access in real time to help with the performance of the machine. If there’s an issue, we can dial in and the manufacturer can analyse what’s going on.”

While Scipher is currently focused on a solution for separating and recovering hard bonded plastics, the machine is also capable of separating non-ferrous metal fractions. It’s capable of a greater function of tasks from other potential waste input streams, but the company is only focused on e-waste at the moment.

Sayers is happy with how the new equipment is performing, and how Scipher is working on offering a complete solution to a waste stream that, more often than not, ends up in landfill. Keeping these plastics out of landfill means Scipher is not only making sure the environment is being taken care of, but the company is also doing its bit to support a circular economy.

The machine is capable of recovering a range of highly valuable polymer plastics.

The process produces a clean stream of recyclable single-polymer plastic.

Landfill still last resort, but necessary

Reactivating a state-of-theart facility

Which brings us to Patons Lane, a BINGOrun state-of-the-art resource recovery facility, including landfill, situated on the outskirts of south-west Sydney. BINGO’s recent review of its strategic business priorities has highlighted the need to restore the Patons Lane landfill to normal operations. Set on approximately 60 hectares, the site will not only have a couple of landfill cells up and running on July 1, 2023 (plus another couple coming online in the future) but an advanced recycling facility with dry and wet processing technology is being completed.

and critical infrastructure construction projects, while reducing the reliance on virgin natural materials. BINGO is excited about the prospects of this project coming online in early 2024. It is a game changer for C&D recycling, particularly for the general solid waste soils waste stream.”

A local and regional facility

will soon be arriving, including commercial hubs to supplement the new airport.

BRAD Searle knows that landfills are not a popular topic – whether it be with communities, those within the waste industry and, to a degree, politicians. However, currently, they are a necessity and are likely to remain so for the near term. Some argue a truly circular economy without the need for landfills is a Utopian ideal but while there is still even a smidgeon of residual waste that cannot be reused, recycled or recovered, it needs to go somewhere. Everybody wants landfills to be the last resort, and that includes Searle. The acting Chief Growth Officer for BINGO Industries said the overarching vision for his business is to divert as much waste away from landfill as possible with the ultimate aspiration to achieve 100 per cent diversion and to preserve finite remaining landfill capacity.

At the recent Coffs Harbour Waste expo, a panellist on one of the seminars suggested that banning landfills altogether, as they have done in Germany, would be a good start. Searle isn’t so sure.

“BINGO has invested hundreds of millions of dollars in advanced recycling and this is reflected in our industry leading recovery rates,” he said. “Having said that, there’s still a role for landfill for those problematic waste streams that we can’t recover or reuse. The NSW EPA has forecast in its 20-year waste strategy that inert landfill capacity will be exhausted by 2028 if something is not done to add capacity. That’s the government’s analysis. You can’t ban landfills if you don’t have a solution for the problematic waste streams and have effectively transitioned to the circular economy. While energy from waste presents a potential alternative to landfill, the current regulatory context in NSW means that this is unlikely to be a silver bullet.”

BINGO continues to progress construction activities and associated works to re-activate a section of the landfill with an aim to recommence operations from 1 July 2023. Construction works are well underway and on track for completion mid-year.

The primary role of the landfill is to deal with residual materials that can’t be diverted from landfill and doesn’t have a higher order use. The current focus of construction works is on the installation of engineering measures designed to meet the highest industry standards and will be certified by the engineering consultancy GHD. The landfill will include key environmental control measures to promote protection of the surrounding environment.

All clay extracted in support of cell excavation is being utilised by PGH Bricks to support brick manufacture at their local brick kilns located in Schofield, Bringelly and Cecil Park.

In addition to the landfill, BINGO is currently in the final stages of development application approval for upgrading the existing high-end dry recycling facility on site to allow for washing of aggregates and general solid waste soils.

“Washing of soils aims to reduce the quantity of soils emplaced on site and maximising the quantity and quality of treated soils removed off site,” said Searle.

“These types of wet process resource recovery plants have been developed, tried and tested in Europe, and represent stateof-the-art technology for maximising the recovery of soil, sand and aggregate from general solid waste comprising mainly soil from building sites.

“The upgraded recycling facility will leverage the aspirations of circularity by improving the quality of recycled aggregates and sands for reuse in property

BINGO is also committed to community engagement. Even though the Patons Lane site is on the outskirts of Sydney –bordering on farmland and Ministry of Defence property – the area surrounding it will be up for redevelopment over the next few decades due to the nearby Badgerys Creek International Airport being built.

Searle knows that community engagement is one of the key ingredients for a successful waste and resource recovery enterprise to flourish.

“We’ve worked closely with our community and will continue to do so to maintain and build our social license to operate,” he said. “The landfill has a life expectancy and cap of 25 years. BINGO has a really close relationship with the Community Liaison Committee, which is important to us.

“And one of the things that they’re always asking is, ‘how quick is the landfill going to fill up?’ For the past couple of years, we haven’t landfilled at the site. That was partly on account of consolidation within our network, the acquisition of Dial A Dump and then prolonged periods of rainfall over the past 18 months, which slowed our ability to reactivate the site.”

The site also is located on the doorstep of the Sydney Metro – Western Sydney Airport, currently under construction and will be located near the Orchard Hills Metro Station, which suggests a more urban landscape in the surrounding areas

“There’s a lot happening in terms of major infrastructure projects and this site will be able to cater for that growth,” said Searle. “The strategic significance of the site in providing critical infrastructure for the rapidly changing growth precinct has been acknowledged in the Orchard Hills Precinct Planning process, currently led by the Department of Planning and Environment. Obviously, we are keen to ensure that the site is provided with the appropriate safeguards to ensure that buffers are protected. That’s an important thing from a planning perspective –this sort of infrastructure needs to be protected.”

Zero waste to landfill is the ultimate goal

To Searle and BINGO, it all comes down to trying to divert as much waste away from landfill as possible.

There is no single solution as far as he’s concerned, it’s all about diverting as much as possible from landfill through continual investment in recycling and innovation. There are other factors that are in play, too.

“We do believe landfills of the future will include a number of integrated options, such as more recycled content into products (which must be driven hard now, by government, industry and the end consumer to effect change) energy from waste, refuse derived fuels, circular innovation and regional landfills,” he said. “As we move further into the future, we’ll be looking at utilising a combination of these options to target problematic waste streams and further grow our recycling rates toward 90 percent. Those things will collectively come together to reduce, rather than eliminate, our reliance on landfill.”

Searle says, as current regulations stand, Australia will still need landfills in the forseeable future.

The new cells will help take the load from a lot of new developments happening in western Sydney.

The perfect rural transfer station, unicorns and other legends

By Giles Perryman

ONCE upon a time in a council far far away, there was a perfect rural transfer station. The sun always shone and the site was always tidy. The resource recovery rate was high and operational costs were low with full-cost recovery. The staff and residents were both happy and safe on site. No one tried to sneak in asbestos or commercial waste, nothing ever broke down. Accurate data was collected, reported and interpreted instantly. And across the valley, the unicorns galloped in the sun, while a flock of pigs flew overhead. Could this be a reality?

Getting serious for a minute, before considering the ‘perfect’ list above, you should take a step back and think about location. Especially if you are in the process of closing a landfill and establishing a transfer station for the local community. Should the transfer station be at the site of the landfill? Does the landfill site have power, water, and mobile signal?

Is it close to the main population centre? Would it actually be better at a different site, closer to town and with services?

Once you have selected the best location, then we’re back to the ‘perfect list’.

Keeping a facility tidy means controlling access and oversight. There are still plenty of unstaffed facilities in rural Australia, both landfills and transfer stations. In some cases, the population using them is small and therefore it’s hard to justify the cost of staffing. However, there are automatic remote entry systems that provide some control, and combined with CCTV, some oversight.

Facilities that service a larger population should be staffed (just several hundred residents is enough), as this ensures far better control. Based on the analysis we have completed for many transfer stations, the total costs are frequently lower at a staffed facility due to operational efficiencies, better compliance, reduced ‘repairs’, fixing up and security. As this breakdown shows, staffing can be a smaller portion of the total costs.

A high resource recovery rate is dependent on many factors, several of which come into effect before the materials arrive at the gatehouse. Once on site, a good layout, signage, staff guidance and oversight are key. Also, when there is time, the ability to manually remove either contamination or ‘recoverable items’ when customers have put them in the wrong bins or

containers. Some facility setups allow for retrospective manual picking, while the old ‘drop it into a hooklift skip’ system doesn’t. Tying in with resource recovery rates is an appropriate reuse shop. A small transfer station only needs a small shed, ideally attached to the gatehouse for easy management and oversight.

