Compost BiobiN, CleanLIFE wet wipes just the start of SA’s environmental revolution | Jess Adamson
What looks like a normal blue bin is anything but – and this Willunga-made invention is just one of several SA creations saving the world, writes Jess Adamson.
Opinion
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When the World Cup kicked off in Qatar on Sunday, South Australia scored the first goal.
It may not sound like a big deal, but FIFA has engaged a Willunga company to provide 20 bins for the event.
This is not your average bin.
It’s a BiobiN, a 20-cubic-metre unit that takes food, green waste and organic packaging, turning it into compost and allowing it to be returned to the earth. And it was created here almost two decades ago by legend of the local compost industry Peter Wadewitz, OAM, from Peats Group.
Just imagine how busy these compost units will be. Two and a half million people are expected to pack eight stadiums in the next month.
The unlucky beer drinkers among them won’t trouble the cleaners much but everyone else will.
Our SA-invented composters will recycle thousands of tonnes of the World Cup waste – raw and cooked food, bags, organic packaging and compostable utensils.
The waste will be packed into the 20 units and then, with the use of an aeration system, it’s up to the good bugs to fight the bad bugs, decomposing the organic contents in a safe and odourless way.
After four weeks, the waste goes back into the ground – a compost to enrich Qatar’s farms and gardens.
That’s thousands of tonnes of waste that never have to go to landfill. A true circular economy.
It’s a reminder to all how easy it is to reduce food waste. And right now, it’s critical we do. Of the five bags of groceries the average Aussie brings home from the supermarket, one bag goes straight into the bin – 20 per cent of our food. It’s a hideous statistic given how many people are in need of food security right now.
But if we’re going to chuck it, the least we can do is put it straight into our green bins. The food we don’t eat can help us grow more food.
The BiobiN isn’t complicated but it’s smart enough to be hand-picked for the world’s biggest sporting event.
It is a massive coup for Wadewitz and his partner Danny Mitroussidis who is in Qatar right now, a self-confessed football tragic.
This is a deal that’s been a few years in the making and one that will undoubtedly lead to more export opportunities. They’re using the power of football to propel themselves from Willunga to the world stage. And they’re in talks with authorities about deploying the units here when Australia hosts the FIFA Women’s World Cup next year.
There’s been widespread scepticism about the sustainability of the FIFA event after organisers’ claims it would be the first carbon-neutral World Cup in history. But they’re clearly keen to leave a legacy and if an SA company is the beneficiary of that, we’ll take the win.
At the other end of town, at Woodville North, there’s an equally inspiring tale to tell. It’s emerged from the shadows of Covid.
Business partners Phil Scardigno and Corey White have just commissioned Australia’s first plastic-free, fully automated wet-wipe plant. As a mum I’ve used my fair share of wet wipes across the years, but what I’ve learnt in the past fortnight has shocked me. Australians use more than 25 million kilograms of wet wipes every year – that’s more than 31 times the weight of plastic straws, and those straws are now banned in SA. It’s a staggering statistic that goes unnoticed.
Australian healthcare workers use 300,000 plastic wipes an hour and almost all of them are imported from China. In the dark days of the pandemic, when our aged-care homes and hospitals were crying out for wipes, Phil was asked if he could make some. He found there were few compostable or biodegradable products on the market.
It takes a wipe between 100 and 200 years to break down into microplastics and we’re putting 25 million kilograms on the pile every year.
It’s so wrong and it’s got to stop.
Two years on, The Hygiene Co is making plastic-free medical, consumer and industry wipes that can go in a green bin and eventually back into the earth.
Next week, the first batch of their CleanLIFE brand will be on our supermarket shelves with 50,000 packets bought by local independents in the first two months. The independents have seen big chains like Tesco in the UK ban plastic wipes in recent months and know this a revolution they must support.
The excitement among the small team of 23 staff is palpable. They’ve flown under the radar, but this is a local company bravely tackling a global problem head on.
“Our people feel like they’re part of something,” Phil says. “We’re building something for the future.”
The plant smells amazing. The wipes use Australian-grown natives like Kangaroo Island eucalyptus, supporting our farmers.
Currently 96 per cent of the wipes we use are imported. 75 per cent of a wet-wipe pack is water – and we’re shipping them around the world – it’s like importing swimming pools filled with water. Just on that shipping alone, Phil and Corey estimate a 53 per cent carbon emission reduction.
SA has a proud history when it comes to recycling. We’ve consistently led the country.
We have so many local companies setting the standard for sustainability.
Like ResourceCo, a pioneer in resource recovery, with a simple philosophy to leave the world in a better place. The company processes construction and demolition material, producing recycled aggregates, asphalt products and alternate fuels from the millions of tonnes of waste it collects.
Environment Minister Susan Close is also fast-tracking the ban on single-use plastics in response to community support.
“With dire predictions that our oceans will contain more plastic than fish by 2050, time’s up for single-use plastic,” she says.
Next year, single-use plastic plates, bowls and cotton buds will be banned. So why not be the first state to add plastic wipes to the list? We could once again lead the country like we did back in 2009 with plastic shopping bags. This is a movement that will be driven by consumers. So next time you’re in the supermarket, read the label to see just what’s in those wipes you’re buying. We can all play our part here and we must.
If you tune in to the World Cup across the next few weeks, keep an eye out for our SA compost heroes.
They’re doing their bit to help save our fragile environment.
The great Liverpool manager Bill Shankly famously told us “Some people think football is a matter of life and death. I assure you, it’s much more serious than that.”
He was on to something.
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