The NSW EPA has released the fifth round of the Organics Infrastructure (Large and Small) Program grant under the $337 million Waste Less Recycle More Initiative, 2014-17 (WLRM) extension. The new grants aim to help local councils, businesses, government institutions, not for profits, and industry organisations, depending on the type of grant project/stream.

Mike Ritchie talked to ABC’s Sarina Locke about the effect of QLD waste levy cancellation on NSW waste. The full article titled “Sydney Markets sends rotting fruit and vegetables to generate electricity in war on waste” is available on the ABC website and below. Sydney Markets declared its own war on waste 12 years ago […]

Friday 17th March, marked the deadline for tender submissions to operate the NSW Container Deposit Scheme (CDS). Next steps will be the appointment by the Minister of the Scheme Coordinator and Network Operators in June 2017. By 1 December 2017, over 430 Collection Points need to be established. This article sets out the basics of the Scheme.

Queensland recently released its 2016 Waste and Recycling Report. The report refers to a number of incremental gains in landfill diversion, but the headline number is the 40% leap in the tonnes of waste received at Queensland landfills from interstate.

This year’s Waste Conference had the largest array of exhibitors than any year before. MRA’s Charlotte Wang visited 45 exhibitors to get a feel for what’s up and coming in the waste collection and processing sector.

The Waste 2017 conference has been and gone, running from 2-4 May at Opal Cove Resort in Coffs Harbour. It was an exceptionally well attended conference, attracting over 550 delegates from around Australia to three days of proceedings.

By MRA Consulting Group Inside Waste published (March 2017) the results of its annual consultants survey, and MRA has swept the field. Of the six services offerings considered, MRA was judged by its clients to be the best small consultant in Australia for five. And the second best in the sixth. Our clients were resounding […]

By Mike Ritchie, MRA Consulting Group The Australian State of the Environment (SoE) 2016 Overview was tabled in Parliament on 7 March 2017. The previous SoE was in 2011. The SoE concludes that: “Despite an overall increase in waste generation, Australia’s total disposal tonnage decreased from about 21.5 megatonnes to about 19.5 megatonnes (about 9.5 […]

By Mike Ritchie, MRA Consulting Group Product Stewardship (PS) schemes are one of several ways to drive waste out of landfill and back into the productive economy. They “encourage” industry to fund the collection and recycling of their goods once they reach the end of their productive life. Products which lend themselves to PS systems […]

By Mike Ritchie, MRA Consulting Group The east coast of Australia suffered through a severe heatwave a few weeks ago. To borrow the phrase, a single heatwave is no more evidence of climate change, than a single swallow is of summer. The evidence for climate change doesn’t neatly announce itself through a particular weather event. […]

By Mike Ritchie, MRA Consulting Group Australians use an estimated 5 billion single use plastic bags (supb’s) per year. Sounds like a lot but this represents only about 20,000 tonnes of plastic or 0.04% of the waste generated in Australia per year. If all of these plastic bags go to landfill they represent just 0.1% […]

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