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In the last few years, governments, waste management industry and recycling activists have been extremely attentive on Circular Economy while creating new policies and reports. As per the 8th meeting of Environment Ministers, held on 7th December 2018 in Canberra, the new waste management policy is dedicated to ensuring that Australia achieves a circular economy. Every year, we produce about 300 million tons of plastic, 50% of which is for single use. The fixed resources are deteriorating and, simultaneously, as the world population keeps increasing, we need more natural resources than ever before.

More than 12 months after the crisis in Australia’s recycling sector came into sight, businesses and local councils are still looking for answers from the Australian government.

In January 2018, China’s crackdown on the importation of 24 categories of waste recyclables sent the Australian recycling industry, with around 50,000 employees, into a sudden fall.

Every year, we transform billions of natural resources into consumables. But, at some point, there is going to be nothing left. As a planet, we must come together and give a thought to what we throw away – seeing not the waste, but the opportunity.

According to Jonathan Leake, CEO of Sustainability Victoria, the e-waste generation in Australia is increasing three times faster than the general municipal waste in Australia. “Australians are among the largest producers of e-waste in the world, and therefore, the country’s electronic waste production might increase to 60% by 2023-24”, said Leake.

For more than 3 decades now, Australia has been dumping its waste in China. But, since the announcement by China earlier this year that they would no longer accept Australian plastic, mixed paper and textiles, problems have been piling up for the Australian government and its citizens.

The reduction in the cost of sensors determines that Internet of Things (IoT) is quickly making its place in new areas of residential and commercial properties. Even though digital water meters, intelligent lighting controls, etc have been into the picture since long, the number of connected devices is bound to bring smarter innovations of all kinds; including recycling and waste management.
According to a research by business information provider HIS Markit, this year, there were almost 31 billion IoT connected devices internationally, and are expected to increase tremendously between 2019-2030. People have understood the immediate and obvious benefits of IoT connected bins for improved energy management and reduced personnel costs. Let us look at some of them.

Conventional methods of waste management have been ineffective; aiming at each and every waste bin irrespective of whether they are empty or full. This has led to the poor usage of the city assets and unnecessary fuel consumption.

However, currently, plenty of opportunities are being introduced worldwide to track waste levels, provide route optimisation and ultimately increase the efficiency of waste collection services. One of the significant examples of integrated smart waste collection systems is IoT (Internet of Things) enabled smart bins. The massive availability of industrially feasible technologies and their allied benefits – including improved environment safety and reduced operational costs have proven to be a driving factor in its growth.

All over the world, there are alarming reports on the excess plastic items showing up on popular tourist destinations.

In the Dominican Republic, activists collected an astonishing 30 tonnes of plastic waste from the local beaches in just 3 days.

Tourist companies such as the Mountain Company are trying...

It’s now undeniable that the entire world is undergoing a waste crisis. From our landfills to the oceans, the amount of rubbish that’s being dumped is getting out of hand. NewsGuards’ Patricia Kellog claims that the global garbage crisis is only getting worse.

With an ever-growing population, rapid urbanization, and consumer goods companies continuing to produce unrenewable products and packaging, the situation looks dire.

However, everyone from the Victorian councils, major consumer good companies to international governments are finally taking a stand against poor waste management.

Throughout our commercial trade channels, there has been some genuine interest and discussion on how effective The Global Recycling Day roll out was recently.

Various events that took place across the world included 24+ major events that were attended and witnessed by well over 10,000 people: official events were staged in nine of the world’s major cities - Johannesburg, Paris, Dubai, Brussels, London, Delhi, Sao Paulo, Washington DC and our very own Sydney. ‘Unofficial’ events were held in and Ghana, the Maldives, Nepal and Malaysia as well drawing good interest and participation.