There are many best practice guides to maximise use and ensure they don’t become a dust store for 30 sets of golf clubs and 50 copies of The Da Vinci Code. Currently operated, they can provide a great service for the community, and who doesn’t like exploring a good tip shop?

There there is full cost recovery. For starters, do you know what the full cost of your facility is (or will be)? When ASK helps councils, we often find that this is not known, but it can be calculated (relatively) easily. However, should smaller transfer stations be aiming for standalone full-cost recovery from their customers at all?

Waste facilities are sensitive to economies of scale, and rural transfer stations fall victim to this more than most facilities. Therefore, with often high unit costs, should the small communities be expected to cover the whole cost? Or should the ‘main town’ or population centre pay a little more to ensure all residents of a council make the same contribution towards full cost recovery across all the waste facilities?

A safe site requires a comfortable safe environment. A safe facility layout considers the movement of vehicles, has minimal trip hazards and no high fall hazards (that’s those open hooklift bins again). We observe dangerous fall risks at many sites; is a wheel stop just another trip hazard? These older types of systems present serious liability risk and insurers are starting to look at this more closely as more accidents occur.

No abusing the system. Whether this is commercial waste being declared as

domestic, sheets of asbestos under a trailer of greenwaste, or being rude to the gatehouse operator. These issues can be dealt with using a range of measures including limits on domestic waste quantities (tip vouchers), which must be monitored and measured. Signage, line of sight and ‘policing’ of tipping areas are important considerations (and getting the details of customers upon their arrival). Finally, a method for staff to record abusive customers. For repeat offenders, the information can be used to address the problem. No one should be shouted at and sworn at when they are working.

Reliability is the bane of rural operations, as typically the mechanic or spare part needed is a long way away, sometimes weeks or even months. So keep things simple, and use readily available equipment to minimise any downtime. And have Plan B, so if a key piece of equipment goes down, the site can continue to operate safely and with regulatory compliance, until fully functional again. Staff also fall sick or leave suddenly, so having a facility that has simple systems, a clear layout and an operational management plan will make those days when Jim or Jane from accounts end up doing a shift at the

gatehouse much easier.

Data is important and becoming more intrinsic, but data is used to provide information. Therefore, data collected at the gatehouse about waste types, quantities, tip voucher use, gate fees and maybe abusive customers, needs to be collated, interpreted and presented clearly. Then managers can quickly and easily see the information they need to check operations and make decisions.

Operational checklists are key to ensuring remote facilities are secure and compliant and for notifying when repairs are required. This should be electronic so it can be quickly and clearly communicated back to HQ. Procedures may seem a bit dull, but they maximise efficiency and safety, therefore saving time and costs and keeping everyone safe. Every site needs an Operational Management Plan.

So as the pigs fly off into the distance and the unicorns snooze on the sun, a perfect rural transfer station need not just be the stuff of legend. The right location, design and layout, together with staffing, waste acceptance controls and information, can take you a long way to achieving the goal.

Make sure you don’t just build a transfer station like “the one at the other council that was built in the 90s”. Instead take time to consider your options, check out the latest designs and systems, get some expert help, and visit other facilities. If you already have transfer stations, review the setup, and see how things could be improved to reduce costs while increasing efficiency and safety. There are lots of options to improve things. But when it comes to the unicorns, you’re on your own.

Giles Perryman is the principal consultant at ASK Waste Management

Typical breakdown of key costs at a rural transfer station.

An unstaffed transfer station; untidy, unsafe and operationally expensive.

Poor design with a significant fall hazard, and no safety measures.

Dewater and compress for better recovery with WEIMA

AUSTRALIA is starting to embrace the circular economy and industry is looking for the machines and technologies to make it a reality.

Not only do these solutions need to be practical and cost-effective, they also need to be easy to operate and reduce waste. In the case of dewatering and pressing recyclables and organic material, the WEIMA – PUEHLER press series, offers new technology to meet sustainability targets, especially for the dairy and brewery industries of Australia and New Zealand. With many global success stories, CEMAC technologies, WEIMA’s local distributor, is ready to deliver a circular economy for the food and beverage industry in Australia, displaying the PUEHLER E.200 for the first time at this year’s Food Pro exhibition.

Labels and cans ready to recycle

Every year, German brewer OeTTINGER fills around two billion bottles and cans at four locations in Germany. This is a total of around eight million hectoliters of beer, beer mixes and soft drinks. Once the reusable glass bottles are returned, the labels are removed and the bottles washed. Several hydraulic PUEHLER A series label presses have been doing their job here for many years. By compacting and dewatering the wet label residues, the company reduces the volume of waste and its transport costs. The lye produced during cleaning is separated from the almost dry bottle labels and can then be disposed. Formed into a round pellet, the labels are now pure paper waste.

OeTTINGER’s second area of application for the PUEHLER presses concerns the processing of scrap cans. When filling beverage cans, it is inevitable that individual cans are underfilled or overfilled at the beginning and end of a production cycle. They do not meet the brewery’s quality standards. At OeTTINGER, the ejection process is automated and takes place at lightning speed thanks to the use of sensors.

“We were not satisfied with the previous solution,” said Johann Dietrich, master brewer at OeTTINGER. “Individual beer cans were also compacted, but the compaction was not as uniform as with the PUEHLER machine. The focus for OeTTINGER is on reducing freight volumes. Our cans are now optimally compacted to form a compact disc with a diameter of 200mm. With the help of our recycling partners, aluminium cans can be

returned to the raw material cycle.”

At two of OeTTINGER’s filling sites, the hydraulic presses for cans are from the WEIMA’s PUEHLER G Recycling Series. At a distance from the actual filling line, they serve as a central collection point for internal can recycling, and, depending on the amount of waste, they are operated flexibly by up to 30 different employees.

“From the very beginning, when we purchased the machine, it was important to us that it was easy to operate,” said Dietrich. “What we appreciate most about the PUEHLER G.200 is the uncomplicated cleaning and its high availability. And if a malfunction does occur, it can usually be easily remedied.”

Efficiency through automation

Similar to the OeTTINGER case, the Fiddlehead Brewing Company in the state of Vermont, USA, had overfilling and underfilling issues with its specialist beers, pilsners, and Indian Pale Ales. Removing cans that don’t meet the breweries quality standards was usually a labour intensive exercise.

“Efficiency is particularly important to us, but we also want our employees to enjoy their work. Emptying the cans was very time-consuming and we knew there had to be a better solution,” said Jon Moorer, Fiddlehead’s production manager.

The answer to making the process more efficient was to install a WEIMA PUEHLER E.200 drainage press, which drains and compresses the beer cans that don’t conform to specifications. Not only does it save time, but it is easy to use as it is a plug-and-play solution.

The machine allows for rejects to be

automatically ejected from the conveyor belt, so they end up directly in the hopper of the E.200. However, manual loading is also possible at any time via the curved hopper. The cans are compacted using a hydraulic press cylinder. A metal plate that can be moved down hydraulically serves as the pressing resistance. The drained beer flows through a screen into the drain pan and is then disposed. The discharge pipe ejects the compressed discs with a diameter of 200mm.

Not a drop wasted

Swiss dairy manufacturer Emmi has always been aware of the accompanying responsibility for employees, society and the environment – and acts accordingly in a sustainable manner. Using a WEIMA PUEHLER G.300 ReWork draining press, overfilled or underfilled milk cartons are automatically opened and emptied in order to return the recovered milk to the production process. The result: an efficient resource cycle.

This is where the ReWork process comes into play. The focus is on preventing and using high-quality waste. To ensure this, the contents and packaging must be separated mechanically and are guaranteed to be free of contamination. This is the only way that the recovered milk can be refilled and the beverage cartons recycled.

“We process around 190 million litres of milk and about 60 million litres of cream,” said deputy site manager HansPeter Steuri. “Before using the PUEHLER press, we had to manually open every full piece of waste packaging. That was hardly productive. With WEIMA, we have finally found the right partner for our task.”

Steuri described the stringent demands that the new PUEHLER ReWork press meets.

“As a food manufacturer, hygiene is the be-all and end-all,” he said. “WEIMA machines are user-friendly to maintain, have CIP (automatic cleaning in place) and comply with strict hygienic design specifications. In addition to the high throughput, the WEIMA system requires less space than those of other providers.”

