wastenot

Vegetable growers across Australia must comply with strict requirements to ensure the food they produce is safe for consumers. Farmers purchasing compost should be asking their supplier for a proof of compliance.

The International Compost Awareness Week (ICAW), celebrated every year during the first full week of May, represents a great opportunity for joining compost related workshops, seminars and activities. Abroad and in Australia, the compost industry and enthusiasts rev up the efforts to increase awareness of the importance of compost and to promote the use of compost and related products.

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).

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.

ABC's latest War on Waste series has recently concluded and it has been a resounding success. This year the spotlight has been turned to plastic water bottles, straws, e-waste, fast furniture, the recycling crisis and food waste. On that last front, MRA's Mike Ritchie made an appearance to talk about why we need Food and Garden Organics (FOGO) services across the nation.

By MRA Consulting Group The waste and recycling industry strongly supports the reintroduction of a waste levy in QLD to grow recycling in QLD and limit the continuing movement of over a million tonnes of waste from Sydney to SE QLD. MRA Consulting Group Managing Director Mr Mike Ritchie today said “I congratulate Premier Palaszczuk […]

The goal of Halve Waste is to reduce the waste to landfill by 50% by 2020. A major step in achieving this is the target to reduce waste landfilled at AWMC to 75,000 tonnes per year by 2018 financial year end. We’re at the half-way point and this looks like being achieved.

If you haven’t heard it already, the household recycling industry is in all sorts of trouble. 2018 is going to be a troubled year for most MRFs (Materials Recovery Facilities) and therefore their council clients. The Chinese National Sword policy has bitten and bitten hard. National Sword is the Chinese government’s mechanism to restrict import licences for recycled product and limit contamination rates of those recyclables to less than 0.5%.

On 15 October, the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) released a copy of its report 'Towards a pollution-free planet'. The report links consumption to waste and then to pollution, with one of the five key messages being: A new approach to managing our lives and economies: sustainable consumption and production, through improved resource efficiency and lifestyle changes, should be promoted; waste reduction and management must be prioritised.

The Albury Waste Management Centre (AWMC) includes the fourth largest landfill in NSW, and now the centrepiece of Halve Waste, the most successful waste reduction program in Australia. The Halve Waste Initiative has recently been awarded the best organics recovery program in NSW and the best local government initiative in sustainability.

Australia’s recycling sector is primed for continued growth. It must in order to keep up with waste generation, which is growing at a compound annual rate of 6.2%, that is 6x population growth and 2.5x economic growth. The market is there, and it is being serviced through a combination of regulatory intervention and technological innovation.