You’ve seen it in nearly every movie set in a New York winter – the movie’s main character bundled in a coat, clutching a cup of hot “kwa-fee” – in a polystyrene foam cup. However, as of July 1st 2015, a ban on single-use polystyrene foam food and beverage containers (take away containers, food trays, […]

The second Emissions Reduction Fund auction has been announced for the 4th and 5th of November 2015. This means that industry and local government have another opportunity to register their (new) projects under the ERF and to obtain funding for their abatement efforts. In the first auction, 43 participants secured 107 contracts worth $660m at […]

MRA announces its expansion into the Victorian market with the appointment of David Cocks as Victorian Manager. David joins MRA from Sustainability Victoria (SV) where he managed SV’s Waste and Resource Recovery Infrastructure Team. David brings to MRA a detailed understanding of Victoria’s waste policy and infrastructure landscape. Given the expansion of processing facilities already underway and in development, David’s experience, developing and evaluating business cases for the State government will […]

The NSW Government announced in February 2015 that it had a preference to introduce a container deposit scheme (CDS). That announcement was endorsed by the opposition. So what is the State of Play beyond NSW? The QLD government has said it will model its system on the NSW model; NT has now introduced its own […]

Inside Waste (April 2013) published an article by MRA on Weight Based Charging (WBC) titled ‘Wake the Sleeping Giant on C&I’. It argued Weight Based Charging for commercial waste, would likely assist in achieving Australia’s C&I resource recovery targets. WBC provides waste generators with a direct price signal, equating waste generation to costs. At present […]

MRA Consulting Group today announces that Dr Ron Wainberg has joined the MRA team. Ron will take on the role of Technical Director in MRA, responsible for business development, consulting services and training. Wainberg said “MRA is young and exciting. They have been a tough competitor over the last few years. I am really keen […]

The NSW EPA has released four new grant programs under the $465.7 million NSW Government Waste Less Recycle More program. The new grants provide a one off opportunity to a range of eligible applicants within NSW, including local governments, businesses, industry and the community. The new grant rounds are summarised below. Grant Streams Maximum funding […]

The rollout of new food and garden (FOGO) waste collection systems is stressful for many councils. MyWaste shows it does not need to be. For many residents, wheeling out and collecting their bins each week represents their most significant interaction with Council. This is a learned behaviour established over many years. Subsequently, changes to collection […]

By Mike Ritchie Landfill gate fees typically cover costs of operation, overheads, mobile plant and equipment, labour, depreciation costs of roads and buildings and other fixed assets and profit. But the costs (and therefore the gate fee), also need to include 30-50 year post closure management, long term monitoring and reporting, and importantly replacement of […]

Important changes were recently introduced by the Protection of Environment Operations (Waste) Regulation 2014. These have considerably reduced the threshold levels for the holding of an Environmental Protection Licence (EPL) for certain waste activities e.g. processing, recovery and storage of waste. The new requirements mean that some existing waste businesses that were not previously required […]

MRA has wrapped up its 2014-2015 ‘Bin Trim Business Grants’ project, which is part of the NSW Government Waste Less Recycle More $465.7 million program. Along with 26 other Bin Trim providers, we have visited 8,000+ small to medium enterprises (SME) across NSW. SMEs are responsible for 45 per cent of commercial and industrial (C&I) […]

From a media release by Noosa Council, originally published here. A waste industry heavyweight, Mike Ritchie, was one of two speakers Noosa’s community Jury heard from at its fourth meeting, held this week. Mr Ritchie, who has more than 25 years of experience in waste management, accepted the Jury’s invitation to present via video link from […]