In order to further automate the processes, the machine loading takes place via a compact lifting and tilting device, which is made of stainless steel. The milk cartons collected in plastic boxes are transported into the large hopper of the ReWork. At regular stroke intervals, the cartons are pressed horizontally in the pressing channel by a pressing cylinder moving against a press plate lowered for the process. This drains the packaging and simultaneously compresses it. An advantage is the machine can be used flexibly – there is no conversion for different packaging sizes or types.

The milk first flows through a roundhole screen into the collection tray under the press channel before it is pumped out into large stainless-steel tanks. With the next press stroke, the emptied packages, now formed into manageable compressed disks with a diameter of 300mm, are transported away via a discharge tube. The residual moisture of the milk cartons is minimal due to the compaction. The contents have been cleanly separated from the packaging. Both material flows can be flawlessly processed. In the case of the packaging, this means: 100 percent recycling at Emmi.

Emmi’s ReWork facility pays off in many ways. WEIMA PUEHLER G.300 ReWork actively supports the Swiss dairy processor in its environmental goals –away from a linear economy and towards a recycling-based circular economy.

CEMAC technologies sales specialist, Jonathan Tan, is excited to bring the technology to Australia and New Zealand with ‘a lot of potential in dairy, brewing and condiment production lines and a real opportunity to move in-house recycling to a circular economy’. The machines can also be used to dewater loose material such as sludge and metal chips. WEIMA machines are not only designed with the circular economy in mind, but also worker safety, cost effectiveness and time savings. All products are easy to install, intuitive to use, and compact to fit most production lines.

Time and money are big savings using PUEHLER’s presses in the food and beverage industry.

Consultant’s Registry continues to grow

WELCOME to the 2023 Consultant’s Registry. The registry has once again proven popular as the number of companies and services have expanded over the past 12 months. We had a record 135 companies sent their details through on the services they offer and the sectors within the industry where they specialise.

Once again, for ease of use, we have listed companies by state. This means

if a company has an office in different states or territories, they will have a separate listing in each of those locales.

As with last year, the number of services that are available are extensive, with a lot of entries broadening their capabilities so that the industry has a better chance of finding solutions to the array of issues that continue to arise throughout the year.

Some of the companies who provided outlines of the services they provide will notice that we have shortened/abbreviated some of their entries. This was done due to the amount of space available in the publication. If you wish to expand on your offerings, you can explain in more detail to prospective clients when they engage you via the contact

details that have been provided.

Overall, feedback from the industry shows that consultants will continue to be an integral part of any projects and solutions in this space. As the industry closes in on some federal and state-government mandated recycling targets, the wisdom and expertise of consultants is needed now more than ever.

Waste Consultant’s Registry //

Asset management www.aprince.com.au

••• closedloop.com.au

• • https://www.emmconsulting.com.au/

•• ••• ••• https://www.ghd.com/en/index.aspx •••••••

Bin maintenance & hygiene https://www.ozbincleaning.com.au/

•••

••••••

https://www.remondis-australia. com.au/

• https://resourcerecovery.org.au/

•• https://www.ricardo.com/en

• Loss adjusting services www.sedgwick.com

••••••

•• https://www.smec.com/au/ investment

•••••• ••• Circular Economy Advice, Circular Economy Tool https://www.wsp.com/en-au/

• • •••• http://www.4pillars.com.au/ www.aisit.com.au

•••••••• Asset management www.aprince.com.au •

••••••••• www.askwm.com

•• https://atcwilliams.com/

•••••

• Environmental (Landfill Regulatory) Auditing and Expert Advice www.environmental-auditors.com.au www.bcconsulting.au Dust/Odour control bioxenvironmental.com.au

•• •• ••• closedloop.com.au

• Legal services https://www.cbp.com.au/ Maxibor.Com.au

• www.energyconservation.com.au

• •• •••• www.ecsustainable.com

••

•

•

•

• https://www.elephantsfoot.com.au/ consulting

• • https://www.elephantsfoot.com.au/ consulting/

• https://www.emmconsulting.com.au/

•• • • •• ennovo.com.au

•

•• Hazardous waste management and processing https://www.envirotreat.com.au/

• https://au.expensereduction.com/

•• ••• ••• https://www.ghd.com/en/index.aspx Www.goodforthehood.com.au

• ••• Events waste management. https://green-connect.com.au/

•••••• •• www.greentecconsulting.com.au

••••••• •• https://www.greentecconsulting.com.au

•••••••• www.harbak.com.au

• Legal https://www.honeslawyers.com.au

• Grant drafting and delivery https://www.impactenviro.com.au/

••••••

• • Electrical Reticulation & Installation & Equipment Installations & Upgrades & Supporting OEM's www.IMS-Global.com.au

• ••••••• https://insituadvisory.com/ https://www.ipsos.com/en-au

•••• • Http://www.jacksonenvironment.com.au

•• •••

•••••••

•• www.jsrs.com.au

••

• •• https://looporganics.com.au/

• • •

•• • www.mgbconsult.net

• • michaelminnshr.com.au

•••

• •••••••• Circualr Economy Strategy and Policyhttps://mraconsulting.com.au/

Waste Consultant’s Registry //

Recycling Services & MRF normansplanthire.com.au Bin maintenance & hygiene https://www.ozbincleaning.com.au/

• •••• www.pjra.com.au

••••••• • Energy From Waste, Anaerobic Digestion, Biogas, Biomass ramboll.com

•••

https://www.remondis-australia.com. au/

• •• Waste Levy Advisory, Operational Process Audits www.resourcehub.com.au

••••• ••• www.resourceinnovations.com.au

• https://resourcerecovery.org.au/

•••••• •• https://www.ricardo.com/en

• • circular economy; rural and regional focus; good understanding of agriculture needs https://www.rmcg.com.au

• •• ••• n/a

• Loss adjusting services www.sedgwick.com

• • •• www.senversa.com.au

•••••

••••••

•• https://www.slrconsulting.com

•• https://www.smec.com/au/

••••• ••• https://www.snowymonaro.nsw.gov. au/Home

••• https://www.sphereinfrastructure.com/

•••••••••• https://talisconsultants.com.au/ tellusholdings.com

•

www.terracycle.com ••

www.theafa.asn.au •

•••••

Www.plasticcollective.co www.trinityconsultantsaustralia.com.au

www.veolia.com/anz

• • www.wcra.com.au

• Environmental Management https://www.watertech.com.au/ •

wpsas.com.au

Circular Economy Advice, Circular Economy Tool https://www.wsp.com/en-au/ www.zenergyaustralia.com.au ••

••••••

••••••

•••••••

•••••••

•

https://www.ghd.com/en/index.aspx

www.greentecconsulting.com.au

https://www.greentecconsulting.com.au

www.masterplan.com.au

• Loss adjusting services www.sedgwick.com

•••••

••••••

https://www.slrconsulting.com

https://www.smec.com/au/ tellusholdings.com

•••••• ••• Circular Economy Advice, Circular Economy Tool https://www.wsp.com/en-au/

•

• Business sale & strategic advicewww.advisorypartner.com.au

•••••

••

•• https://atcwilliams.com/

•••••• PLASTIC and Tyre waste specialists www.atonamerica.com

• Environmental (Landfill Regulatory) Auditing and Expert Advice www.environmental-auditors.com.au Dust/Odour control bioxenvironmental.com.au

••

•

•

•

• •

•

closedloop.com.au

https://cqgroup.com.au/ Maxibor.Com.au

https://ehs-support.com.au/

https://www.elephantsfoot.com.au/ consulting

https://www.elephantsfoot.com.au/ consulting/

https://www.emmconsulting.com.au/ ••

ennovo.com.au

Waste Consultant’s Registry //

• https://au.expensereduction.com/ •• ••• ••• https://www.ghd.com/en/index.aspx

•••••• •• www.greentecconsulting.com.au

•••••••

https://www.greentecconsulting.com.au https://www.gympie.qld.gov.au/

•••••••• www.harbak.com.au

•• hydroterra.com.au

• • www.itn.com.au

• ••••••• https://insituadvisory.com/ https://www.ipsos.com/en-au

• Odour Management, Climate Riskhttps://katestone.global

••••••• ••

• • www.masterplan.com.au

•••••

•

• •• Legal advice https://milnelegal.au/

•••••••• Circualr Economy Strategy and Policyhttps://mraconsulting.com.au/

•••••••••• https://www.mraenvironmental.com.au

• https://nomorebutts.org.au

•• www.oleology.com.au

• • •• • www.optsp.com.au

Bin maintenance & hygiene https://www.ozbincleaning.com.au/

• ••• www.phronis.com.au

•• Organics management www.radicleag.com.au

•••••••

•••

•

• Energy From Waste, Anaerobic Digestion, Biogas, Biomass ramboll.com rawmetalcorp.com.au

