Australia produces over 47 million tonnes of waste every year. That’s around 2.14 tonnes for every man, woman and child. In Victoria alone we produce more than 11 million tonnes annually. To put that in perspective, that’s enough waste to fill the MCG to the top of the stands every three months. This figure is growing by 5% per annum. We do recycle around 60% of all the waste we produce but the rest ends up in landfill.
Kevin Campbell, CEO of the largest recycling company in Australia – Transpacific Industries group, was recently quoted as saying: “landfill is no longer an acceptable method of disposing of waste”. He went on to say “We ourselves cannot, and society and governments will no longer tolerate the use of a hole in the ground as the only way to dispose of waste. Instead, further use of recycling, composting and new technologies would be the way forward”
Landfills are disappearing fast in Europe. Germany is a great example of what can be done. On 1st June 2005, Germany imposed a ban on traditional landfills. In the 1970’s Germany had around 55,000 landfills. Today, there are less than 300. Bear in mind that Germany has a population of around 82 million. The remaining landfills only accept treated, inert waste after anything that can possibly be recycled or re-used is removed. Nothing that is or can become a pollutant is allowed into a landfill.
As a result the old 55,000 landfills have been replaced by 70 incinerators, 60 biological and mechanical waste processing factories and 800 compost producing facilities. It is estimated that Germany saves 3.7 billion euros annually as a result of the recycling and recovery of waste materials.
enwis), the fully integrated software designed specifically for the waste management and recycling industry, was built by Tegos in Germany and already meets the stringent requirements of the European authorities. Fenwick Software is the exclusive Australian partner of Tegos and is responsible for compliance with the EPA and specific Australian requirements.
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