MRA would like to wish you and your family a safe, happy and sustainable festive season. We thank you for your continued support in 2018 and look forward to working with you in 2019!

With landfill levies in NSW at $140.20/t you would think that sorting of commercial waste would be more common than it is. Less than 5% of the Commercial and Industrial (C&I) waste in NSW is put through a processing plant to recover the valuable materials. In other words, less than 120,000t of the 5.5 MT that is generated is put through a processing plant. There are no dedicated C&I sorting facilities in other States (and landfill levies are lower).

Albury City Council and the Halve Waste Initiative won the SUEZ Outstanding Regional Local Government Award at the national inaugural Waste Management Association of Australia and Inside Waste Awards.

The annual WasteMINZ Conference (5-8 November 2018) is wrapping up in Christchurch at the Air Force Museum of New Zealand and Mike was amongst the first to present on its second day. Mike outlined the challenges and impacts of China's National Sword policy on local recycling markets and described the industry's current and potential responses.

Inside Waste and the Waste Management Association of Australia are holding the inaugural Resource Recovery Excellence Awards and three of MRA's finest have made the final cut. While Mike has been nominated for 'Executive of the Year' in recognition of his sound decision-making, organisational impact and leadership in the broader community, both Nav and James are finalists in the 'Young Professional of the Year' category.

MRA's Mike Ritchie presented yesterday at the International Solid Waste Association 2018 World Congress held at Kuala Lumpur. Mike's presentation focused on China's National Sword and its impact on Australia's recycling.

MRA is actively engaging in the waste management debate and this week has seen two of our own being extensively quoted on national newspapers. The Financial Review has reported on MRA's submission to the ACCC on the proposed merging of Bingo and DADI, quoting Mike Ritchie on the expected positive outcomes of the merger in terms of improved recovery rates for C&I waste in Sydney.

The NSW EPA has opened round 3 of its $3M Organics Market Development grants under the NSW Government Waste Less Recycle More initiative (WLRM). The new grants support activities that will improve the demand for recycled organics.

Responding to Australian Government Department of Environment and Energy's request for feedback on priority issues to be considered in future Australian waste management and resource recovery, MRA has prepared a submission to the 'Updating the 2009 National Waste Policy' (NWP) discussion paper.

According to the 2016 National Waste Report, Commercial and Industrial waste (C&I) represents 20 MT of the 53 MT of waste generated in Australia (or 40% of generation). It also represents 34% of all waste sent to landfill (or 7.2MT out of 21MT) and achieves a 64% recovery rate compared to C&D (64%) and MSW (51%). Not bad in the scheme of things.

By MRA Consulting Group The Queensland government has just opened the one-off $5m 2018/19 Local Government Levy Ready Grants Program. The grant program is being administered by the department of Local Government, Racing and Multicultural Affairs on behalf of the Department of Environment and Science and aims to assist Queensland councils in setting up the […]

By MRA Consulting Group On the morning of Thursday August 30, Mike will be moderating a panel discussing the changing environment faced by the Australian waste industry. The discussion will focus on China’s National Sword, NSW ‘Return and Earn’ CDS, Queensland’s forthcoming landfill levy and the options and opportunities available to local government and waste […]