September 2019

The behaviour changing bins

A well-designed bin could change the way individuals interact with waste and recycling in the workplace, writes Dan Crawford, Method Australia Business Development Manager.

Why do aesthetics matter when it comes to a bin?

A seemingly unimportant factor of a formerly ‘basic’ office fixture became the foundation of the award-winning bins from Method Recycling.

The beautiful bins have helped leading organisations around the world to recycle more and waste less.

Method has quickly emerged as the preferred waste and recycling solution for modern offices, workspaces, venues and facilities around the world.

The bins have a proven record of diverting waste from landfill and are featured in leading spaces including Foster + Partners, the Sydney Cricket Ground, Canva, Atlassian, Qantas and many more.

Method began when co-founders Steven and India Korner continuously saw organisations that wanted to recycle, without the tools to be successful.

Bins and recycling systems had often been an afterthought – with ugly bins hidden in cupboards and kitchens, or desk bins – both of which don’t encourage or facilitate recycling.

The Korners believed that a well-designed bin could change the way individuals interact with waste and recycling in the workplace, and it has.

With the desire to make a visible difference, they set off on a three-year journey of research and development to understand the needs of all those involved in a buildings waste and recycling process.

They held focus groups, developed prototypes, and even helped cleaners on the night shift to gain a truly holistic view and ensure that the bins worked for everyone.

More than just a bin, the Korners created a system that is considered, well designed and purposeful.

Recycling is no longer an afterthought, but instead a featured part of workspace design.

Open Plan Recycling

Through the design process, Method pioneered Open Plan Recycling – a new philosophy of workspace recycling and waste.

Method’s bins are designed to be placed together to form flexible recycling stations, that are then located consistently throughout an open-plan space. These flexible stations mean that organisations can easily adapt the Method system to their needs; adding or moving waste streams as their needs change, or based on feedback from users.

Single bins or smaller stations can also be placed where recyclables are produced to maximise results; such as a paper bin next to the printer or an organics bin in the kitchen.

In its most simple form, this changes the way that individuals interact with waste and recycling in the workplace. By removing desk bins users are unable to simply throw their waste away without a thought. Instead, recycling bins are available alongside all general waste bins.

Further, having consistent recycling stations throughout a building standardises recycling. Consistency in location, streams and colour-coding means that through regular interaction recycling becomes an unconscious behaviour.

One of the fundamental principles that makes Method’s philosophy successful is visibility – so the appearance of the bins is crucial.

Method’s bins are designed to be out in the open as a visible statement of an organisations commitment to recycling and sustainability.

Further, the visibility also increases awareness and accountability, while instilling a collective culture of responsibility into an organisation – changing recycling behaviours at work and subsequently at home.

The New Method in Practice

Having worked with an array of organisations around the world, Method has continued to find that the bins can have a significant impact.

The durable bins are made from 50 per cent recycled materials and are fully recyclable at the end of their life, so you can feel confident you are making a sustainable choice.

Design giant Canva introduced Method bins as they were working towards some lofty sustainability goals.

They continued to grow rapidly with new offices around the world so needed a recycling system that was simple to implement and maintain, while complementing their beautifully designed offices.

Canva’s Global Office Architect Shamal Singh says Method’s bins allow the sometimes daunting task of having four waste and recycling options to be manageable and scalable across our ever-expanding offices.

The results of Methods bins speak for themselves. Westpac Bank in New Zealand reduced waste to landfill from 70 per cent to 40 per cent. Meanwhile, Palmerston North City Council reduced waste to landfill by 62 per cent in three months.

Can Method help you achieve your recycling and sustainability goals? Click here.

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Dust control and sweeping

Tailored dust control equipment can maintain workplace safety and minimise environmental impact, writes Tennant Company. 

Challenging environments like landfills, waste transfer stations and heavy vehicle workshops demand robust, built-to-last cleaning solutions.

With its extensive line-up of waste and heavy industry machinery, Tennant Company delivers on productivity, durability and workplace health and safety efficiencies.