•••••• https://www.remondis-australia.com. au/

•• Waste Levy Advisory, Operational Process Audits www.resourcehub.com.au

••••• ••• www.resourceinnovations.com.au

• https://resourcerecovery.org.au/

•• www.reuseandrecycle.com.au

•• https://www.ricardo.com/en

••••••

• Loss adjusting services www.sedgwick.com

• •

•••••

••••••

•• www.senversa.com.au

•• https://www.slrconsulting.com

•• https://www.smec.com/au/

••• https://www.sphereinfrastructure.com/

• • Behaviour change programs tellusholdings.com

•• •• www.theafa.asn.au

•••••••••• Circular economy roadmap. Material flow mapping https://www.tonkintaylor.com.au/ www.trinityconsultantsaustralia.com.au

•••••

••••••

••

••• Circular Economy Advice, Circular Economy Tool https://www.wsp.com/en-au/

• Environmental (Landfill Regulatory) Auditing and Expert Advice www.environmental-auditors.com.au

•• •• ••• closedloop.com.au

• • https://ehs-support.com.au/

• • https://www.emmconsulting.com.au/

•• • • •• ennovo.com.au

••

••

•• Accredited Waste Consigner (Vic)www.envirorisk.com.au

• https://au.expensereduction.com/

•••

••••••

••• https://www.ghd.com/en/index.aspx

•• www.greentecconsulting.com.au

••••••• •• https://www.greentecconsulting.com.au kesab.asn.au

•••••••

••

• • www.masterplan.com.au

Bin maintenance & hygiene https://www.ozbincleaning.com.au/

• Manufacture papas.com au

••• www.phronis.com.au

•

•••

••• Circular Economy rawtec.com.au

Waste Consultant’s Registry //

Waste Consultant’s Registry //

•

Contaminated Land and Groundwater Investigations and Remediation www.landserv.com.au

• www.leighdesign.com.au

• •••••••• Circualr Economy Strategy and Policyhttps://mraconsulting.com.au/

•••

Bin maintenance & hygiene https://www.ozbincleaning.com.au/

• •••• www.pjra.com.au

• ••• www.phronis.com.au

•••••••

•••

•

• Energy From Waste, Anaerobic Digestion, Biogas, Biomass ramboll.com

•••••• https://www.remondis-australia.com. au/

•• Waste Levy Advisory, Operational Process Audits www.resourcehub.com.au

•• https://www.ricardo.com/en

••••••

• • circular economy; rural and regional focus; good understanding of agriculture needs https://www.rmcg.com.au

• •• N/A

• Loss adjusting services www.sedgwick.com

• •

••

•••••

•• www.senversa.com.au

• contaminated land remediationwww.straightline.net.au

•• https://www.slrconsulting.com

•••••• •• https://www.smec.com/au/

••• https://www.sphereinfrastructure.com/

•••••••••• https://talisconsultants.com.au/ tellusholdings.com

•• •• www.theafa.asn.au

•••••••••• Circular economy roadmap. Material flow mapping https://www.tonkintaylor.com.au/

•

••••••

•

••• Circular Economy Advice, Circular Economy Tool https://www.wsp.com/en-au/

••••••••• www.askwm.com

•• https://atcwilliams.com/

•••••

• Environmental (Landfill Regulatory) Auditing and Expert Advice www.environmental-auditors.com.au

• •

••

••••• www.circularseed.com.au

••

••••

••• closedloop.com.au

•• www.coterra.com.au

• • https://ehs-support.com.au/

• • https://www.emmconsulting.com.au/

• https://au.expensereduction.com/

•• ••• ••• https://www.ghd.com/en/index.aspx

••••••

•••••••

•• www.greentecconsulting.com.au

•• https://www.greentecconsulting.com.au

• ••• https://www.ipsos.com/en-au

•••••••

••

• Fire compliance assessments and Fire Safety Studies for waste facilities lethleanfireandenvironment.com.au

•• www.oleology.com.au

•••••••

•••

• Energy From Waste, Anaerobic Digestion, Biogas, Biomass ramboll.com

•••••• https://www.remondis-australia.com. au/

•• https://www.ricardo.com/en

••••••

• Loss adjusting services www.sedgwick.com

• •

•••••

••••••

•• www.senversa.com.au

•• https://www.slrconsulting.com

•• https://www.smec.com/au/

•••••••••• https://talisconsultants.com.au/ tellusholdings.com

•••••••••• www.waylung.com.hk

•••• Food Organics collection and processing www.writesolutions.com.au

••••••

••• Circular Economy Advice, Circular Economy Tool https://www.wsp.com/en-au/

Efficient Space Utilisation with Komptech Topturn X5000

intuitive controls and large colour display of the new information system enable operators to adapt the machine to various working conditions seamlessly.

Komptech understands the importance of easy and efficient maintenance. With the Topturn X5000, maintenance is seamless. The press of a button transforms the left and right body panels into maintenance platforms, complete with access steps. This design facilitates safe and easy access to all maintenance points, streamlining service and upkeep. Furthermore, the drum blades have an extended service life and can be replaced easily and costeffectively, reducing downtime and operating costs.

IN the world of composting and organic waste management, optimising productivity and effectively utilising available space are essential for success. Komptech has released the X5000, a compost turner designed to maximise productivity while effectively utilising windrow pad space.

The Topturn X5000 is engineered for windrows up to five metres wide and 2.2 metres high, making it suitable for widespread five-metre windrow widths. With its 250kW engine power, this compost turner ensures optimum performance and efficiency. Its large-dimensioned turning drum facilitates high throughput and complete mixing, resulting in good compost quality. It offers two power levels for smaller models, providing flexibility and fuel efficiency to meet specific operational requirements.

To cater to diverse operating conditions, the unit offers a choice between wheel drive and track drive. The wheeled chassis is advantageous on asphalt and concrete surfaces, delivering high traction and manoeuvrability. The comfortable ride provided by tyres further enhances its appeal. The tracked chassis is designed choice for unpaved ground, effectively converting engine

power into forward movement. The open track design simplifies cleaning, ensuring hassle-free maintenance.

The Topturn X5000 prioritises operator comfort and efficiency. The cabin offers a spacious and

ergonomic workspace, providing operators with a comfortable environment. Equipped with an air conditioner and an aircushioned seat, the cabin ensures a pleasant working experience, even in demanding conditions. The

The unit caters to an array of applications. Whether composting municipal green waste, biowaste, sewage sludge, treating contaminated soils, or mixing ores, the machine is ready for the task. Its adaptability and robust design ensure optimal performance across various industries, making it an asset for composting and waste management operations.

The unit offers a choice between wheel drive and track drive.

The X5000 is easy and efficient to maintain.

Wheel loader designed for efficient scrap handling

WORKERS at any waste management plant in charge of organising scraps, separating materials and preparing items for further treatment understand how physically demanding it can be to move piles of waste from point A to point B. Reliable equipment is necessary to complete jobs safely.

Investing in wheel loaders for a waste management plant streamlines daily objectives, but it is crucial to select the best equipment options for efficiency and maximum production. The new Next Generation Cat® 980 is suited for rugged applications with guarding and reinforcement necessary for work in transfer stations, recycling depots and scrap yards.

The term, “waste management” encompasses several types of jobs. All facilities have their own way of operating, which means crews call for versatile equipment built to handle it all. From trash collection to recycling initiatives, a wheel loader is key to picking up massive loads that are sharp or hazardous in nature.

Wheel loaders (also called frontend loaders) make it possible to push, scoop, carry and dump materials. A waste management company can

maximise productivity by relying on powerful machines to finish jobs that would otherwise require weeks of manual labour. Some of the main applications of waste management wheel loaders include:

• Clearing out landfills.

• Sorting waste into different containers.

• Transporting materials to treatment locations.

Waste management conditions are harsh, so it is important to go with investments that are engineered with durability in mind

The Cat 980 is fuel efficient and powerful enough for demanding applications.

Pairing this machine with a Cat Performance Series bucket allows

users to grip scraps, debris and rubbish without an issue. It can also transport materials for outdoor sorting, or fasten an applicable attachment to grip thick metals and more.

The scrap package includes purpose-built guarding, engine and cab pre-cleaners, and options like a reversing fan and solid tyres. Add a full line-up of scrap-specific work tools, all new cab, built-in technology and extended service intervals, and the machine is ready to go.

