Zero waste living in a busy world

City-dwellers are embracing the trend of zero waste living to live more sustainably. Living a completely rubbish-free life is difficult but some are managing to reduce their waste so dramatically that two years worth of rubbish can fit into a mason jar. Melbourne resident Erin Rhoads is one of the growing number of people embracing the lifestyle, but you would never know it. “I work in the CBD, I still wear heels, go out for cocktails, nothing has really changed,” Rhoads told news.com.au. One of the things that has defined the modern zero waste movement is that it could not …

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Australia’s sustainability challenge remains

More than 50 years ago Donald Horne, then working in an advertising agency, described Australia as “a lucky country run mainly by second-rate people who share its luck”. The phrase “the lucky country” quickly became part of the language, though its message was often misrepresented. Horne’s 1964 book sounded three loud warnings about Australia’s future: the challenge of our geographical position, the need for “a revolution in economic priorities”, and the need for a discussion of what sort of country we want to become. Those warnings are even more urgent today after 50 years of inaction by our second-rate leaders. …

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Sustainability in Business Association Education 2015

The Sustainability in Business Association will celebrate its 6th birthday this year with a change of focus and a wider business and sectoral agenda. Included in the new initiatives are; • An updated website with increased member content. This will include sustainability podcasts and papers from a number of conferences. • Members will have the opportunity to present at a selection of conferences and have their business papers published internationally with an ISBN number. Academic papers will also have the option of peer reviewing before publication. • Sustainability streams and access to member rates will be available at the following …

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World’s urban waste mountain remains a growing problem

The amount of rubbish generated by city dwellers is set to rise steeply in the next two decades, with much of the increase coming in fast-growing cities in developing countries, according to a World Bank report published on Wednesday. The amount of municipal solid waste is growing fastest in China – which overtook the US as the world’s largest waste generator in 2004 – other parts of east Asia, and parts of eastern Europe and the Middle East, the report says. Growth rates for rubbish in these areas are similar to their rates for urbanisation and increases in GDP. The …

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Global Food – 2 billion tonnes of all food produced ends up as waste

As much as 2 billion tonnes of all food produced ends up as waste Institution of Mechanical Engineers calls on urgent action to prevent 50% of all food produced in the world ending up as waste 10 January 2013 A report by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers has found that as much as 50% of all food produced around the world never reaches a human stomach due to issues as varied as inadequate infrastructure and storage facilities through to overly strict sell-by dates, buy-one-get-one free offers and consumers demanding cosmetically perfect food. With UN predictions that there could be about an …

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Webinar State of Waste: relationship between landfill pricing and recycling

Australia generates 46.8 MT of waste. Despite steady increases in the rate of recovery (av. 52%), the waste generated between 2002/03 and 2008/09 grew by 40%, while population increased by only 10% (SoE Report NSW, 2013). There are more of us but we are consuming proportionally more each year per person. Waste generation has been growing at a historic average of 4-7% per year and still is. That means the amount of waste the industry has to process is doubling every ten to eighteen years. However, the good news is that we are recycling a lot more and recycling jobs …

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Waste Management JV to Produce Liquid Fuels from Landfill Gas

Houston, Texas based Waste Management, has formed a joint venture company to produce renewable fuels and chemicals from biogas and natural gas using smaller-scale Gas-to-Liquids (GTL) technology. Read the full article here  Waste Management JV to Produce Liquid Fuels from Landfill Gas

$11.5 million boost for Victoria’s recycling and resource recovery infrastructure

The Minister for Environment and Climate Change Ryan Smith is continuing to drive improvement in Victoria’s recycling efforts announcing an $11.5 million funding package to improve recycling infrastructure across the state. It follows $13.8 million of infrastructure funding already announced this year as part of the Victorian Coalition Government’s Conserve Invest and Save strategy. This latest funding package includes: • $5 million for Round 2 of the Driving Investment in New Recycling (DINR) fund through grants and; • $6.5 million for Resource Recovery Infrastructure (RRI) at landfills, which will target large scale projects. “We are continuing our reinvestment of the …

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Sustainability Business to hold 2013 event in conjunction with the Australian Making Cities Liveable Conference

The ‘Taking Care of Business: Sustainable Transformation’ Conference in 2013 will be held in Melbourne,  in Conjunction with the Australian Making Cities Liveable Conference. Our event will bring together ‘green economy’ leaders and sustainabilty practitioners from Australia and New Zealand along with the opportunity to network with others who are building profitable and sustainable business models, services and products. The conference will update delegates on a range of effective sustainable business practises including energy saving and carbon pricing. We will examine Governments’ sustainability plans  while finding business opportunities and trends in the sector. The Conference will include presentations on: Green …

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Turning waste into a resource :: SustainabilityMatters

With landfill sites under strain, can Australia’s capital cities benefit from waste to energy processing? Pablo Perez-Reigosa* from Coffey Environments explains how the technology works and its successful implementation in Europe… Turning waste into a resource :: SustainabilityMatters.