As ever-more stringent protocols are implemented across Australia, designed to keep workforces safe and minimise environmental impact, demand has never been higher for total equipment solutions that can tick all the boxes and exceed productivity expectations.

Dust control and sweeping 

Our waste industry customers deploy Tennant’s Sentinel High-Performance Rider Sweeper for their waste transfer and landfill operations.

The extreme levels of dust and other pollutants are simply no match for the PM-10 certified Sentinel, also valued for its four-wheel power steering, tight turning circle and maneuverability to gain access between stockpiles, without impeding traffic.

The Tennant 800 Industrial Ride-On Sweeper is another popular unit used by customers in the waste industry.

It maximises cleaning productivity with its wide cleaning path, large (up to 907 kilogram) capacity hopper and operator-friendly features.

Capable of capturing dust to heavy debris, its heavy-duty T-beam steel construction and high-performance dust containment system make it ideal for Australia’s harsh environments.

Tennant offers a line of Compact Ride-On Sweepers including the 6100, 6200 and S20, also employed by waste enterprises of all sizes, as well as warehouse & logistics customers.

Designed for optimal maneuverability and single pass sweeping the available multi-stage dust control systems, can capture dust particles as small as 0.5 microns in size.

Also supplied to the waste industry is the S10 Walk-Behind Sweeper, which protects employees and facilities by tackling work bay dust capturing particles as small as three microns in size.

Simultaneous Sweeping and Scrubbing

Where large quantities of wet debris, dirt and oil needs to be cleaned up quickly, Tennant’s line-up of Sweeper-Scrubbers are infinitely up to the task.

The M-Series machines sweep and scrub simultaneously and are available with a range of power sources (battery, LPG or Diesel) depending on your facility requirement.

The M17 is an all-electric (fume free) Ride-On Sweeper-Scrubber equipped with DFS (dual force sweeping) technology and will maintaining indoor air quality with its a two-stage dust control system.

Cleaning time is extended with the largest available battery capacity in its class.

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Premier’s Sustainability Awards finalists announced

Sustainability Victoria has announced finalists for the 2019 Premier’s Sustainability Awards, after a record number of entries.

The awards celebrate sustainability in 11 categories, as demonstrated by educational institutions, businesses in every sector, health organisations, government and community groups.

Sustainability Victoria Interim CEO Carl Muller has congratulated finalists, describing the 2019 entrants as exceptional.

“Not only is the quality impressive, but we’ve had the largest number of entries in the program’s 17 year history,” Mr Muller said.

“As sustainability becomes increasingly important for communities, businesses, industries and governments, the Victorian Premier’s Sustainability Awards has never been more significant to share learnings and inspire us all.”

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews will personally select two winners for the Premier’s Regional Recognition Award and the Premier’s Recognition Award, to be presented at a ceremony on 10 October in Melbourne.

Waste finalists include:

Education category: Ballarat Tech School for their Precious Plastic Program, which empowers students, other schools and businesses in the battle against plastic waste, encouraging them to consider the long-term effects of waste on our environment and to use circular economy thinking.

Large Business category: Veolia for their Waste Pioneers Program, which teaches school students about waste and recycling in an interactive way, covering waste hierarchy and circular economy principals, environmental stewardship and community leadership.

Innovative Products or Services category: Hotel to Hands by Soap Aid, which collects discarded soap from hotel and travel industry partners, then sorts, cleans, and reprocesses it into fresh, hygienic soap bars. In 2018, Soap Aid distributed over 301,440 bars of soap to communities without adequate sanitation in Cambodia, Zambia, Ghana, Uganda and the Philippines, as well as remote Australian Indigenous communities.

Community, Environmental Justice and Innovative Products or Services categories: Enable Social Enterprises, whose mission is to break unemployment cycles by enabling disadvantaged jobseekers to connect with community and environment, improving their prospects of participating in gainful employment through supportive work and learning programs. In 2018, their IT Recycling business created 10 employment pathways while diverting 133,046 kilograms of e-waste from landfill.

