Speaker "Foam Muncher" Christian McLean from Wastepro

Anne Charlton • September 22, 2021

Minimising Waste to Landfill is an important component in any production process - Foam Muncher from Wastepro is providing a solution.

The federal parliament passed legislation banning the export of unprocessed waste overseas via new legislation designed create local demand to reuse these recovered materials in infrastructure, packaging and products. Christian explained how he feels that the government has put the cart before the horse. Australia does not currently have the infrastructure to process and recycle our own waste. Additionally labour costs are much higher in Australia and therefore we are dependent on international partners to undertake this work.

Exporting material recovered from waste isn’t “bad” per se, particularly when you consider Australia imports more manufactured goods than we make locally. Currently, our economy remains structured around exporting virgin (new) and recyclable materials, which are made into products offshore and then re-imported.

Effectively, the ban prohibits the export of specific raw (unprocessed) materials collected for recycling: plastic, paper, glass and tires. Any materials that have been re-processed and turned into other “value-added” materials (those ready for further use) can still be exported under the law. For example, a single type of plastic cleaned and shredded into “flakes”, or cleaned packaging glass crushed into “cullet”.

Christian explained that the government should stage this change. Without sufficient transition measures, it’s possible the ban could lead to more waste, stockpiling or illegal dumping in Australia. Existing waste companies will also run the risk of not surviving the transition.

Christian shared a new innovation – the Foam Muncher which is a mobile polystyrene recycling plant, world first! Foam Muncher is WastePro’s most recent innovation. In partnership with Allied (Pickfords), WastePro are launching this innovation in the Sydney and Central Coast regions in October. Two of the three directors of Foam Muncher are proud Coasties, the Foam Muncher innovation can proudly be acknowledged as being the result of a mixture of too much clean sea air, mixed with a little Six Strings ale! 

More about Wastepro and Christian McLean Here

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