Operators will experience up to 20 per cent lower maintenance costs compared to the previous model with extended and more synchronised maintenance intervals.

With simple-to-use technologies as

a standard offering, the Cat 980 will monitor, manage and enhance jobsite operations.

Cat Payload with Assist provides accurate weighing of the bucket payloads. Data is displayed in real time to improve productivity and loading accuracy with manual tip-off.

Product Link™ wirelessly connects the machine to the office, giving users access to production and essential health information needed to make timely, fact-based decisions to help them better run their business.

The new Autodig feature allows the operator to automate bucket loading to improve fill factors and loading time. Auto Set Tyres promotes proper loading technique, thus reducing tyre slip and wear.

Separator goes ballistic on C&D waste

RECYCLING in the construction and demolition sector is gaining importance as public awareness for re-using of all materials produced by humankind is growing.

To improve the recycling rates of this type of material, STADLER Anlagenbau GmbH has introduced a machine developed for this sector: the ballistic separator STT6000.

This machine is said to be more robust than regular ballistic separators and is suitable for large, heavy materials. The head of research and development at STADLER, Christian Nordmann, highlights the key features of the machine.

“There is no need for pre-sorting or pre-shredding the input. Also, differently from screening drums, which separate the material only in two fractions, the three-fraction output of the STT6000 means that

impurities can be easily removed, as they are still in their original size,” he said. Features such as big shafts without swinging frame, exchangeable wear plates on the side walls, and an integrated lubrication system, enable sorting of materials up to 2m in

length and reduce the vulnerability to impurities and damage.

This machine is designed for unsorted and unshredded construction and demolition waste, heavy industrial waste with individual pieces up to 100 kg, landfill mining or

even MSW with large impurities.

Features include:

• Shaft quality – single-piece cast shafts with an extra-large diameter provide good stability without the need for additional supports inside the machinery.

• Lubrication – since the labyrinth sealing gaps are filled with grease during operation via the lubricant holes in the shafts, the multisealed shaft bearings do not require any additional lubrication.

• Paddles – the special layout of five paddles and thick materials ensure low-vibration operation and maximum stability – even if the materials being sorted are heavy.

• Protection against wear – the side walls around the paddles feature replaceable wear protection plates.

• Maintenance doors – for convenient access to all areas of the machinery.

The 980 is a powerful machine that can handle heavy loads of debris and rubbish.

The STT6000 features exchangeable wear plates on the side walls.

Profiles //

Hextra

Unit Dimensions: Multiple Models

Weight: Up to 22 tonnes

Drive Type: Electric or Diesel

Motor: Kohler Diesel

Rotor diameter/lengths/speed: Screen Lengths from 5,000mm to 7,000mm

Speed (slow/high): Variable Speed Screening

Suitable material: Most Waste Materials

No. of units in range: 2 or 3 Fraction Screening

Throughput: Up to 200tph (dependant on materials to be screened)

Finished product size: down to -10mm

Options/Extras: Magnet Pulleys on Discharge Conveyors and Air Vac Systems

Price: Contact CSS Equipment for more details.

More: Fast and Flexible, customised for your waste stream. Units in stock ready for immediate dispatch.

Name: CSS Recycling Equipment

Phone Number: 1800344978

Webpage: www.cssequipment. com.au

Email: info@cssequipment.com.au

EH1500 TWS Windshifter

Weight: Up to 17 tonnes

Drive Type: Electric or Diesel

Motor: Perkins Diesel

Suitable material: Most Waste Materials

No. of units in range: 3 x Models (Electric, Semi-Mobile and Mobile)

Price: Contact CSS Equipment for more information

More: Windshifters for operating on screened materials, to separate light materials from heavy materials.

Name: CSS Recycling Equipment

Phone Number: 1800344978

Webpage: www.cssequipment.com.au

Email: info@cssequipment.com.au

EQUIPMENT SOLUTIONS ECOSTAR

Easy One

Unit Dimensions: from 3,000mm up to 6,000mm

Weight: Up to 8,000kg

Drive Type: Electric

Motor: Electric (Nord)

Rotor diameter/lengths/speed: 1,400mm Wide x (up to 6,000mm)

Speed (slow/high): Variable Speed Screening

Suitable material: Wood, Mulch/Compost, Green Waste & Tyres etc

No. of units in range: 4 x Models

Throughput: Up to 50tph of mulch materials.

Finished product size: Down to -15mm

Options/Extras: Static Models.

Price: Please Contact CSS Equipment for Pricing

More: Resistant, reliable and versatile stationary screen, the ideal solution for compost, tires, shredded C&D and wood. Easy One is available with 2 or 3 screening fractions and screening surfaces up to 6 meters in length.

Name: CSS Recycling Equipment

Phone Number: 1800344978

Webpage: www.cssequipment.com.au

Email: info@cssequipment.com.au

Weight: 500kg or 1,220kg

Drive Type: Electric or Diesel

Motor: Perkins Diesel

Suitable material: Most Waste Types

No. of units in range: 2 x Model

Price: Contact CSS Equipment for more information

More: Airhogs Vac Systems are used for removing light materials from heavy materials on conveyor belts. Fit most conveyor systems.

Name: CSS Recycling Equipment

Phone Number: 1800344978

Webpage: www.cssequipment.com.au

Email: info@cssequipment.com.au

ECOHOG

EQS 1200 SMQ Mobile Picking Station

Weight: Up to 17 tonnes

Drive Type: Electric or Diesel

Motor: Perkins Diesel

Suitable material: Most Waste Materials

No. of units in range: 2 x Models (4 x Person & 6 x Person)

Throughput: Dependant on Infeed Materials

Options/Extras: Over-Belt Magnet and Air-Knife System

Price: Contact CSS Equipment for more information

More: The EQS is a semi-mobile Picking Station that can be operated in a static mode or moved from site to site.

Name: CSS Recycling Equipment

Phone Number: 1800344978

Webpage: www.cssequipment. com.au

Email: info@cssequipment.com.au

Unit Dimensions: Working - L/W/H - 13800/2990/3400

Weight: 30,000Kg

Drive Type: Electric & Diesel/Hydraulic Direct Drive

Speed (slow/high): Slow Speed

Suitable material: Wood Waste, Stumps, Greenwaste, Biomass, MSW, etc.

No. of units in range: 1 (2 Configurations)

Throughput: Configuration & Material Dependant

Price: Please call for pricing details

More:

Name:

Phone Number: 1800 182 888

Webpage: www.lincom.com.au

TARGO 3000 Daily news updates at www.insidewaste.com.au 54 INSIDEWASTE AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2023

Weight: Up to 23 tonnes

Drive Type: Diesel 375Hp

Motor: CAT C9

Rotor diameter/lengths/speed: 750mm x 2,000mm Slow Speed (High Torque)

Speed (slow/high): Slow Speed Variable between 18rpm to 36rpm

Suitable material: Most Waste Types

No. of units in range: 3 x Models (Electric, Semi-Mobile & Fully Mobile)

Throughput: Up to 50tph depending on Waste Materials

Finished product size: Down to 100mm

Options/Extras: Contact CSS Equipment for all Options Available

Price: Contact CSS Equipment for more information

Name: CSS Recycling Equipment

Phone Number: 1800344978

Webpage: www. cssequipment.com.au

Email: info@cssequipment. com.au

Weight: 35,000kgs

Drive Type: Hydraulic Drive Tracks

Engine: Komatsu SAA6D107E-1

Horespower: 149 kW

Speed (slow/high): 3.2km/h – 5.5km/h

Suitable material: Timber/Harvested Logs (both roadside & mill yard)

No. of units in range: 3

Options/Extras: Felling & Harvesting Attachments

Name: Dean O’Connor

Phone Number: +61408 857 792

Webpage: www.komatsuforest.com.au

Email: dean.oconnor@komatsuforest.com

Suspended Magnetic Separators Line

Motor: Suspended Permanent Magnets: hydraulic and electric motor options

More:

Weight: Up to 47 Tonnes

Drive Type: Diesel 760Hp

Motor: CAT C18

Rotor diameter/lengths/speed: 950mm x 2,750mm Slow Speed (High Torque)

Speed (slow/high): Variable between 18rpm to 36rpm

Suitable material: Most Waste Materials

No. of units in range: 2 x Models (Electric or Diesel)

Throughput: Up to 200tph (depending on material)

Finished product size: Down to 100mm

Options/Extras: Contact CSS Equipment for all Options Available

Price: Contact CSS Equipment for more information

More:

*Overbelt Magnet *5000mm Discharge Conveyor *Gold Standard for hard to process waste *High Throughput *Minimal dust * Now quieter *User Friendly Handling