Small and Medium Enterprises category: Smart Recycling, which has been operating on a 35-acre former landfill site in Dandenong South for the past 22 years, recycling roughly one million tonnes of waste. It has developed a Smart Pallets App, used by their fleet of collectors to locate timber pallets from building sites all over Victoria, ensuring that pallets are collected efficiently, repaired effectively and returned for re-use.

Small and Medium Enterprises category: retub, a modern reusable take-away food container that reduces waste in up to three different ways and uses a unique, built-in container exchange program, Reswap. It endeavours to eliminate single-use take-away food-containers through product and process design with a focus on supply chain and marketing.

Health category: Drukshini Dissanayake, for her role as Associate Nurse Unit Manager and leader of the Green Team at the Alfred Hospital, where she established a successful program saving 45-60 kilograms of pure aluminium from disposal into landfill via free collection bins and hospital pick-ups in a dedicated waste recycling program.

Melbourne Health, for tackling food waste by having surplus patient meals collected daily by OzHarvest, who deliver them to community food hub Northpoint Centre for processing and distribution, helping community members in need. Since February 2018, over 4000 meals per month have been redistributed, removing nine tonnes of food from landfill and reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 17 tonnes CO2 per year.

Western Health for its Equipment Reissue Program for Hardship, which re-homes potentially useful second-hand pieces of allied healthcare equipment, such as crutches and shower chairs, to patients who would have struggled to obtain them otherwise.

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Alex Fraser wins Sustainable Environment Award

Alex Fraser has won the Sustainable Environment Award at the Victorian Transport Association’s 30th annual Australian Freight Industry Awards.

Alex Fraser Communications Manager Cara Spencer accepted the award on behalf of the company, at a black-tie gala dinner at Melbourne’s Crown Palladium Ballroom.

“It’s a great honour to accept the award on behalf of Alex Fraser, which is particularly special in what is a milestone year for the company – in October we celebrate 140 years of operation, making Alex Fraser one of Victoria’s longest standing companies,” Ms Spencer said.

“There’s around 360 people behind the scenes at Alex Fraser, making it happen. It’s wonderful to see their hard work, drive and innovation recognised with this award. Thank you.”

Alex Fraser was recognised for their Victoria first integrated sustainable supply hub in Laverton.

The facility houses Alex Fraser’s new Ammann High Recycled Technology asphalt plant, which is capable of producing high-quality asphalt mixes made entirely of recycled material.

The recycled material is supplied by Alex Fraser’s co-located construction and demolition plant, and onsite glass recycling facility.

Ms Spencer said the co-location of production facilities and sustainable hub design eliminates the need for cartage and significantly reduces carbon emissions and costs.

“Our sustainable supply hub in Laverton is doing some pretty amazing things. It is part of a critical network of facilities surrounding Melbourne, including sites at Clarinda and Epping, that work together to recycle up to three million tonnes of construction waste, and the equivalent of one billion bottles of glass each year – that’s enough to overflow the MCG,” Ms Spencer said.

“We take that waste material and recycle it into the high quality products Victoria so urgently needs to build greener roads and rail, reducing the carbon footprint of new infrastructure by up to 65 per cent.”

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QLD CDS reaches 800M returns

More than 800 million containers have been returned across Queensland, since the state’s Containers for Change scheme began in November 2018.

Environment Minister Leeanne Enoch said the milestone was reached while Parliament was sitting in Townsville.

“We know Townsville residents care about recycling because of the amazing results we’ve seen through the scheme, with more than 59 million containers in this region alone, including more than 6.4 million in just the month of August,” Ms Enoch said.

Ms Enoch said the scheme’s popularity has exceeded expectations, with the volume of returned containers roughly three times higher than predicted.

“As more and more Queenslanders have been getting on board with this recycling scheme, businesses are embracing the economic and job opportunities,” Ms Enoch said.

According to Ms Enoch, there are more than 300 operating container refund points across the state, with an average of three million containers returned each day.

“With more than 800 million containers now returned across the state, this means $80 million has been refunded to individuals and families, charities and community organisations,” Ms Enoch said.

