February 2019

New ReachTel poll shows strong support for red bin recycling

A NSW ReachTel poll has shown strong support for red bin recycling, with 93 per cent supporting the recycling industry and 79 per cent supporting the use of organics on farm use.

The poll, conducted in mid-February with 1546 representative respondents, affirms the NSW Government’s move to protect the future of the alternative waste treatment (AWT) industry, according to the Australian Council of Recycling (ACOR.)

The poll comes months after the NSW EPA announced it was stopping the restricted use of mixed waste organic material on agricultural land after comprehensive independent studies into potential health risks.

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Media reports indicate that NSW Government Environment Minister Gabrielle Upton wrote to the state’s major recycling companies to reveal the government was awaiting expert advice to determine the future use of mixed waste organics.

The poll shows that 92.8 per cent agree that reducing waste and recycling products into new products and uses is important, 78.6 per cent support the use of “organic material for farm use and land rehabilitation,” and 87.3 per cent support “increasing recycling and reducing landfill by processing food and garden material from rubbish bins into useful products.”

ACOR CEO Pete Shmigel said the community overwhelmingly supports the treatment and recovery of household residual material and its diversion from landfill.

He added that this has been the practice by AWT operators in NSW for 18 years prior to a pre-emptive government decision to delete the practice, alluding to the ban on mixed waste organic outputs.

“It’s pointless to send valuable material to landfill and to miss out on the benefits to farms, mine sites, the environment, and jobs,” Mr Shmigel said.

The results show participants were primarily concerned with increased landfill and pollution in the environment.

Mr Shmigel said the next step after the NSW election is for the government and the EPA to collaborate with industry on the details and delivery of a revived AWT sector.

 

The City of Sydney’s zero waste future

The City of Sydney’s waste strategy to 2030 responds to the council’s fast-moving population with a multipronged approach to landfill diversion. 

Read More

Qantas Group to cut 75 per cent of waste to landfill by 2021

The Qantas Group has announced a plan to become the world’s first airline to reuse, recycle and compost at least three-quarters of its general waste by the end of 2021.

As part of this, more than 100 million single-use plastic items per annum will be removed from flights and lounges by the end of 2020.

Qantas and Jetstar generate more than 30,000 tonnes of waste annually. A new Frequent Flyer initiative has also been announced to increase voluntary carbon offsetting.

Announcing the plan as part of the national carrier’s half-year results, Qantas Group CEO Alan Joyce said that business had a responsibility to lead on environmental issues.

“It is quite literally a waste and we have a responsibility to our customers, shareholders and the community to reduce it,” he said.

“We’ve already removed plastic wrapping on our pyjamas and headsets, as well as plastic straws. Even plastic Frequent Flyer cards are going digital. It adds up to millions of items a year because of our scale and there’s a lot more we can do.”

Some examples of changes to be implemented across Qantas, QantasLink and Jetstar from later this year include:

  • Introducing coffee cups that can be recycled or composted.
  • Effectively eliminating single-use plastics by switching to alternative packaging.
  • Removing unnecessary paper, such as boarding passes and operational manuals, by going digital.
  • Increasing donation or composting of food.
  • Recycling of old uniforms.

In targeting the removal of 100 million single use plastic items per annum, the group will replace 45 million plastic cups, 30 million cutlery sets, 21 million coffee cups and four million headrest covers with sustainable alternatives by end-2020.

The group has an existing target to reduce waste to landfill by 30 per cent by 2020, which it’s on track to reach through recycling and other programs. The 75 per cent goal now takes its place. Separate targets exist for fuel, water and electricity consumption, and Qantas has the largest carbon offset scheme of any airline in the world.

Airlines are legally required to dispose of some materials permanently, such as quarantined food from international flights and hazardous materials. With support from industry and regulators, the group believes it can ultimately reduce the volume of this regulated waste as well.

Similarly, there are some single-use plastics used by airlines (such as wrapping for hygiene purposes and some heat resistant containers for meal preparation) that don’t currently have a practical alternative. Qantas and Jetstar are working with manufacturers and other airlines to innovate in this space to further reduce waste to landfill.