Name: CSS Recycling

Equipment

Phone Number: 1800344978

Webpage: www.cssequipment. com.au

Email: info@cssequipment. com.au

Weight: 40,000kgs

Drive Type: Hydraulic Drive Tracks

Engine: Komatsu SAA6D114E-3

Horsepower: 194 kW

Rotor diameter/lengths/speed: N/A

Speed (slow/high): 3.2km/h – 5.5km/h

Suitable material: Timber/Harvested Logs (both roadside & mill yard)

No. of units in range: 3

Options/Extras: Felling & Harvesting Attachments

Name: Dean O’Connor

Phone Number: +61408 857 792

Webpage: www. komatsuforest.com.au

Email: dean.oconnor@ komatsuforest.com

Eriez Suspended Magnetic Separators have proven to be the most effective for the removal of unwanted iron from heavy burdens of material being conveyed on fast-moving belts. They are ideal for separation applications on fine or coarse materials in high or low tonnages. Safe, sure tramp iron removal protects costly processing machinery and assures the purity of the product. Eriez Suspended Magnets provide tramp metal removal from conveyed materials. The magnet is typically mounted or suspended over a conveyor belt to remove large pieces of tramp metal that represent a hazard to downstream crushers, mills, pulverizers, and grinders. Suspended Magnets also remove tramp metal that can damage or tear expensive conveyor belts, especially at transfer points. Product purity is enhanced with the separation power of the suspended magnet.

Name: Jonathan Schulberg, Eriez Business Development Manager, Heavy Industry Australia, and New Zealand

Phone Number: 61-3-8401-7400

Webpage: https://www.eriez.com.au/

Email: jschulberg@eriez.com

HAMMEL RECYCLINGTECHNIK

HAMMEL RECYCLINGTECHNIK

Komatsu PC270HW Log Loader

Komatsu PC300HW Log Loader

Hammel Recyclingtechnik

Company Overview:

With more than 20 years experience, Hammel produces the most powerful, versatile and extensive range of slow speed shredders in the market.

Hammel Recyclingtechnik also manufactures screening and sorting technology and complete plant solutions.

Hammel are famous for their Primary Shredders, which easily process your general waste materials including C&D, C&I, MSW, Green & Timber Waste while separating valuable ferrous materials.

Harness the power of a Hammel to process tough materials such as Scrap

Metal, Mattresses, Tyres, Railway Sleepers, Cars, Concrete and other difficult materials. Available in mobile or static, fuel or electric, Hammel Recyclingtechnik has a shredding solution to suit most applications. Exclusively represented by CSS

Recycling Solutions, Hammel Primary Shredders are broadly recognised as the most powerful, efficient and reliable shredders in the Australian and New Zealand market.

Komatsu Forest

Company Overview:

Komatsu Forest is one of the world’s largest manufacturers of forest machines. We are represented on six world continents by a network of dealers and our own sales companies.

Komatsu Forest’s head office is in Umeå, Sweden, and we have two manufacturing units, in Sweden and the USA. Our own sales companies are located in Sweden, Norway, Finland, Germany, Austria, France, United Kingdom, Russia, USA, Australia and Brazil, and our network of dealers represent us on all other important forestry markets.

Our extensive service organisation takes care of the machines, ensuring that they perform their best throughout their service lives. We have workshops throughout the world, service vehicles for quick assistance, in-house machine and methodology instructors to help maximise productivity, and support functions for everything related to our machines and services.

Products and Services:

We offer products and services that

Brands:

All available mobile or static. Electric models available:

•Red Giant VB 950 DK

•VB 850 DK

•VB 750 DK

•VB 650 DK

•VB 450 DK

Core Capabilities:

The HAMMEL product range of preshredders includes 5 models, which are available as stationary electric or mobile diesel-powered versions. Today we are looking at the second largest model in the range - the HAMMEL VB 850 DK.

The latest version is powered by a 525 hp Cummins STAGE 5 engine. With this powerful engine, the shredder is able to process large-volume input materials such as wood waste including roots, stumps, pallets, logs. Thanks to the multifunction shafts, other materials such as bulky and household waste, aluminum profiles and packaging, car bodies and light or mixed scrap can

also be shredded, giving the customer full flexibility in use. The machine is equipped with an easy-to-use control system, where different shredding programs can be selected depending on the material to be shredded.

The HAMMEL VB 850 DK is self-driven via a track system and can be easily transported. The compact design with a transport width of only 2.5 m offers mobility advantages for road transport.

The long discharge belt with a discharge height of approx. 4,800 mm can be adjusted hydraulically, which enables high stockpiling of the shredded

material. A permanent magnet installed transversely on the discharge belt offers the option of separating ferrous materials from the output material in order to optimally process it further on high-speed secondary shredders or screening technology. Customers value the machines for their flexible handling.

Contact Details:

CSS Recycling Equipment Solutions

PO Box 359 Dee Why NSW 2099

Phone: 1800 644 978

Email: info@cssequipment.com.au

Web: www.cssequipment.com.au

increase productivity while simplifying the working day for you as a machine owner.

We combine all our services under our Customer Care concept. This is our promise that you will enjoy the benefits of Komatsu Forest’s investments in research, development, servicing, support, logistics and innovative services. These combined resources are at the very heart of Komatsu Forest’s offer.

Our goal is to make your working day as safe, problem-free and profitable as possible, no matter where in the world you operate. Let us show you that by choosing Komatsu, peace of mind and accessibility can become a natural part of your working day.

Brands

•Komatsu

•Peterson

•TimberPro

Core Capabilities:

Our world-wide network of highly trained service professionals is ready for you.

We know how important it is to be

close to service and maintenance when help is needed. Therefore, we have a market-wide network of highly trained service professionals that knows your Komatsu, Peterson & Timberpro machine in every detail. They are, in turn, in constant contact with the Komatsu Forest head office so your voice or needs are never more than a call away from our collective expertise. Furthermore, we are constantly developing new services that will help you in your everyday work.

We offer:

•Workshops and field services throughout Australia & New Zealand

•Well qualified personnel with expert knowledge of Komatsu & affiliated machines

•Field Service that enables us to remain close to you and your

machine

•Support and maintenance throughout your machine’s service life

•Maintenance agreements with fixed maintenance prices and other benefits

Contact Details:

AUSTRALIA

Komatsu Forest Pty Ltd

4/11 Ave of Americas

Newington, NSW 2127

T : +61 2 9647 3600

E : info.au@komatsuforest.com

NEW ZEALAND

Komatsu Forest Pty Ltd

15C Hyland Cres

Rotorua, New Zealand

M: John Kosar + 64 274 865 844

M: Paul Roche + 64 21 350 747

Hitachi Zosen Inova

Company Overview:

Hitachi Zosen Inova (HZI) is a global leader in energy from waste (EfW), anaerobic digestion (AD) and Power-to-Gas, acting as an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contractor delivering complete turnkey plants and system solutions for energy recovery from waste. Since 2015, HZI Australia, a 100% subsidiary of HZI, is developing new projects in Australia, New Zealand, and the South Pacific. Its first project, the 300,000 tpy East Rockingham WtE is now in construction and will start commercial operation in 2023.

Products/Services:

• Thermal treatment of residual waste, energy recovery, flue gas treatment, and residue recycling

•Wet and dry anaerobic digestion of food & green resources, renewable power production, biogas upgrading to biomethane and bio-CNG

• Power-to-Gas for volatile electricity into renewable synthetic gas for a carbonneutral economy

• Development, Design, Build, Finance,

Komptech CEA

Company Overview:

Komptech CEA is the Australasian distributor of Komptech machinery and systems for the treatment and processing of solid waste and organics waste materials for recovery and recycling. Our product range includes over 30 different types of both mobile and stationary machines that cover all key processes in modern waste processing including:

•Single-shaft and dual-shaft industrial shredders

•Compost windrow turners for commercial operations

•Star screen and trommel screen machines

•Material separation equipment including windsifters, ballistic separators and stone contaminant separators

•Stationary recycling system solutions including shredders, separators and screening machines

Brands:

•Diamond Z

•Screenpod

•Trackstack

Own, Operation & Maintenance

Brands:

•Hitachi Zosen

•Aquaroll, DYNOR, Kompogas,

•HZI Etogas, HZI DryMining

Core Capabilities:

Energy from Waste, Renewable Gas, Project Development, EPC, O&M, Asset Management

Recent Projects/Installations:

EARLS GATE WASTE-TO-ENERGY CENTRE, UK

HZI has been selected to support Brockwell Energy to execute the Commissioning & Start-up activities, then followed by a long-term Operations & Maintenance (O&M) contract at the Earls Gate Waste-to-Energy Centre, UK. This plant is being currently developed by joint shareholders Brockwell Energy and Encyclis (formerly known as Covanta Europe) and uses a non-HZI technology for the combustion.