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Modern Family

Green Industries SA’s latest education program seeks to heighten the state’s understanding of waste separation with a multi-pronged digital campaign.

Taking a modern approach to waste education is now more important than ever, with shifting international export markets placing greater significance on reducing contamination.

In the wake of these changes, the South Australian Government created a support package for local government and the recycling industry.

Vaughan Levitzke, Green Industries SA Chief Executive, says an educational kerbside separation campaign was highlighted as part of the package.

“We formed two groups under the package taskforce: one for procurement and one for education,” Vaughan says.

“The education group comprised mostly of councils, waste educators and companies that run material recovery facilities.”

Following engagement with the education group, Vaughan says Green Industries undertook market research with an estimated 1000 South Australian households.

According to Vaughan, the 2018 research examined current levels of contamination and separation knowledge in an attempt to understand information barriers.

“That research showed a clear preference for simple, consistent, state-wide messaging. Time and time again, householders remarked that they would recycle more, if they only knew which bin to use,” he says.

“I have to say, I have not been enamoured with the way we have traditionally conducted education programs.”

Vaughan says with Which Bin, Green Industries are approaching the public from multiple different mediums.

“I think that’s why the program has been successful,” he adds.   

Which Bin urges residents to consider what they put in household recycling and organics bins, with the aim of improving the quality of recyclables.

The campaign includes a series of episodic television ads, a linked social media campaign and an educational website.

The Which Bin website is designed to act as a centralised space, where residents can access waste information relevant to their respective council.

Vaughan says Green Industries’ previous engagement program was called Recycle Right. However, focus groups found citizens preferred the name Which Bin.

“The problem is that householders weren’t getting consistent information across councils, and the advice they were getting was often unclear,” Vaughan says.   

“People needed easy access to information about what different councils accept in each bin.”

Regulation information for all South Australian councils is available on the Which Bin website.

After a year of research, local South Australian advertising company Showpony were tasked with creating the campaign’s creative collateral.

“The ads are kind of like a sitcom, with links to the US comedy Modern Family,” Vaughan says.

Episode one of the four-part campaign introduces viewers to Vinnie and his family as they learn which bin to use and how to better recycle.

Four episodes have been produced so far, with titles such as “Vinnie embarrasses his daughter and recycles 10c containers for fun” and “Vinnie and Lucy recycle soft plastics … eventually”. When episodes end, viewers are directed to the Which Bin website.

Within the campaign’s first month, Vaughan says Green Industries saw significant traffic on the Which Bin website.

“Most people were accessing the site from mobile phones. The lesson being, if you’re going to do anything in the digital space, it has to be mobile-friendly,” he says.

“The social media campaign has blown us away through Facebook.”

According to Vaughan, within the campaign reached half a million people in its first month, which he says highlights the importance of a multi-pronged approach.

“Which Bin has its own Facebook page and in the first month we had more than 24,000 engagements on posts. It’s getting significant cut through,” Vaughan says.

Vaughan says as the campaign progresses, Green Industries will begin evaluating its effectiveness by checking bins.

“We are also planning more TV commercials, coming to air in the spring,” he says.

“Initial feedback from the public and the media has been very positive.”

A suite of resources for local government has also been developed, including calendars, bin stickers, signage, posters and customisable social media assets.

“All councils need to do is call our office and we can provide access to whatever the council wants to use,” Vaughan says.

The campaign is set to continue for at least three to four years.

“That’s the type of timeline you need to commit to with public education and awareness – I don’t see this going away,” he says.

“We needed a totally new approach and I think combining comedic television ads with an informative website has achieved that. Hopefully it bears fruit.”

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Alex Fraser glass recycling site under threat

Alex Fraser has called on Kingston City Council to extend the operating permit for its glass and C&D recycling site, as one million tonnes of recyclables risk going to landfill.

Alex Fraser recycles problem glass waste from kerbside collections, and construction waste, diverting them from landfill to make construction materials urgently needed for Victoria’s ‘Big Build’ infrastructure projects.

In 2015, Kingston’s industrial area was rezoned to be green wedge, with conditions preventing waste management operations on the land.