“Few industries can eradicate waste completely, but with this program we’re saying that avoidable waste should no longer be an acceptable by-product of how we do business,” Mr Joyce said.

“This isn’t just the right thing to do, it is good for business and will put us ahead of legislative requirements in the various countries we operate in, where there is an end-date on various single use plastics.”

 

Metro Trains specifications include recycled materials

Metro Trains Melbourne recently altered their specifications to include the use of recycled materials.

The new specifications enable more than 900 tonnes of recycled glass sand to be used as bedding for the combined service route on the Kororoit Creek Road Level Crossing Removal Project.

Kororoit Creek Road is part of the VicRoads Principal Freight Network thoroughfare in Victoria’s west, taking more than 22,000 cars to Laverton, Williams, Altona and beyond.

The Level Crossing Removal Project along with the Western Program Alliance undertook a grade separation at Kororoit Creek Road (placing rail over road at Williamstown North), comprising McConnell Dowell, Arup, Mott McDonald and Metro Trains Melbourne.

Alex Fraser’s recycled sand was used as bedding material for the combined services conduit housing the communications and power cables.

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Rebecca Hendy, Senior Sustainability Advisor for the Western Program Alliance said the decision to choose recycled product over virgin material was simple.

“We found a recycled, low embodied energy material that could aptly replace virgin sand; with all 900 tonnes diverted from landfill and delivered at a lower cost. It was a simple decision,” she said.

The Level Crossing Removal Project set a target for the Western Program Alliance to achieve an ‘Excellent’ sustainability rating – measured by the Infrastructure Sustainability Council of Australia’s rating tool – which rewards the use of recycled material.

MTM Environment and Sustainability Manager Christian Beasley said Metro Trains Melbourne now encourages all projects installing new CSR or drainage to use recycled products.

“We have access to a great new sustainable product we can use on all metropolitan railways (Metro Trains Melbourne network). Because it is a Metro Trains Melbourne specification it can be applied without requiring approval on all metropolitan railways combined service routes and drainage bedding,” said Christian.

Alex Fraser Sales Manager Jason Walsh said clear specifications were the key to increasing the use of sustainable, recycled products in new infrastructure.

“We’ve seen that recycling works best when government agencies clearly endorse the use of recycled materials in specifications.  This enables the people building our infrastructure to use green products that reduce their project’s carbon footprint.

“The Kororoit Creek Road Level Crossing Removal Project is a great example of what needs to happen to achieve a circular economy around rail infrastructure materials. Congratulations to the teams at the Level Crossing Removal Project the Western Program Alliance for this initiative; especially Rebecca and Christian who enabled a change that will bring about better outcomes for the community and environment,” Mr Walsh said.

Over the years, Green Roads by Alex Fraser has diverted almost one million tonnes of glass from landfill to supply recycled glass sand (in asphalt, road base and pipe bedding) to a variety of Victorian road and infrastructure projects.

The upcoming launch of Alex Fraser’s new state-of-the-art glass recycling plant will enable recycling of even the most problematic glass waste streams (like CSP) into into clean, high-specification construction sand; putting an end to landfill and stockpiling of glass in Victoria.

If you like Waste Management Review, you might also enjoy reading Roads & Infrastructure Australia.

Old tyres being used to improve concrete fire resistance

Researchers from the UK have successfully tested a new way or protecting concrete from fire damage using materials recycled from old tyres.

The team from the University of Sheffield used fibres extracted from the textile reinforcement commonly embedded into tyres.

Adding the fibres to the concrete mix showed a reduction in the concrete’s tendency to spall – where layers of concrete break off – explosively under intense heat from a fire.

Man-made polypropylene fibres (PP) are often used to protect concrete structures if a fire breaks out, with many modern structure using concrete that includes these fibres for protection against fire spalling.

According to the University of Sheffield, the study is the first to show that these fibres do not have to be made from raw materials, but can instead be reclaimed from used tyres.

“We’ve shown that these recycled fibres do an equivalent job to ‘virgin’ PP fibres which require lots of energy and resources to produce,” lead author Dr Shan-Shan Huang, in the Department of Civil and Structural Engineering at the University of Sheffield, explained.

“Using waste materials in this way is less expensive, and better for the planet.”

