An environmental exit?

The United Kingdom’s exit from the European Union presents both challenges and opportunities for waste management. We speak to international expert Richard Cowell about its impacts.
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Bayside City Council: a great track record

Tim Cummins, Coordinator Recycling and Waste Management Bayside City Council, explains the challenges and opportunities for waste in the south-east Melbourne local government area.
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Lake Macquarie City Council push to swap sand with recycled glass

Recycled crushed glass will substitute sand in civil works projects as Lake Macquarie City Council pushes for local solutions to national issues.

The project aims to reuse thousands of tonnes of glass every year, with the potential to reuse 12,000 tonnes collected from across the Hunter region if other councils get involved.

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A plant built on the Central Coast is manufacturing the glass sand for the council’s trial.

The sand has similar applications to normal sand and can be used as a bedding material in drainage projects and other civil works.

Lake Macquarie Mayor Kay Fraser said glass bottles, jars and other items collected from household recycling bins would be sorted and processed as usual at a materials recovery facility at Gateshead.

“There is a growing need across Australia to find an end use for recycled glass,” Cr Fraser said.

With companies finding it cheaper to import new glass than buy recycled, we need to start coming up with innovative, cost-effective alternatives.

“This collaborative project could help solve a national crisis in our own backyard,” she said.

Manager Planning and Sustainability Alice Howe said more than 5000 tonnes of glass were collected for recycling annually across Lake Macquarie.

“Our strategy is twofold: we are demonstrating the suitability of recycled glass sand for our own civil works program, and have amended our engineering guidelines to specify how this material can be used in development across the city ,” Dr Howe said.

“We aim to gradually increase the amount of recycled glass that is processed into glass sand and used in our own operations. If the rest of the region follows our lead, this initiative could close the loop on thousands of tonnes of glass each year.”

Dr Howe said if the end-use issues for recycled glass aren’t addressed soon, the stockpiles of material will continue to grow.

Soldiering on: The Next Generation proposal

Waste Management Review sat down with Dial A Dump Industries Managing Director Ian Malouf at Waste 2018 to discuss government policy and the status of the Next Generation proposal at Eastern Creek.
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Repurpose It’s glass residuals solution

Resource recovery specialist Repurpose It will use an Australia-first technology to help recycle residual glass from materials recovery facilities for civil construction.

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Rethinking Sustainability: Veolia’s new campaign

Veolia’s Ben Sullivan, NSW Group General Manager, tells Waste Management Review about the company’s innovative virtual reality campaign and how raising community awareness has formed an integral part of its approach to infrastructure.
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Backhus and Convaero Con Series: GCM Enviro’s Eggersmann

GCM Enviro’s Eggersmann – BACKHUS CON combines the proven BACKHUS turning technology with the flexible CONVAERO system, allowing for efficient turning in lanes for composting and biological drying of municipal solid waste and organic wastes, digestate and sewage sludge.

The turner is equipped with a crawler chassis used to run along the lane walls while turning within the walls. BACKHUS CON is equipped with two membrane winders that simultaneously wind and unwind the membranes during the turning process. This ensures a virtually closed system even during turning.

The Eggersmann is available with lane widths of 6, 7.5 and 10 metres.

The machine is ideal for municipal solid waste in composting/biological drying, green waste and organics via composting and sewage sludge and digestate through composting and biological drying.

The system is made flexible to cope with a variety of input materials and characteristics, while using a modular design to help operators expand their sites with minimal interruptions. Input material with high moisture content up to 70 per cent can be processed with this solution.

Press water, surface water and roof water from membrane covers can be collected separately. BACKHUS Turner serves also as a mixer for sludge with organic waste or other feedstocks.

There’s also very little infrastructure required, with one power point allowing the system to operate. All equipment operates underground, improving safety and reducing any weather impact.

www.gcmenviro.com

China approves greener lithium extraction method

China has approved a new method of extracting lithium in a more efficient and environmentally friendly way, according to Xinhua News.

Professor of the institute of environmental science and engineering in Nanchang University Qiu Zumin told Xinhua News the lithium extraction technology has passed the national scientific and technological achievements appraisal. It is expected to replace China’s current methods of extracting lithium, which have been blamed for creating significant amounts of waste with low profitability.

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Lithium batteries are used in most electronics, from mobile phones to computers, to electronic cars. Currently, China imports 80 per cent of its lithium carbonate.

Xinhua News says China’s traditional methods produce 30 to 40 tonnes of waste to produce one tonne of lithium carbonate, while also being expensive to treat.

The new methods has been jointly developed by the Jiangxi Haohai Lithium Energy, Nanchang University and other institutions to separate all the elements in lithium micas.

Chair of Haohai Peng Guiyong told Xinhua News the company plans to invest one billion yuan ($205 million AUD) to build a production line with an annual capacity of 40,000 tonnes of lithium carbonate.

Unilever Australia on track for sustainablity targets

Unilever Australia has announced it is on track to meet 80 per cent of its Sustainable Living Plan commitments, which include improving the health and wellbeing for 1 billion people and reducing the company’s environmental impact by half.

The plan originally launched in 2010 and aimed to decouple the company’s growth from its environmental impact, while increasing the company’s positive social impact.

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Some key commitments include sourcing 100 per cent of all grid electricity used in manufacturing with renewable sources by 2020, becoming carbon positive in its manufacturing operations by 2030 and making 100 per cent of its plastic packaging recyclable, reusable or compostable while increasing the recycled plastic content in its packaging by 25 per cent by 2025.

Unilever Australia and New Zealand CEO Clive Stiff said the company has made good progress towards the targets in Australia and globally and that consumers were increasingly aware of the impact the products they purchase have on the environment.

“We also want to be transparent about how much more work there is still to do. This is critical when we are witnessing a crisis of trust in institutions in Australia and across the world. We believe business must play a leading role in restoring trust, and that at the heart of trust lies transparency,” Mr Stiff said.

“We also know that the biggest challenges facing our nation and our world can’t be addressed on our own. There is an ever-increasing need for us to work in partnership to drive transformational change across our value chain. To do so will require a new level of transparency across the board and business must be part of the solution.”