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Rubbish

October

Since 2020, The Reconnect Project has diverted 5000 kilograms of devices from landfill.

Ever wondered what companies do with their old laptops and iPhones?

Sydney entrepreneur Annette Brodie creates new opportunities for obsolete tech via her social enterprise The Reconnect Project.

  • Hannah Tattersall

August

Garbos’ 10-hour shift stats should be music to Michele Bullock’s ears

When the jobs market was high, rubbish collector Cleanaway was paying its drivers a lot of time-and-a-half and double time. Now it has backed off.

  • Anthony Macdonald

July

Winning Group brand Appliances Online has stopped 80,000 tonnes of electronics and appliances from being dumped in landfill since it was launched in 2005.

Customers love this cool solution to getting rid of old fridges

Winning Group brand Appliances Online has stopped 80,000 tonnes of electronics and appliances from being dumped in landfill, earning the company top spot in the Retail category.

  • Gus McCubbing

July 2023

Kathmandu’s Shasta O’Loughlin in a Redu puffer jacket.

The fashion brand selling clothes otherwise destined for the bin

Returns are a headache for retailers and a sustainability nightmare. A pilot program by Kathmandu aims to repair damaged clothing to sell again.

  • Lauren Sams

November 2022

Mars Wrigley Australia MD Andrew Leakey (R) and head of R&D Chris Hutton said consumers will not pay more for chocolate bars with new paper-based packging.

Snickers, Milky Way get new paper-based packaging makeover

Mars Wrigley Australia’s Ballarat-based R&D team is pioneering paper-based sustainable packaging solutions for the confectionary giant globally.

  • Carrie LaFrenz
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How visiting a gold mine converted this entrepreneur

George Hatzimanolis saw firsthand how much of an impact the industry had on the environment, leading him on a new path towards a circular economy.

  • Mark Eggleton

October 2022

Former Bingo CEO pleads guilty after skip bin cartel probe

Daniel Tartak will be sentenced in the Federal Court in March after pleading guilty to criminal cartel offences in providing skip bins.

  • Simon Evans

May 2022

Spanish designer Alvaro Catalán de Ocón.

Rugs with a message: don’t sweep plastic waste under the carpet

Alvaro Catalán de Ocón designs “products that can be like manifestos” – including these geographically accurate rugs mapping some of the world’s most polluted rivers.

  • Paul Best

July 2021

Coles is pulling the plug on Little Shop plastic toys as part of its aim to become Australia’s most sustainable supermarket.

Coles kills off Little Shop and Stikeez plastic toys

Coles is pulling the plug on its Little Shop and Stikeez plastic toy promotions as part of its aim to become Australia’s most sustainable supermarket.

  • Sue Mitchell

May 2021

Federal Environment Minister Sussan Ley with Food Share manager Peter Matthews at the launch of ALDI’s zero waste commitment.

Aldi commits to zero waste to landfill

ALDI has upped the ante on Woolworths and Coles by committing to send zero food waste to landfill by 2023 and zero all waste by 2025.

  • Updated
  • Sue Mitchell

April 2021

Chris Jeffrey Chief Financial Officer, Bingo, and Daniel Tartak, Managing Director and CEO, Bingo.

Bingo boss hopes to drive expansion after $2.3b buyout

The CEO and largest shareholder in Bingo Industries, with a stake worth $455m, is set to keep running the company under Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Assets.

  • Updated
  • Simon Evans

January 2021

We need to stop throwing away clothing.

Why we have to stop throwing out our clothes

With the average Australian sending 23 kilograms of clothes to landfill each year, there are growing calls for measures to address textile waste.

  • Dan F. Stapleton
Allbirds Allbirds, the unicorn footwear start-up whose merino-wool, sugarcane-soled trainers have become ubiquitous in Silicon Valley, labels every one of its items with its carbon footprint.

Is sustainable fashion just a marketing hook?

While some brands trumpet their environmental credentials, others are quietly working on small parts of this highly complex issue.

  • Lauren Indvik

December 2020

There are 17,000 plants on the rooftop of Daramu House to keep the temperature down and maximise the efficiency of the solar panels, as well as 'insect hotels' to encourage native bees to the area.

Maggots, bees move into Sydney's Barangaroo 'farm'

A cutting edge system of waste management, water recycling and solar rooftops has turned Barangaroo South, its office and retail component, into the country's first carbon-neutral suburb.

  • Ingrid Fuary-Wagner

November 2020

Skip Capital's Kim Jackson with Zero Co founder Mike Smith, who is trying to help reduce the amount of plastic packaging used in the world.

Atlassian co-founder's fund backs sustainable packaging start-up

Skip Capital, Kim Jackson and Atlassian co-founder Scott Farquhar's private investment fund, has led a $2m round in sustainable packaging start-up Zero Co. 

  • Natasha Gillezeau
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November 2019

Karst stone paper founders (left to right) Jon Tse and Kevin Garcia who make paper products from construction rubble.

Start-up makes paper from construction rubble

Sydney-based Karst produces notebooks made from a material known as 'stone paper', which requires none of the tree-felling or intense water use of traditional wood pulp paper.

  • Michael Bailey

October 2019

M8 Sustainable is a Western Australian waste manager having a run at the ASX boards.

Waste manager M8 Sustainable starts IPO

M8 Sustainable is having a run at the boards, looking to raise $19.5 million.

  • Sarah Thompson, Anthony Macdonald and Tim Boyd

April 2019

Olympia Yarger, founder of agri-tech Goterra, says it was "the dream" to have the backing of Atlassian's Mike Cannon-Brookes.

Agtech in the money to fight waste with maggots and robots

An agriculture tech start-up has raised funds from VCs and Atlassian's Mike Cannon-Brookes for an ambitious plan to use robotics and data to tackle food waste.

  • Liz Main

Original URL: https://www.afr.com/topic/rubbish-61f