Circulate, NSW EPA Industrial Ecology Program

Cross Connections Consulting Pty Ltd

$150,000

A regional, Hunter-based pilot which will collect soft plastics from businesses fortnightly. The plastics will be processed and used to make benches, garden beds and fencing.

Stephen Consulting Group Pty Ltd

$110,000

This project will commission a customised mobile baler, designed specifically to bale soft plastics. They will be dry cleaned and reprocessed into cable covers, garden edging and root guard.

Centre for Organic Research and Education

$97,500

The project will develop methods to substitute the use of sand in the manufacture of biofiltration technology for runoff water treatment, instead using organics, wood, timber and mixed cullet glass fines.

Pelican Head Resources Pty Ltd

$150,000

The project will research and demonstrate that paper mill waste can be used to rehabilitate sulfidic mine sites dams where acid drainage can be an issue.

Bottlecycler Sydney North t/a European Baler Rentals (EBR)

$125,000

Will establish a network of commercial and industrial sources of plastic milk bottles and develop a logistics network to facilitate recycling the bottles into virgin-replacement resin.

Closed Loop Environmental Solutions Pty Ltd

$115,000

Simply Cups is an existing coffee cup recycling program. The project will look to increase the quantity of coffee cups collected for reprocessing from office buildings as well as collection places in public spaces such as shopping centres, entertainment precincts, airports, hospitals and other businesses.

Life Cykel

$120,000

Life Cykel will use shredded textile waste, mainly composed of cellulose in cotton and carbon, to grow edible mushrooms and produce a mushroom soil amendment material.

$148,446

$150,000

Residual Polyvinyl chloride from construction and demolition and commercial and industrial waste streams will be collected and processed for use in the production of plastic pipes and fittings - closing the loop on finite resources.

$149,725

This project will establish a model and technology platform to enable the regional collection and processing of Expanded Polystyrene on the Central Coast. It will engage social and disability enterprises to enable meaningful work and revenue streams. It aims to demonstrate a successful platform and business model for state-wide rollout.

$75,000

Up to 99 percent of used office furniture is currently sent to landfill. Used office furniture will be collected and disassembled, the metal recycled, and the melamine removed. Medium density fibreboard and particleboard will be recycled into e-board for use in new office furniture by Indigenous staff..

Advitech Pty Ltd

Murray region: Murray and Murrumbidgee areas

$87,650

The Murray Darling area is an important agricultural region and provides an opportunity to recycle plastic waste, such as silage wrap, grain tubes, pit covers and baling twine from local farms. These plastic wastes will be processed and can be recycled into materials, such as timber replacement products.

Cross Connections Consulting

Hunter region: Central Coast, Newcastle and Hunter areas

$150,400

This project in the Hunter region will facilitate industrial ecology connections to recover materials from building sites, and return them to the productive economy. Packaging and building operational waste can be recycled into materials, such as new building products.

Edge Environment

Sydney region: Sydney metropolitan area

$182,000

Resource recovery from office de-fits is approximately 20% in the Sydney CBD. Material removed from commercial buildings contains a mix of hard fill, glass, plasterboard, carpet, ceiling tiles, furniture and cabinetry. This project aims to progress the industry standard to 80% resource recovery and significant landfill avoidance.

Edge Environment

Sydney region: Sydney metropolitan area

$110,000

This project will work with the food supply chain in Sydney, addressing organic waste, as well as plastic waste, such as hairnets, plastic aprons, soiled plastics and polyethylene covers.  These wastes will be processed and can be recycled into materials, such as timber replacement products and outdoor furniture.

Stephen Mitchell Associates

Sydney region: Sydney metropolitan area

$143,225

The practice of reusing timber is becoming more important as hardwood timber supplies are reducing. This project will target the Sydney region’s timber recyclers, wood product manufacturers (including frame and truss fabricators), importers and logistics companies to recycle waste timber offcuts and reuse or recycle redundant timber pallets and crates.

WildBlue Global Consulting

Hunter region: Central Coast, Newcastle and Hunter areas

$153,000

zeRRRo

South East region: Wollongong, South East and South Coast areas

$147,482

Under this project in the South-East region, quality pallets and timber will be reused, and lower-quality timbers recovered for reuse and processing as mulch and compost.

Edge Environment

Sydney region: Sydney metropolitan area

$102,000

Wild Blue Global Consulting

Hunter region: Central Coast, Newcastle and Hunter areas

$50,920

Cross Connections Consulting

Hunter region: Central Coast, Newcastle and Hunter areas

$100,000

This project will work with businesses in the Hunter region to establish a waste plastic collection and recovery program. The project works with a number of partners. 

Edge Environment

Sydney region: Sydney metropolitan area

$109,630

This Sydney-based project will recover out-of-specification (pre-consumer) building materials.

Mike Ritchie and Associates Pty Ltd

Murray region

$122,000

The Murray region is a major food-producing area with some very large-scale food processing plants. They provide untapped opportunities to separate and recover packaged food waste that for various reasons fails to meet specifications. Local processors interested in securing significant quantities of plastic film for reuse have also been identified as a significant target for this network.

Skillset

Inland region

$233,140

There has been strong interest in establishing a bio-hub in the region to recover value from food manufacturing waste. The region's significant mining activities also offer an opportunity to use local materials to rehabilitate mine sites.

WildBlue Global Consulting

Hunter region

$353,000

The Hunter region has pockets of concentrated heavy manufacturing and mining along with a traditional agricultural base. This provides potential industrial ecology opportunities to target the recovery and local reuse of metals, plastics, timber and organics.

Edge Environment Pty Ltd

Sydney region

$283,000

The Sydney region offers an opportunity to tap into more than 2.5 million square metres of office fit-out material currently made redundant each year, including metal and timber desks, chairs, partitions and computer equipment. Working with office churn has the potential to return 3000 to 4000 tonnes of metals, timber, glass and plastics to the productive economy each year. The fast food industry provides additional opportunities to investigate reducing waste from preparing and selling large volumes of food in Sydney.

Resource Recovery Australia

South-east region

$362,225

South-east NSW has areas of heavy industry mixed with established agriculture and tourism. Program support will help develop waste recovery opportunities in timber, plastic and metals as well as build on the existing food organics recovery currently underway in the region.

Resource Recovery Australia

North coast region

$270,600

With a seasonal tourism industry, a strong agricultural base and small pockets of light manufacturing, the North Coast Industrial Ecology Business Support Network has the opportunity to develop initiatives that recover value from plastic film and timber.