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Sustainability Victoria is providing a $4 million funding boost for major recycling projects that aim to increase resource recovery. These fourth round grants of between $40,000 and $500,000 are aimed at business and local governments that aim to increase sorting and reprocess priority materials.

Mike Ritchie will present on "Removal of food and organics from waste to landfill – prospects and issues" at ASBG's Queensland seminar in Lidcombe on 12 April 2019. Read on for the full program and to learn how to get the MRA client discount.

FOGO diversion from landfill is one of the cheapest global warming abatement options. It is also relatively easy to do and should be prioritised by Government.

MRA's Mike Ritchie has welcomed the recently released NSW ALP War on Waste policy to invest waste levy funds back into the circular economy. The Recycling and War on Waste policy released by Michael Daley and Penny Sharpe is an important step towards creating the circular economy and achieving a more sustainable balance between the economy and the environment”

Since Mike's article on Saving Kerbside Recycling was written, the Victorian EPA has temporarily closed down the three SKM MRFs in Melbourne, due to fire risk associated with stockpiles. Over 20 Councils have either suspended their kerbside recycling services or they are sending their recyclables to landfill.

On Tuesday 2 April in Melbourne and Thursday 4 April in Sydney, Dave and Mike respectively will be presenting and participating in the Targeting Zero Waste Seminars event organised by the Green Building Council of Australia. Book by 19 March using the code WASTE20 for a 20% discount.

After combining and analysing data from five distinct global meteorological and marine observation datasets, the UN warns that we might see temperature increases 3-5°C by 2100.

It has now been over a year since China introduced its National Sword policy to restrict the importation of kerbside recyclable materials from the rest of the world. The purpose of the policy was to increase the recovery of domestically generated recyclables within China and further boost its own manufacturing. The new rule is a 0.5% contamination rate in Australian exported material. Few Australian Materials Recovery Facilities (MRF) were built for that level of purity.

The NSW EPA has opened the $13 million landfill consolidation grants program under the NSW Government Waste Less Recycle More initiative (WLRM). EPA logo 2017The NSW EPA has opened the $13 million landfill consolidation grants program under the NSW Government Waste Less Recycle More initiative (WLRM). The new grants support regional and rural councils in addressing identified environmental issues posed by landfill activities.

The news on our climate is not good as the recently released CSIRO and BOM report confirm the continued warming of Australia’s climate and oceans: “Observations and climate modelling paint a consistent picture of ongoing, long‑term climate change interacting with underlying natural variability.”

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).