In The Sustainable Hour on 2 May 2018, Corio Waste Management CEO Ken Dickens shares his insight into the disruptions that are going on in the Australian recycling sector at the moment – a recording from Geelong Sustainability’s Green Drinks event in March. The countdown to breaking our old habits has begun on various fronts.

Vicki Perrett, president of Geelong Sustainability, tells us about an exciting new regional collaboration around zero waste that was launched on 1 May 2018.

Listen to The Sustainable Hour no. 214 on 94.7 The Pulse:

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“The countdown has begun – in less than two months free plastic carry bags in supermarkets will be a thing of the past. From July and onwards, there are those who will find themselves at the checkout with a trolley full of shopping with the sudden realisation that you’ve got nothing to carry it home in.”
~ The New Daily, 1 May 2018

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Content of this hour

Links, excerpts and more information about what we talked about in this Sustainable Hour

Recycling crisis: An insider’s insights

Keynote speaker at the Geelong Sustainability’s Green Drinks event on 28 March 2018 was Ken Dickens, managing director of Corio Waste Management. Ken Dickens had decided to tell us like it really is: The truth about what happens with the material we put in our recycling bins. It was a very interesting presentation, without good news in the short term. However these challenges provide a watershed opportunity for positive change!

Listen to Ken Dickens’ presentation: 36 minutes plus 7 minutes of questions and answers

“It is going to take some time to get recycling right – at least five years – and during this time it is going to be tough. It’s a perfect storm,” Dickens told his audience at Beav’s Bar.

» Read more on www.geelongsustainability.org.au

» The slides for Dickens’ presentation

About Corio Waste Management

In 2017, Corio Waste Management won Geelong Business Excellence Award for best Health Promoting Workplace.

Corio Waste Management was established in Geelong in 1996 by the Dickens family. The company has over 60 employees and a fleet of 50 vehicles, doing 10,000 waste and recycling collections each week in the Surf Coast, Corio Bay and Melbourne’s western and South-eastern suburbs. Depots in Geelong, Altona and Dandenong.

» More information on the company’s home page:
www.coriowm.com.au

Katie Traill: Towards Zero Waste Geelong

Let’s work towards a Zero Waste Geelong!

» Share on Facebook

Vivienne Burke explains – assisted by Vicki Perrett (left)

The TerraCycle program

TerraCycle collects items that cannot be recycled through the Geelong kerbside yellow bins.

Plastic bottles and pump packs from bathroom, kitchen and laundry go in the yellow bin, but no tubes from bathroom, laundry or kitchen can go in the yellow bin.

Oral care
• toothbrushes and electric toothbrush heads
• dental product tubes
• dental floss products

Beauty products
• all cosmetics – eyeshadow, mascara, lipsticks, lip balm, eyeliners, foundation, blusher, bronzer, etc, etc
• tubes of all types – sunscreen, hand cream, foundation, scrubs, shampoos, conditioners, prescription creams, etc
Tubes
• any tubes from bathroom and laundry or from kitchen, provided they are not food related.

Tubes should be empty of remaining product.

» More information on www.terracycle.com.au/en-AU

Image credit: Zero Waste Victoria (Australia)

War on Waste Geelong action group

The status quo cannot continue. Following up on Ken Dickens’ presentation, Geelong Sustainability will be brainstorming ideas for our new War on Waste Geelong action group.

We urge you to get involved and help us lead our region towards zero waste.

• Examining the problems and issues for consumers, households and the municipality
• Identifying relevant national campaigns, key stakeholders and partners
• Mapping out a campaign strategy filled with regional events, projects and advocacy work

Be part of the solution: Get in touch with Geelong Sustainability

» More information about Green Drinks

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» ABC News – 5 May 2018:
Cut down on your household waste and reduce what we send to landfill with these tips

ADDITIONALLY:

In other news

From our notes of this week: news stories and events we didn’t have time to mention but which we think you should know about

“This is an opportunity for Australia to expand its domestic recycling capability. In Australia, we produce 64 million tonnes of waste a year. 35 million tonnes of that is recycled. We export 4 million tonnes. Only 1.3 million tonnes went to China. In the scheme of things, it was around four per cent of what we recycled.”
~ Josh Frydenberg, federal minister for Environment and Energy, on ABC Radio National

The Australian federal and state governments have recently agreed that they want to ensure that by 2025 – seven years from now – all packaging in Australia will be either reuseable or recyclable.

Does that involve an overarching strategy on creating a sustainable recycling market in Australia?, asked ABC.

