“Whose WARR is it anyway?” was the theme at this year’s Waste & Recycle 2019 Conference.
The Conference, hosted by the Waste Management and Resource Recovery Association of Australia (WMRR), Department of Water and Environmental Regulation (DWER), and Western Australian Local Government Association (WALGA), is the leading waste and resource recovery event in Western Australia.
“It’s not a war! Waste is a symptom of an economic system that needs changing!”
This was the message from Phil Walleystack who opened the conference and welcomed us to the country.
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- TGR boot ready to go
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- Michael & James Coghill
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- TGR boot waiting for its numerous visitors
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- Andy & Dylan from Holonic
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- Morning presentation
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- How to Fight Food Waste
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- presentation
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- Room A presentation
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- Michael presenting The Future of E-waste
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- Michael presenting how to repurpose items
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- Room C during Michael’s presentation
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- Michael on the panel
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- The Circular Economy session panel
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- Michael & James Coghill enjoying a little break
On the first day of the conference, our director Michael presented The Future of E-waste in Australia. You can enjoy his innovative presentation here.
The Minister for Environment Hon. Stephen Dawson emphasised the importance of partnership and working together – Local Government, industry, Government and the community to reduce waste generation and maximise resource recovery.
The Minister also identified the high priority that Government has given waste management with one of the State’s 12 priorities being waste education. (You can find educational videos about e-waste in our Video library.)
After our morning tea, Mark Barthel from UK, gave us a lot to think about with his data-rich presentation about Fighting Food Waste. Mark stated that if food waste was a country, it would be the third highest emitter of greenhouse gasses globally, after China and the USA.
After lunch, we moved into a room C for the long-anticipated Circular economy workshop.
As part of the session, Dylan Lamb and Andrew Thomson from Holonic explained the differences between The Linear Economy, Recycling Economy, and the so-urgently-needed Circular Economy. Alfredo from Green Machine Labs took us on their journey of plastic shredding and recycling to creating their first product.
Darren Perrin wowed us by Australia’s first circular community project in Yarrabilba.
Adam Johnson from Re.Group Pty Ltd thought us about using a human-centred design approach and how we can do it right in WA and learn from other states.
Our new friend, Paul Frasca from Sustainable Salons highlighted the approach for his business which focuses on People, Planet, Profit. Paul looks at waste as a resource and emphasised that source separation was essential for his business to continue its ‘above ground mining’. Paul’s innovative approach will see hair being used to clean up oil spills in the future! We can’t wait to find ways to cooperate with Paul.
The second day of the conference was wrapped up by the Perfect Pitch.
The Conference delegates were treated to some fantastic innovations and the waste management ‘Sharks’ panel had a difficult time deciding where to invest their funds!
This years’ Perfect Pitch winners were:
- Poppy Briggs and Lucy Lonnqvist – St Mary’s Anglican Girls’ School – with their Bin It Right App – $4,000
- Andrew Cameron – Plastic solutions for remote areas – $2,000
- Blake Cassidy and Martin McGinty – Matter – Real-time waste data intelligence – $4,000
We had a great time hanging with like-minded humans who are on the same mission to save this planet.