China’s decision to stop
accepting foreign recycling waste unless it was almost completely
uncontaminated has led to concern about the viability of recycling in
Australia. Governments, including local
councils, have been forced to re-assess how they handle recyclables and whether
materials such as plastics and glass can be economically recycled rather than being
disposed of in landfill.
While there is much to be
concerned about in the current situation, there has been some positive news on
the recycling front.
Adrian Fuller, a Gold Coast metal
recycler, scraps 1,200 to 1,500 cars a month. Because scrapping the vehicles
involved disposing of tyres at a cost of $3.30 to dump each tyre, he looked at
ways of cutting this cost. The
alternative was to find ways of recycling the tyres which meant that the
resource was being used and he could benefit financially from its re-use.
One method of doing this is to
shred tyres and turn them into products such as playground equipment and gym
matting.
Instead Mr Fuller will be using
the technology of Canadian company Eco-Flex to convert finely crumbed rubber
into fire retardant bricks, pavers, fence panels and sound barriers. He plans to start production by the end of
the year.
Waste Management Association of
Australia CEO Gayle Sloan welcomed Mr Fuller’s decision.
“We recognise as the waste
industry that what we’re actually dealing with is resources and these companies
that are prepared to invest in technology to turn that back into other products
is just terrific,” she said.
“We know that if we recycle we
create 9.2 jobs for every 10,000 tonnes that we recycle, compared with 2.8 jobs
if we simply landfill.”
If his new enterprise is
successful Mr Fuller hopes to expand to recycle large quantities of end-of-life
tyres. He pointed out that disposing of
or storing the many thousands of these tyres was a problem around the country.
Ms Sloan said that greater
consumer awareness about the benefits of buying recycled rubber products would
help the waste management industry.
Hopefully that will happen with
the increasing public awareness about problems with recycling waste.
- Leonie Blain
This article was originally published in the VOICES FOR THE EARTH column in The Daily Examiner on July 16, 2018.
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| Adrian Fuller. |
