Recycling

Cost-effective nappy disposal – does a solution exist?
Recycling
29 September 2014

Cost-effective nappy disposal – does a solution exist?

The most cost effective way to recover food and green waste, which account for more than 60% of an average household’s garbage bin, is via a three bin system with food and green waste (FOGO) in the same bin… but should nappy waste be included the mix? About 15 councils across Australia currently run FOGO […]

360 recycling bins; a worthwhile innovation
Recycling
18 September 2014

360 recycling bins; a worthwhile innovation

Australians are the best household recyclers in the world. Our domestic kerbside recycling rates are second to none. But even so, we still put about 15-30% of all recyclables into the wrong bin. That is, into the garbage bin instead of the recycling bin. By Mike Ritchie. In NSW, this loss of recyclables accounts for […]

Waste Less Recycle More infrastructure grants
Recycling
19 August 2014

Waste Less Recycle More infrastructure grants

The first round of Waste Less Recycle More infrastructure grants came to a close in early March, with consultants and applicants alike breathing a sigh of relief as schedules, cost benefit analyses and application forms were submitted to the Environmental Trust for appraisal. The opportunities promised by the WLRM package are immense. Traditional waste service […]

The Real Price of Direct Action
Recycling
18 March 2014

The Real Price of Direct Action

In 2012, in an article published in the WME online blog, MRA wrote: “Here we are at the end of a 6-year negotiation that began with the CPRS and NGERS and has finished with the Carbon Pricing Mechanism (CPM) and the Carbon Farming Initiative (CFI)”. We all thought this was the end of the theoretical […]

Potential of Recycling Still to be Recognised
Recycling
21 November 2011

Potential of Recycling Still to be Recognised

The government’s announcement of a carbon price plan might well lead to a rise in recycling rates for high embodied energy materials such as aluminium and plastics, but could also bring challenges such as increased operating costs. While the industry awaits further details from the government, industry consultant Mike Ritchie said the carbon plan is the right reform but that waste and recycling remain the […]

Is Education Wasted on C&I?
Recycling
5 September 2011

Is Education Wasted on C&I?

Every waste conference has a stream for waste education. But in the fastest growing generator – commercial and Industrial (C&I) – does it produce any results? By results I refer to real reductions in waste to landfill measured in hundreds of thousands of tonnes – the scale on which other initiatives such as landfill pricing, […]

Know Your Streams
Recycling
1 April 2011

Know Your Streams

By Mike Ritchie – Landfill charges in Sydney are going to increase from $200 a tonne to $300 in the next four years, courtesy of the landfill levy, rising landfill costs and inflation. The same trend is happening in Victoria, Queensland and other major cities as a result of government policies, particularly levies, stricter environmental […]

Killing Two Birds … The Compost and Carbon Story
Recycling
2 September 2010

Killing Two Birds … The Compost and Carbon Story

By Mike Ritchie, MRA Consulting Group Global warming is the problem  Global warming, due to anthropogenic (your and my) emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG), is a reality that all but a few fringe dwellers, now accept. In a natural system plants photosynthesis CO2 from the atmosphere, expire oxygen and take up soil nutrients. Plants are […]

WMAA Leadership’s Split Personalities
Recycling
1 April 2009

WMAA Leadership’s Split Personalities

This year’s election for the top leadership positions at the Waste Management Association of Australia is shaping up as a referendum on the organisation’s future. One camp wants WMAA to step up and take a more active role leading debate. The other argues WMAA’s primary role as a place to foster best practice training and knowledge would be threatened if certain groups were alienated by controversial […]

Lessons in Sorting Garbage
Landfill
1 April 2009

Lessons in Sorting Garbage

By Katrina Vella – Liverpool is to have a cleaner future with the opening of the SITA waste treatment plant in Kemps Creek. Liverpool residents generate 70,000 tonnes of waste a year with just 16 per cent being recycled. The plant will be able to recycle 82 percent of this. The $50 million facility, which will be fully operational in July, […]

Incentives Needed for Recycling
Recycling
3 September 2008

Incentives Needed for Recycling

By Mike Ritchie – The reality for business is that dumping waste in a landfill is often cheaper than recycling. So unless commonwealth and state governments make recycling general waste more commercially attractive. the outcome will be more landfilling. Read more

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