Since then, Alex Fraser has been actively working with the Victorian Government and its agencies to identify potential alternative locations.

Peter Murphy, Alex Fraser Group Managing Director, said that there is no way Alex Fraser will be able to find a suitable alternative location by 2023.

“Unfortunately, there are no viable alternative sites, and so we’re asking Kingston City Council for more time,” Mr Murphy said.

“We need more time so we can continue to recycle until we can relocate, to avoid adding to Victoria’s recycling and resources crises.”

One of the key reasons is a need for Alex Fraser to be located within a reasonable/commercial viable proximity to sources of construction and demolition waste.

“Using recycled material in infrastructure is only possible with facilities like Clarinda that are close to our cities – where waste is generated, and where major projects are underway,” Mr Murphy said.

Alex Fraser supplies recycled construction materials to projects including the Level Crossing Removal Projects, Monash Freeway Upgrade, Thompsons Road Upgrade, and the Hallam Road Upgrade. It is also ideally located to supply the planned Suburban Rail Loop, South Eastern Roads Upgrade and Mordialloc Freeway.

Other prominent considerations are the scale of the 22-hectare site, quality road network and its well screened nature with appropriate fencing and native foliage.

Alex Fraser’s application to Kingston City Council, lodged in September this year, seeks a 15-year extension of its operating permit.

“Unfortunately, there are no viable alternative sites, and so we’re asking Kingston City Council for more time,” Mr Murphy said.

“We need more time so we can continue to recycle until we can relocate, to avoid adding to Victoria’s recycling and resources crises.”

Mr Murphy said that Victorians want certainty about what’s happening with their waste. A decision is expected from council this year and if Alex Fraser is denied an extension, it may have to scale back its recycling.

“If this key recycling facility is shut down in 2023, it would significantly impact on Victoria’s recycling capability, and cut the supply of construction materials that are helping to build Victoria.”

Without an extension of the site from council, the site will shut down. An application must be lodged in 2020 and in the absence of any further action, the site would cease operations.

“Victoria is already in a recycling crisis – this would only make matters worse,” Mr Murphy said.

Kerbside glass is at the heart of Victoria’s recycling crisis – the state government recently supported the improvement of the Clarinda facility recycling capability. This will enable the recycling of 200 million broken glass bottles. The site’s closure would mean they go to landfill instead.

“If we’re shut down, it would also mean Victoria loses access to one million tonnes a year of recycled resources needed to complete major infrastructure projects in Melbourne’s south east. A major metropolitan quarry would have to be established to extract the same volume of resources,” Mr Murphy said.

Kingston Mayor Georgina Oxley confirmed the council received an application this week (Tuesday 3 September 2019) which seeks to extend operations at the Alex Fraser site in Kingston’s green wedge.

“In 2015, Kingston Council welcomed protections for Kingston’s green wedge that were introduced by the Victorian Planning Minister that would ensure existing waste operations would cease at the end of their current permits and that no new operations would be allowed,” Ms Oxley said.

“Council wrote to the Planning Minister in April 2015 calling on the Government to help Alex Fraser find an alternative site to ensure its long-term success while ensuring the end of waste-related activities in the green wedge. Invest Victoria has been working with Alex Fraser to identify suitable alternative sites.

“Council strongly supports the recycling sector and has a range of successful recycling business operating outside the green wedge within its industrial zoned areas.”

A Victorian Government spokesperson said the permit decision is currently a matter for Kingston City Council.

“We recognise the important contribution Alex Fraser makes to the recycling sector but also the concerns of local residents,” the spokesperson said.

“We’ll continue to work with both the council and Alex Fraser on resolving this matter.”

You can read the full story next month in our October edition.

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Tasmania seeking comment on Environmental Legislation Bill

The Tasmanian Government is seeking public comment on its draft Environmental Legislation (Miscellaneous Amendments) Bill 2019, which contains a range of proposed improvements for Tasmania’s environmental legislation.

Proposed changes include refining the definition of clean fill, increasing transparency by publishing environmental monitoring information and introducing penalties for undertaking certain activities without approval, such as developing land without a permit.