The fibres melt under the intense heat from a fire, leaving networks of tiny channels. This means that moisture trapped within the concrete is able to escape, rather than becoming trapped, which causes the concrete to break out explosively.

“Because the fibres are so small, they don’t affect the strength or the stiffness of the concrete,” Dr. Huang said.

“Their only job is to melt when heat becomes intense. Concrete is a brittle material, so will break out relatively easily without having these fibres help reducing the pressure within the concrete.”

Protecting the concrete from fire spalling means that steel reinforcements running through the concrete are also protected. When the steel reinforcements are exposed to extreme heat they weaken very quickly, meaning a structure is much more likely to collapse.

Collaborating with Twincon, a Sheffield-based company that develops solutions for the construction industry, the researchers have also developed technologies for reclaiming the fibres from the used tyres.

This involves separating the fibres from the tyre rubber, untangling the fibres into strands, and then distributing them evenly into the concrete mixture.

The team plan to continue testing the material with different ratios of the fibres to concrete, and also using different types of concrete.

They also plan to find out more about how the materials react to heat at the microstructure level.

The results are published in the journal Fire Technology.

If you like Waste Management Review, you might also enjoy reading Roads & Infrastructure Australia.

New recycling SA infrastructure grants announced

The SA Government has approved funding for nine recycling infrastructure projects, totalling more than $2.5 million and expected to create more than 60 jobs.

The funding is part of the government’s $12.4 million support package for the recycling industry and local government in response to China’s National Sword Policy announced in May 2018.

The $2.5 million funding delivered through Green Industries SA is expected to create and maintain more than 60 jobs, and covers a broad range of recycling, waste management and resource recovery projects including $1.5 million for infrastructure to improve recycling quality in recycling sorting facilities across South Australia.

Some of the projects include $300,000 to improve compost quality, $500,000 for innovative polyvinyl chloride (PVC) recycling systems and more than $400,000 for infrastructure to assist with directly recovering and recycling plastic waste and other materials.

More than $200,000 has also been awarded to The Salvation Army to help divert unusable donated goods from landfill to energy recovery and create two new jobs.

A further funding round is now available to further support recycling infrastructure in South Australia.

Environment Minister David Spears said the charitable sector plays an important role in supporting resource efficiency principles and the circular economy. Re-use keeps materials circulating within the economy for longer.

“By prolonging their lifespan and making better use of the raw materials we’re embracing a more circular and sustainable vision for our state,” he said.

He said the government funding of more than $2.7 million has been matched by the applicants, unlocking more than $8.78 million of investment for 10 projects that support an estimated 64.5 full time jobs.

“This investment is in addition to $3.245 million announced in October 2018, bringing the total investment so far to $5.967 million the state government has offered in the last few months to support South Australia’s recycling industry and local job creation,” he said.

“This investment in the remanufacturing, re-use, and recovery sector helps maintain our world leading diversion results, where 83.4 per cent of all our waste is diverted from landfill.”

He said that China’s National Sword policy prohibiting the import of certain waste and recyclables was a catalyst to increase the quality of our recycled materials and develop local markets as a priority.

 

Mandatory product stewardship cost on consumers calculated

A new analysis for the Australian Council of Recycling (ACOR) by independent consultancy firm Equilibrium has estimated the cost of mandatory product stewardship schemes on consumers.

The analysis looked at mandatory product stewardship approaches for different products, and estimated the potential dollars per unit that a mandatory scheme would cost.

Under the current Product Stewardship Act 2011, schemes can be established for a variety of different products and materials to lower their lifecycle impacts.

Mandatory schemes involve enabling regulations to be made that require some persons to take specific action on products, according to the analysis. This could include restricting the manufacture or import of products, prohibiting products from containing particular substances, labelling and packaging requirements and other requirements for reusing, recovering, treating or disposing of products.

For a mandatory e-waste scheme, the cost is estimated to be between $1.55 and $1.85 for an e-waste unit size equivalent product of 0.75 kilograms. For mattresses, the cost of a mattress unit (standard double size) would be between $14.50 to $16.50. A mandatory tyre scheme would cost about $3.50 to $4.00 equivalent passenger units.