This demonstrates that HZI not only has the capabilities to design, build and commission state-of-the-art waste treatment facilities;

it also offers seamless global O&M services, supported by its highly skilled teams of operations and maintenance specialists working within the company’s expanding Systems & Service Solutions division to provide long-term services at WtE plants, whatever the combustion technology. The facility is currently in its commissioning phase and will enter its operational phase with an expected takeover in late 2023. For many decades, HZI has firmly established itself as the leading Engineering, Procurement and Construction partner around the world. With its growing range of services and O&M expertise, this allows HZI’s customers to benefit from the company’s deep knowledge in safe, efficient and optimised plant operations across their entire WtE fleet.

This new WtE plant will support the UK and Scotland’s ambitions to reduce the need

to landfill non-recyclable waste, widely recognised as the least sustainable form of waste management.

For more information visit:

https://rb.gy/zgoj2

Contact Details:

Hitachi Zosen Inova Australia Pty Ltd

Level 16, 1 Denison, North Sydney, NSW 2060

Phone: 02-8003 4110

Email: info@hz-inova.com

Web site: www.inova.com

Key Contacts:

Dr Marc Stammbach 02 – 8003 4110 info@hz-inova.com

•Rowan

•Komptech

Core Capabilities:

With a specialised product portfolio that includes over thirty different types of machines covering all key processes in modern waste handling, a consultative guiding approach to solution development for customers, and full service aftersales support and parts, Komptech CEA has become a leading supplier to the recycling and waste processing industry.

Providing customer value is our focus as we strive to be the industry’s technological leader through continual innovation. Komptech CEA is dedicated to working with you to help you solve your waste problems and identify opportunities with comprehensive, detailed solutions driven by world-class technology.

Contact Details:

Sydney 50 Skyline Crescent Horningsea Park, NSW 2171 1300 788 757

www.komptechcea.com.au

Melbourne 1/97 Monash Drive, Dandenong South VIC 3175 1300 788 757

www.komptechcea.com.au

Brisbane 11 Kiln St, Darra 4076 1300 788 757

www.komptechcea.com.au

Adelaide 260 Cormack Rd Wingfield, SA 5013 1300 788 757

www.komptechcea.com.au

Perth 1 Yagine Close, Perth Airport WA 6105 1300 788 757

www.komptechcea.com.au

Auckland 96 Gavin Street Mt Wellington 1060 0800 435 269

www.komptechcea.com.au

Key Contacts: Deon Cope

Product Manager 0408 059 231 d.cope@cea.net.au

Australasian Specialty Coatings

Products and Services:

Flooring (Epoxy and polyurethane)

Eriez Magnetics

Core Capabilities:

Company Overview:

Australasian Specialty Coatings – ASC – is an experienced coatings company located in Blacktown. We work in Construction and Maintenance and provide a range of Protective Coatings and Treatments for Concrete & Steel. We have been established since 2003 and we have a strong track record in achieving outstanding results for our customers. ASC successfully works with a wide variety of customers including Sydney Water, Ericsson, Veolia Environmental and Water Services, Suez Water and Waste Services, Unilever, Coca Cola Australia, General Mills, Bega Foodservice, George Weston Foods, Diageo, etc.

ASC is an experienced organisation with ISO 9001, 14001 and 45001

Certified Management Systems as well as the NSW Government 5th Edition. We are also members of the Master Builders Association.

– Commercial & Industrial Floor Resurfacing, Concrete Remediation, Concrete Repair, Anti-Slip Flooring, Anti-Static Flooring, AGVFlooring, Self-Levellers, Demarcation & Line marking

Coatings for Concrete

Densifiers, Waterproofing Membranes, Sealers, Concrete Resurfacing, Epoxy and Polyurethane Flooring, Chemical Bund Linings, Acid-Resistant Coatings

Protective Painting Services

Abrasive Blasting, Vapour Blasting, Shot-Blasting, Corrosion Control Coatings, Chemical Resistant Coatings

Contact Details:

ASC Head Office

1/14 Chicago Avenue Blacktown, NSW 2148

Phone: 02 8840 8888

Email: enquiries@acoatings.com.au

Web: ascoatings.com.au

MRA Consulting Group

detailed and practical advice to support your waste and resource recovery needs.

Core Capabilities:

Company Overview:

Leading specialists in metal separation, resource recovery technologies, and developing new recycling strategies and processes.

Products and Services:

•Magnetic Pulleys & Scrap Drums

•Ballistic Metal Separators

•Suspended Electromagnets

•Eddy Current Separators

•Stainless Steel Separators

•Fines Metal Recovery Systems

•Airless Metal Recovery Systems

•Tech Service and Repairs

Brands:

•P-Rex® Scrap Drum

•Shred1™ Ballistic Separator

•FinesSort® Metal Recovery System

•RevX-E Eddy Current Separator

Eriez designs and manufactures equipment to successfully recover andbeneficiate ferrous and nonferrous metals. Identify and remove unwanted metal contaminates to minimise product rejection and maximise product purity. We can help you achieve greater recovery at a higher-grade product delivered at a lower cost per ton. Recover valuableresources from:

• MRF, MSW, C & I and C & D

• E-waste

• Tyre recycling and Scrap metalyards,

• Energy from waste feed and bottom& fly ash

• Green waste processing, compostingand road sweepings

Contact Details:

Eriez-Australia

21 Shirley Way, Epping, Victoria 3076 Phone: 61-3-8401-7400

Email: sales.au@eriez.com

Web: www.eriez.com.au

Contact Details:

MRA Head Office

Suite 408 Henry Lawson Building, 19 Roseby Street

Drummoyne NSW 2047

02 8541 6169

info@mraconsulting.com.au www.mraconsulting.com.au

Company Overview:

MRA is one of Australia’s leading environmental consultancy firms, specialising in all aspects of waste and recycling. We are experts in waste, resource recovery and the circular economy, technology, climate change, carbon and sustainable development. Our vision of the future is one that is both environmentally sustainable and economically rational. With over 35 professionals in environmental science, engineering, law and finance, working across Australia we have the experience and technical knowledge to provide

Customised advice to all levels of government and corporations. Our objective is to collaborate with you from the initial briefing process through to project development and implementation of solutions specifically tailored to your needs in the fields of:

Strategy & Commercial – Innovative and tailored strategies

Circular Economy – Help move your organisation or material towards a circular economy model

Planning & Approvals – Development and planning approvals and licensing services

Contracts & Tenders – Preparation, review and assessment

Organics – Business case, collection processing and market development solutions

Grants – Scoping, application, writing, review and administration

Waste Education – Effective and engaging programs

Auditing – Research and compliance audits

Carbon – Climate adaptation, ERF reporting and accounting

Reset needed to get most out of products before end of life

BEC Larkin says that she wasn’t sure what she wanted to study when she decided to go to university. Eventually settling on a double degree of Bachelor of Science (BSc) and Economics from UTS and honours in Medical Science from UNSW, Larkin didn’t initially go into the waste and resource recovery industry.

“I did my honours thesis on genome engineering and breast cancer,” she said. “I really liked it, then worked for two years as a research assistant in children’s cancer. After that, I decided medical research wasn’t for me; it didn’t come naturally to me - I couldn’t stop thinking about all the waste generated in the lab and thought it must be a similar story in every industry. I decided to take a year off and went travelling from Canada to Bolivia.”

And it was while she was in South America Larkin thought seriously about her next career move. While travelling around the continent, she could see a lot of waste issues. She decided that her ideal job would be to advise businesses how to manage their waste and materials – which she soon discovered was the perfect description of a waste consultant. After returning to Australia, she asked around a few friends and acquaintances. The name MRA Consulting popped up. She contacted the company in 2019 and was a waste auditor within a week. Not exactly the ideal job she had in mind, but she was excited to start somewhere.

“I was elbow deep in red bin rubbish for two weeks and sorting it into 50 categories,” she said. “It was disgusting –there were maggots, off chicken –I learnt I had a strong stomach.’

Interestingly, when asked what the worst thing she had found in a bin, her answer wasn’t what was expected.

