This year’s Towards Zero Landfill Project is aiming to reduce its waste to landfill from 10 per cent last year to 5 per cent, says Pedro Gallo, operations manager of the Australasian Waste & Recycling Expo.
The project, which launched in 2015, sources contractors, suppliers and sponsors who work together to achieve the target, with the results presented at the two-day Australasian Waste & Recycling Expo at the Melbourne Convention & Exhibition Centre.
Mr Gallo said Agility Logistics and IMK Cleaning Services were just two companies on board this year.
“Last year we got Bottle Crusher, which crushed bottles on site creating less waste and making recycling easier,” Mr Gallo said.
“Everybody helps to reach that target and at the end of the show they wait to see what we sent out to recycling.”
Mr Gallo said another initiative this year included partnering with Launch Housing to donate used furniture that would ordinarily go to landfill.
“We also get a lot of metal wire from rigging we do on site, this year it won’t be going to landfill, we will collect it and send it to metal scrapping.”
He said he is aiming for one per cent diverted to landfill by 2018-19.
In order to achieve its goal, the project has applied a range of strategies, including separating waste on-site, sustainable plant-based packaging, compostable bin bags and using Fairtrade certified coffee.
The project’s launch in 2015 led to a 70 per cent increase in resource recovery, after 10.7 per cent of total waste was sent to landfill, compared to 80 per cent in 2014.
The Australasian Waste & Recycling Expo runs from August 23-24 at the Melbourne Convention & Exhibition Centre.