Waste

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).

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.

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 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 […]

Waste and recycling reform is on the move. The Federal Government has announced it will revive the National Waste Strategy by the end of 2018. As part of the discussion on strategic direction I thought it would be useful to go back and revisit a previous strategic review and see what we have achieved (or not) in NSW. To put it another way, while there is a lot of movement at present, is the movement achieving the main priorities?

MRA's Mike Ritchie was very pleased to have been invited to contribute to the Environmental Professionals Forum's (EPF) UnEaten Matters evening on the 8th of August. Mike moderated a panel of professionals to discuss the complexities of food waste.

Following Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk’s announcement back in March 20th, the Queensland Government released for public consultation a directions paper on the State’s recycling and waste industry.

The NSW EPA has just announced the solid and liquid waste levy rates for 2018/19. In accordance with Clause 11 of the Protection of the Environment Operations (Waste) Regulation 2014, all levies have been only adjusted for inflation (Consumer Price Index).

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.

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.

When developed alongside strong recycling and organics processing systems, Energy from Waste (EfW) will help lift domestic and commercial diversion rates from 60% to 80-90%. It is an important element in a waste management system.