“There was repulsive waste like food and nappies, but to me, the worst thing I saw were brand-new sneakers, still in the box,” she said. “I’m thinking, ‘Why are people throwing these out?’ Quality items are probably the most heartbreaking thing. It made me realise how big the disconnect was.”

Unsurprisingly, the sneakers were found in a very affluent suburb. That discovery opened her eyes to not only how wasteful people are but also the lack of understanding or valuing of what goes into manufacturing products and the globalised supply chain.

After being an auditor, Larkin’s became an environmental consultant in the strategy and commercial team at

MRA for several years. More recently, she moved into the circular economy team and became a senior consultant.

“In the strategy and commercial team, I was able to build such a solid base of skills and knowledge through detailed research projects and feasibility studies, as well as developing waste strategies and understanding the role of Government. All the projects were varied – from researching industry specifications for glass, plastic and tyres for the waste export bans, to designing a product stewardship scheme and developing a sustainably packaging strategy for a food production company.

I found myself naturally gravitating to projects that considered more than just recycling or landfilling, solutions; that looked at upstream interventions and trying to avoid waste in the first place. What’s the point of tackling waste if you’re not tackling the volume of materials going into the system?

So, I made the move into the circular economy team. Among other things, we are interested in finding opportunities to replace single-use items with reusable options and understanding what are the impacts of a reusable system on the existing business model and what are the barriers to making this happen.”

A lot of the work involves re-thinking the current system and putting better procedures in place. For example, a

business might have a supply chain producing a certain item. Larkin and the circular economy team will go in and look at better ways to streamline the process, minimise waste and also emissions along the pathway. Businesses have the opportunity to make a huge impact but there is a lot to consider, and we’d like to help them map out the steps.

“I’m currently working on a project looking at circular interventions for plastics in hospitals – it’s a massive task in a very complex ecosystem. It sort of feels like I’ve come full circle since working in the lab and thinking of all the plastic going to clinical waste – I haven’t found the solution but I’m working towards it.”

Larkin finds that most companies she works with are fully engaged in trying to get rid of their waste in a timely and proper manner. Although there are government targets – such as those set by APCO around packaging – there is also the social license aspect of the circular economy. Customers want to ensure that companies are doing the right thing so companies are holding themselves accountable.

And if Larkin ruled the world, what would she like to change? Our reliance on recycling, she said. What? Isn’t that what most of us are trying to do? Recycle stuff so it doesn’t go to landfill? Sure, but Larkin wants to go that one step

further. How about designing products so that the ‘waste’ can be designed out? She said that, currently when a product is produced, if the designers think about the end of life, they think about what waste stream something should go in. They should be going back a step.

“There are some circular elements to recycling, but businesses can redesign the system at the beginning. That way, they can design out the waste at that first stage,” she said. “It’s all about the whole supply chain and looking at how every decision should be considered, such as the product’s end of life. It needs to be considered at every point along the way. Maybe a reusable element can be incorporated into the supply chain. I recently completed a course on sustainability in the fashion industry. It was incredibly eye-opening - and depressing – but also uplifting.”

Why? Because, on the one hand, it is a very consumption-focused industry where companies’ business models rely on the public to ‘buy, buy, buy’. However, she also saw elements within that industry who were taking a more holistic approach to making products that were sustainable, even if it was costing them part of their profits.

“The textiles space is something that I’m really interested in and so are clients,” she said. “We recently held a regional Think Tank event on textiles circularity to develop tangible action plans and pilots to combat textile waste. And we have previously worked with charitable organisations to quantify the impact of the textile reuse sector. I love utilising data to paint a picture for people to see the extent of the problem so that they feel motivated to take action. It also adds robustness to interventions.”

Her final wish is that messaging surrounding extending the life of products also needs to be amplified loud and clear to the consumers.

“The impacts of products on the Earth can be minimised by consumers extending a product’s life,” said Larkin. “It all comes down to impact. You can buy a cheap piece of clothing. If you wear it 50 times, the negative carbon material inputs can be offset if you keep wearing it or keep using it and don’t throw it out. Yes, the producers have the responsibility to source sustainable and ethically sourced material, but the consumer has the responsibility to get the most use out of it and value it so that it doesn’t just end up in landfill.”

Designers need to take a step back and think about end of life for a product, said Larkin.

Taking a chance

Hi Sir

Self-regulation. What do those words mean to you? Do you trust people to do the right thing? It depends.

The number of clichés that come foaming out of my mouth when I think of such things include ‘the inmates are running the asylum’, ‘democracy is like two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner’, and ‘should the police investigate themselves when it comes to allegations of police brutality?’

“What is this leading to?” you might ask. Well, with all these instances –some you must think a little outside the square – you are trusting people to do the right thing. You hope the inmates will make the right decisions, the wolves will not vote for the sheep to be the sacrificial lamb to satiate their appetite, while you’d hope the police would happily lock up one of their own if they were caught with their hand in the till.

“I’m still not getting where you

are coming from,” you might say. Fair enough. Product stewardship is what I’m talking about. Trust is a big thing – especially in our industry, as you know, Sir.

In this Great Southern Land there are a string of product stewardship institutions – everything from tyres and bottle refund schemes, through to clothing and battery collection points. Then there are the television and mobile phone schemes. Sounds good, right? Kind of. There are a few issues.

First, you know the part about the inmates running the asylum? Well, most of the schemes are run by the manufacturers – ie, those that create the products that cause the mess. Second, many of them are funded voluntarily by the aforementioned manufacturers of the goods that are going to be recycled or reused – do you see any conflict of interest there? Next, a lot of people believe that there should be

legislation to back up the need for these products to be recovered and reused. How do you think the manufacturers feel about that? Finally, a lot of those in the resource recovery industry believe that some of the manufacturers are putting in unnecessary roadblocks when it comes to either expanding a scheme to include more products or stopping legislation.

“Surely there is transparency?” you say. Kind of. Let’s just say that those that do the collecting and pay the money make all the right noises, but there is an underlying uneasiness about the way some of the schemes are handled. “For example?”

Well, let’s just say, in the case of the container deposit schemes, there is a large chunk of the industry who think a refund increase would lead to a larger number of containers being returned. Manufacturers (due to garnering social license maybe?) generally come out and are careful not to disagree, but will

point out that other ‘flaws’ and ‘issues’ need to be addressed first – ie, let’s not change the status quo just yet. Now, this doesn’t mean in any way, shape, or form they are not fans of a circular economy –they are. But why pay more if you don’t have to, right?

Or in the case of tyres being collected. Because it happens in such a haphazard way, some of the tyre companies not part of the Tyre Stewardship Australia, get their tyres collected because they get mixed up with those that are part of the scheme, but they don’t have to pay.

What is the answer, you ask? Depends on who you talk to. However, the federal government is now starting to see legislation as the answer. I wonder how well that will go down among those with the purse strings? I’ll let you know in time.

Toodle pip.

JB

London, Oslo and Dublin Rely on Our Energy-from-Waste Technology.

London, United Kingdom

So Does Perth.

Rockingham, Australia

Our solutions are based on e cient and environmentally sound in-house technology, and cover the entire life cycle of an Energy-from-Waste facility. Our proven technologies have been part of more than 700 plants worldwide. As a global leader in energy from waste we are proud to be able to say: We deliver. Check our references.

Waste is our Energy

Oslo, Norway

Dublin, Ireland

DELIVERING A GREENER FUTURE

Komptech CEA is a leading supplier of machinery and systems for the treatment of solid waste through mechanical and mechanical biological treatments, as well as the treatment of biomass as a renewable energy source. Komptech CEA is proud to provide innovative solutions for handling waste and biomass.

Komptech CEA’s extensive range of products cover all key processing steps in modern waste handling. At Komptech CEA the focus is always on innovative technology and solutions ensuring maximum benefit to the customer. Like to know more? why not speak to one of our team today?

SHREDDERS TROMMEL SCREENS STAR SCREENS WINDROW TURNERS

1300 788 757

komptechcea.com.au

TERMINATOR

Where Function Meets Technology

A slow-running, single-shaft shredder suited to all types of waste.

CRAMBO

Less Fuel, More Power

Ideal for shredding all types of wood and green cuttings.

TOPTURN X

The Ideal Combination of Performance and Design

With a sturdy frame, powerful hydraulics and large drum, the Topturn X is ready to handle any work situation.

MULTI STAR

Screening with a Star

Makes waste wood and biomass processing highly efficient.

NEMUS

Robust and Reliable

Combining the practice-proven virtues of its predecessors with new solutions for even greater performance.

AXTOR

Shredding and Chipping Made Easy

One of the most versatile machines around for processing wood and green cuttings.