We need to act now and recycle more

Waste has a huge negative impact on the natural environment, however recycling does help to reduce the pollution caused by waste. It reduces the need for raw materials, creates less waste, promotes the reusing of existing materials and leads to less destruction of trees and natural rainforests. At its best, the most efficient use of resource recovery and waste avoidance would promote:-

• A reduction in environmental harm, including pollution through waste;
• Resource management through avoidance of unnecessary resource consumption and disposal;
• Resource recovery, which includes reuse, reprocessing, recycling and energy recovery.

Australia is one of the most wasteful countries in the developed world, producing more waste and less recycling than most other developed nations on a per capita basis.

• When food decomposes in landfill it lets off methane, which is 25 times more potent than the C02 produced by cars
• Approximately 85% of soft plastics from bags and packaging ends up in landfill
• The average Australian produces nearly 22kg of e-waste per year, with only 10% of this being recycled
• 88% of packaging material is recyclable in Australia, however, less than 50% is being recycled. This is due to materials either not being collected for recycling or lost in the recovery process.
• Bin contamination is a big problem in Australia. Alarmingly, 84% of surveyed Local Councils reported people placing plastic bags in their recycling bin

We have much to overcome!

Quayclean uses positive cultural influences to improve recycling and sustainability within our operations and for customers.

We produce and tailor detailed education and recycling programmes to influence change and promote greater awareness among our customers. There is no better example than the Sydney Opera House where we have worked with the ‘House’ to increase recycling rates to be consistently above 85% over a 12 month programme of change.

This has involved:-

• Establishing an overall target, plan and strategy
• Reviewing alternate models and approaches
• Engaging with and educating stakeholders including retail outlets and kitchens, House operations, Theatre companies, visitors and contractors
• Preparing clear signage through the House
• Engaging with waste transports and material recovery enterprises that have demonstrated skills in supporting the waste ambitions of the House
• Reporting regularly on the progress for each of the stakeholder groups, thereby creating an element of friendly competitive spirit amongst the community
• Refining and fine-tuning the plan to continuously and incrementally improve recycling rates

Not only has the Sydney Opera House benefited by our support, but so too have the Sydney Cricket Ground, Melbourne Racing Club, Sydney Church of England Grammar School (SHORE), to name a few. They have all benefited from Quayclean’s initiatives and programs with average recycling rates consistently above 80%.

We are delighted to provide this important value added service to many of our customers and see this as a critical growing pillar of our capability.