The draft bill proposes clarifying the meaning of clean fill and establishing two new definitions.

“The current definition of clean fill is too broad. It allows various types of material to be included in clean fill which should instead be recycled, disposed of at an approved landfill or processed prior to use as clean fill,” the bill reads.

“The Director of the EPA will be able to specify maximum levels of chemical contaminants or maximum proportions of other inert materials such as wood, plastics and metals.”

The bill additionally proposes strengthening the EPA’s power to make environmental monitoring information provided by a regulated party available to third parties or the public, without the permission of the regulated party.

Environment Minister Peter Gutwein said members of the public are invited to make a submission on the bill to the Department of Primary Industries, Parks, Water and Environment.

“The government will also be engaging with stakeholders about proposed changes,” Mr Gutwein said.

“Submissions received during the consultation period will be considered in the final framing of the bill, which is scheduled be introduced to parliament later this year.”

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TSA partners with reporting app to monitor stockpiles

Tyre Stewardship Australia has partnered with Snap Send Solve to enable simple public reporting of local tyre stockpiles or dumping hotspots.

Snap Send Solve is a digital platform that facilitates the identification of local issues such as illegal waste dumping and broken infrastructure.

Snap Send Solve CEO Danny Gorog said users capture photos on their smartphones, and the app notifies relevant authorities.

“Now users can easily report not just rubbish, but more specifically dumped or stockpiled waste tyres,” Mr Gorog said.

“The reports will be provided to the relevant council for resolution, as well as Tyre Stewardship Australia, who will monitor hotspots and communicate directly with tyre retailers, state and local authorities to stamp out poor behaviour.”

Tyre Stewardship Australia CEO Lina Goodman said the free smartphone app will help monitor where waste tyres are being dumped or stockpiled.

“If you see some dumped waste tyres or what you suspect is a stockpile, simply snap a photo and send a report using the app,” Ms Goodman said.

“The appropriate authority can then be alerted, and the problem can be solved.”

Ms Goodman said 10 per cent of the almost 56 million tyres discarded annually in Australia are domestically recycled.

“The rest are either exported overseas or disposed to landfill, stockpiled and illegally dumped,” Ms Goodman said.

“Understanding how we can work together to ‘stop the stockpile’ that is generated by illegal operators is the first step in finding sustainable end outcomes for a greater number of used tyres in Australia.”

According to Ms Goodman, there are currently up to nine major known stockpiles around the country, which cost an estimated $5 million each to clean up.

City of Port Phillip Victoria Mayor Dick Gross said he welcomed the addition of tyres as a new category on the app.

“This means we can gain a better understanding of where the hot spots are and thus deal with the dumped or stockpiled tyres faster,” Mr Gross said.

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Sydney trials kerbside food waste collection

A City of Sydney waste trial will see food scraps from up to 4000 homes diverted from landfill, and used to create green energy and plant fertiliser.

The trial involves separate collection and recycling of food scraps from residential properties in the council area.

Participating households have received a small kitchen caddy to store food scraps, an initial supply of compostable caddy liners and a food scraps bin to be placed on the kerb for pick up.

Lord Mayor Clover Moore said the trial was an important step in the evolution of waste collection, and a critical component of the city’s waste strategy and action plan, endorsed by council in 2017.

“There have been many advancements in waste separation technology, but the most effective method is when our residents separate the waste themselves at the source,” Ms Moore said.

“Food scraps generally make up one-third of the average red lid bin, so this trial will divert a significant amount of waste from landfill.”

The collected waste will be sent to EarthPower, Australia’s first food waste-to-energy processing facility.

“The scraps will be processed using anaerobic digestion technology, where microorganisms break down biodegradable material in a chamber without oxygen,” Ms Moore said.

“This process produces biogas, which is converted to green electricity and a nutrient-rich sludge that is dried and granulated to produce nutrient rich fertiliser.”

330 houses and 53 inner-city apartment blocks have been selected to take part in the trial.

“If successful, we’ll look at providing this service across the entire council area,” Ms Moore said.

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