Many of us feel good when we recycle paper and feel that we work for a responsible employer if our work has decent recycling facilities. Rarely does this include thinking about what do with all the waste harboured at the workplace. Office e-waste, unwanted computers, computer accessories, tablets, cables, monitors, keyboards, other peripherals, printers, TVs you name it are the target of TechCollect’s Waste Not Want Not day of action, December 8. This industry-funded, free to the public, electronic waste recycling service wants businesses to advise employees of the day, then round up unwanted computers and take them to drop-off sites around Australia (see www.techcollect.com.au).
TechCollect is funded and supported by many of the country’s leading computer manufacturers and importers, and partners with local councils and waste management organisations to provide the service to businesses and households. It has five recycling and recovery partners works closely with Recycling Near You, Cartridges 4 Plant Ark and Mobile Muster.
Generation Y female entrepreneur, Le Ho, who owns the company Capital City Waste Services is featured in #IfSheCanICan, according to the Sydney Morning Herald. She says she would “get in the truck at 6am” because people in the male-dominated industry “were making bets on how long it would take me to go under”. She is still very much afloat, as is Romilly Madew, Chief Executive of the Green Building Council of Australia (GBCA), who was recently presented with an international leadership award by the US Green Building Council. CEO Rick Fedrizzi praised Madew’s “open mind, innovative spirit and infectious passion for sustainable development”.
The GBCA certified its 1000th Green Star project at the end of October, amounting to more than 14 million square metres of building and precinct space. Opening up more sustainable building paths, the GBCA has awarded its first 6 Star Green Star rating (under the Design & As Built tool) to a residential development. The townhouses are predicted to use 50 per cent less energy and 50 per cent less potable water than a typical urban townhouse, with a carbon footprint reduced by more than 40 per cent. The development is a collaboration between the Prince’s Foundation for building community and Defence Housing Australia. It uses local low-carbon materials including concrete made with fly ash content, local granite and bricks reused from old industrial buildings.
And carpet tile manufacturer Interface announced that stage one of a $1.4 million project to reprocess old carpet has been formally approved for its Sydney manufacturing facility. The project will be integral to the company’s ReEntry program and will divert hundreds of tonnes of old carpet away from landfill and back into the manufacture of new carpet, the company said.
