RecycleSmart looks behind the curtain of two partners to highlight what happens to the waste it collects.
Education around reuse and recycling is not enough to drive Australia’s push toward a circular economy, says Eugenie Alonzo.
The Chief Marketing Officer of on-demand recycling service RecycleSmart, Eugenie says the community also needs to be convinced their recycling is making a difference.
“Australia’s recycling is not perfect, but it is working and is a key element to get to the circular economy that we’re all striving for,” she says.
“We need to drive change, but we also need to bring trust and transparency to recycling and explain what happens beyond the things collected.”
In 2018, on the back of China’s decision not to accept certain recyclable materials from Australia, a University of New South Wales Sydney survey found people were losing confidence in recycling. The survey found that 64.5 per cent of people across all states and demographics believed the recyclables they put out in their council bins ended up in landfill and 72.4 per cent of people would recycle more if the material was reused.
In the past five years a lot of work has gone toward Australia taking responsibility for its own waste, including the introduction of a national waste plan with targets for both the amount of waste produced and materials recycled.
But Eugenie says there is more work to be done to build trust within the community.
RecycleSmart works with local councils to provide an on-demand, free pick-up recycling service to residents, bridging the gap between residents and available drop-off locations within local government areas.
The company captures real-time data including weight, number of bags, type of resources collected and volume of waste collected. The website also provides insights into what happens once recyclables are collected with video content from recycling facilities and other agencies.
“We really think the recycling industry is just one piece of the circular economy puzzle,” Eugenie says. “If we can showcase things that happen behind the scenes it might make more sense to people.”
She says partnerships are vital for key streams of recyclables to ensure that goods collected have a new purpose.
Recently, RecycleSmart began a partnership with APR Plastics to offer a soft plastics recycling solution to residents in 14 Sydney council areas. The initiative is in response to the suspension of the REDcycle national collection service in November 2022.
Eugenie says the partnership is an example of a true loop for waste materials.
RecycleSmart will collect the soft plastics from participating councils and arrange transportation to APR Plastics’ facility in Victoria. Once shredded, the soft plastics will be fed into a machine that uses pyrolysis (elevated temperatures with no oxygen). Once transformed into an oil, it will be on-sold to VIVA Energy to be turned back into flexible food grade plastic packaging.
Manufactured in Germany, the self-sufficient and zero-waste system is a first of its kind in Australia.
Darren Thorpe, Managing Director of APR Plastics, says the “plastics-to-oil” process has been widely adopted and successfully used in Europe for more than 10 years.
“It is time for Australia to advance and build a true circular economy. Let’s capture the 70 billion pieces of soft, scrunchable plastics used here each year and turn it into a unique opportunity,” he says.
The APR plastics-to-oil process has been four years in the making and is gaining momentum. Darren says the company has learned a lot from a pilot project and is keen to start producing oil.
“The partnership with RecycleSmart will provide a small but consistent base of feedstock in the Sydney market with potential for growth,” he says.
“We are excited about this partnership, there is immense potential with this project. We want to help tackle this big problem by providing a viable and innovative solution. We are keen to roll out future initiatives Australia-wide.”
Roxy Uzureau Zhu is tackling another big waste problem – textiles. She’s the Australian Lead and Head of Textile Recovery Partnerships for Upcycle 4 Better, a network of global systems to make the best use of textiles.
Upcycle 4 Better has partnered with RecycleSmart to ensure a circular economy for recyclable textiles that are not acceptable at charity stores. Roxy says Australia lacks manufacturing infrastructure for textile recovery and the public has leant on the charitable sector for the resale or disposal of unwanted goods.
While charities have been the backbone of textile collection, and will continue to play a valuable role, they are built for social good, not necessarily textile recovery for environmental purposes.
Upcycle 4 Better’s ISO-accredited Malaysian sorting facility breaks down and sorts discarded textiles into 500 categories that are then on-sold for remanufacture.
Roxy says it’s important the material recovered is reused at its highest value.
“Everything that can be reworked we try and find a market for it,” she says. “It’s the best option because we don’t have to use more resources to break it down further.”
If a recovered textile can’t be reused in its original form, Upcycle 4 Better will look at industrial use for it. For example, one recycler can use recovered cotton to make rugs, another makes rubber crumb from old shoes.
The cement industry is the last resort for materials that are so complex there is no other solution.
Roxy says the RecycleSmart partnership is a convenient solution for people who don’t want to go to a charity shop, only to find out half of their donation is not acceptable.
“When RecycleSmart said they were open to finding different streams for difficult-to-recycle waste it made sense,” Roxy says. “Our priority will always be to reuse textiles in as many ways as possible that contribute to sustainable solutions and benefit communities globally. From fibre production to finished good retail, the textile supply chain is a complex global dynamic.
“While there is no country that can manage the complete scope of activities across categories within its own borders, all participants can ensure the proper recovery and use of textiles, protect communities and ensure environmental stewardship of finite resources.”
For more information, visit: www.recyclesmart.com