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ACOR CEO Pete Shmigel said the Australian community has long supported recycling and overwhelmingly wants to be able to recycle more products and items.

“This new data shows that we can do so affordably. In all cases, the cost of recycling these items is likely to be lower than two per cent of their consumer price. Therefore, cost concerns should not be a key barrier to action by our policy-makers,” he said.

Mr Shmigel said that recycling of these items is a well-established practice overseas, including in much less developed countries, and it is difficult to understand why it is not here too.

“Indeed, the formal review of Australia’s Product Stewardship Act has disappeared and is significantly overdue, the new National Waste Policy has a blank space for product stewardship, and there has been no news following ministers’ apparent discussion of product stewardship at the December 2018 Meeting of Environment Ministers.”

ACOR also believes the major political parties need to make commitments in the areas of recycling infrastructure investment, incentives for and procurement of recycled content products and community education. It has submitted industry analysis for consideration.

Equilibrium Managing Director Nick Harford said that while they can be improved, the current co-regulated TV, computer and mobile phone product stewardship schemes are producing good results. He added that there has been no demonstrable consumer concern about their cost.

“While the current schemes are not mandatory, and research estimates that mandatory schemes may have higher administration costs, the estimated cost per unit in relation to the total product cost is generally reasonable,” he said.

The analysis of the potential impacts of mandatory schemes covered factors including:

  • Collection and transport
  • Processing and recycling
  • Compliance, monitoring, audit and reporting
  • Safety and environmental management
  • Sales
  • Administration
  • Marketing, communications and education

EPA considers proposal for wetlands leachate system trial

The Environment Protection Authority (EPA) Tasmania has concluded its assessment of a proposal by Southern Waste Solutions to construct and operate a wetlands leachate treatment system trial at Copping Landfill in the Sorell municipality.

The proposal involves construction and short term operation of a wetland and biofilter system, designed to assess how effective the technology will be for treating leachate from the category B cell at Copping Landfill. The trial is expected to last 12-18 months.

EPA Director, Wes Ford, who made the determination under delegation from the EPA Board, concluded the proposed development could be managed in an environmentally sustainable and acceptable manner, with certain conditions. The board requires these conditions to be included in any permit subsequently granted by the Sorell Council.

“Various environmental issues were considered in the assessment, particularly management of leachate,” Mr Ford said.

“The system has been designed not to discharge to the environment and this has been made a condition of any permit granted,” he said.

“Stormwater management measures must also be implemented to prevent any discharge from overflow of the system to the environment,” Mr Ford said.

No representations were received in relation to the permit application. Public consultation was open for a 16 day period from 1 December 2018.

The director’s environmental assessment report, including the environmental conditions, has been issued to the applicant and the Sorell Council for their information.

CSIRO develops smelting process to reduce hazardous waste

Australia’s national science agency, CSIRO, has developed a smelting process to produce soluble phosphate for fertiliser from low value ores, eliminating hazardous waste and making production more economically and environmentally sustainable.

Phosphate is a key ingredient in fertilisers and essential for plant health and growth. The AUD$73 billion global phosphate market continues to grow as demand for fertiliser increases to meet food production needs.

CSIRO team leader, Keith Barnard, said the CSIRO-developed PyroPhos process offers a simpler, safer and more efficient alternative to conventional phosphate production processes.

“The PyroPhos smelting process uses high temperature to extract phosphate from ores, producing prized phosphate feedstock and a glassy gravel that can be used in road base construction and Portland cement,” Dr Barnard said.

“A major benefit of the process is that is can be used on lower grade ores giving phosphate miners and processors the opportunity to increase their productivity in an environmentally sustainable way.”

The PyroPhos process is exclusively licenced to PyroPhos, a subsidiary of Process Capital.

Director of PyroPhos, Mark Muzzin, believes it’s a unique technology offering in the soluble phosphate fertiliser market.

“Our networks and investor base give us the ability to connect PyroPhos technology to the global phosphate industry,” Mr Muzzin said.

“We have had an excellent response from the industry and believe it has the ability to make a major impact.”

PyroPhos technology has emerged out of decades of research from CSIRO’s award-winning Sirosmelt innovation and pryometalurgical expertise.