“Absolutely. We could either upgrade existing recycling facilities or build new ones.“

In the interview on ABC Radio National, minister Josh Frydenberg said that the federal government is investing 200 million dollars in waste to energy projects, and the state governments also have stepped up in this space. New South Wales’ government has announced an additional 48 million dollars, the Victorian government an additional 13 million dollars.

He also said that microbeads have now been removed from 94% of products, and that the remaining 6% still should be phased out.

Geelong generates 40.000 tonnes of ‘recyclate’ per year, including all plastics, paper and carbord, glass. Glass is the demon, the pollutter. In Victoria, we generate 650.000 tonnes of potentially recycable material a year.

By all means ban the bag, but let’s hope it works
So the plastic shopping bag ban has started in Victoria, and there are many different views as to whether we should or should not have it writes Dr Trevor Thornton in The Age.
Read the full article

	What the environmental labels mean Find out more about the environmental benefit claims companies use to promote their products. Read on
	Tips on a litter free lunch Whether it’s your kids or your own work lunch, there are ways to avoid unnecessary packaging. The environment and your wallet will thank you. Find out more
	Recycling clothes – facts and figures Australians have the potential to donate billions of dollars of good quality clothing to charity op shops. Find out more
	Recycle your batteries In Australia, over two thirds of the 350 million batteries purchased each year are sent to landfill. You can drop off your household batteries at our Customer Service Centres. Find out what gets recycled
	Recycle and save during May Make sure your family, friends and neighbours are aware of the special mattress offer. Find out more

Did you know?

Computer equipment can be dropped off for free at the Drysdale or Geelong Resource Recovery Centre. Use the online waste guide to find your disposal and recycling options for a wide range of items.

Resource Centres

Geelong Resource Recovery Centre
Address: 100 Douro Street in North Geelong
Hours: 7:30am – 4:15pm Monday – Sunday
Phone: 03 5272 2613

Drysdale Resource Recovery Centre
Address: Becks Road (off Murradoc Road Drysdale)
Hours: 8:00am – 4:15pm Monday – Sunday
Phone: 03 5251 2935

The above is a newsletter from ReThink Your Rubbish.

What’s the deal with recycling?

» Podcast interview by Halfway to the Moon

Make plastic infinitely recyclable

~ Andrew Dent, material innovator

A leading expert on sustainable materials, Andrew Dent has played an important part in creating a new generation of more sustainable products.

“There’s no such thing as throwing something away, says Andrew Dent – when you toss a used food container, broken toy or old pair of socks into the trash, those things inevitably end up in ever-growing landfills. But we can get smarter about the way we make, and remake, our products. Dent shares exciting examples of thrift – the idea of using and reusing what you need so you don’t have to purchase anything new – as well as advances in material science, like electronics made of nanocellulose and enzymes that can help make plastic infinitely recyclable.”

» www.TED.com

“Every year 12 million tonnes of plastic gets dumped into our oceans, it’s eaten by fish, it chokes seabirds – and studies show we even eat it in sea salt. The government needs to catch up, everyday we see the producers of plastic and the public take action. The health of our planet shouldn’t be a choice – the government needs to create new laws and regulations, including bans and taxes, to reduce to amount of single-use plastic products.”
~ Anthony Lewis, Greenpeace UK

» The Guardian – 18 November 2017:
UK considers tax on single-use plastics to tackle ocean pollution

» The Guardian – 9 September 2017:
Sea salt around the world is contaminated by plastic, studies show

» The Guardian – 16 January 2018:
Iceland supermarket vows to eliminate plastic on all own-branded products

“What is needed for success is behaviour change and this requires targeted education over a sustained period.”
~ Trevor Thornton, The Age, 11 April 2018

Podcasts and posts about climate change

Acknowledgement

We at The Sustainable Hour would like to pay our respect to the traditional custodians of the land on which we are broadcasting, the Wathaurong People, and pay our respect to their elders, past, present and future.

The traditional owners lived in harmony with the environment and with the climate for hundreds of generations. It is not clear – yet – that as European settlers we have demonstrated that we can live in harmony for hundreds of generations, but it is clear that we can learn from the indigenous, traditional owners of this land.

When we talk about the future, it means extending our respect to those children not yet born, the generations of the future – remembering the old saying that…

The decisions currently being made around Australia to ignore climate change are being made by those who won’t be around by the time the worst effects hit home. How utterly disgusting, disrespectful and unfair is that?

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