Hi, It’s Sarah from the business team! In my previous blog, I was telling about my experience going up to the waste mountain at Tabanan Landfill to scan 3D objects for Augmented Reality. Talking about the waste mountain I’m going to share my other experience regarding waste management. In 2019 I was living in Brisbane with my mom for several months. One day my mom asked me to drive her to Willawong Resource Recovery Centre to drop off some of her old stuff. Resource recovery is using waste as an input material to create valuable products as new outputs. The aim is to reduce the amount of waste generated, thereby reducing the need for landfill space. That works in waste management to keep waste out of landfills and optimises the value created from waste. It was my very first time visiting a garbage dump and recycle center. I will show the documentaries that I captured of some spots in the area. The place is nicely set up, well-organized, and efficiently operated. The staff are also friendly and very helpful.
It's a huge area, I was very impressed with the whole way it is set out and also the color coding for directions is brilliant. The area is divided into 4 categories, recycling, green waste, waste, and commercial. As you enter a resource recovery center, you will be asked what types of materials you have for recycling or disposal. You can sort your rubbish into many different types, green waste, electronics, recycling. The attendant will direct you to the appropriate areas and you can follow the line path based on the category’s color (Recycling, Green Waste, Waste, and Commercial).
Usually, your vehicle would need to be weighed both on the way in and out of the centre to determine how many vouchers would need to be provided (or the relevant fee to be paid if not using vouchers), but anything recyclable is free to dump. No charge or voucher required to drop off items like cardboard boxes, Styrofoam packaging, metals, old bikes, etc. You only need to pay for dumping non-recyclable waste. So, there are two steps; once you arrived at the centre, you need to weigh your car or trailer then go to rubbish to unload, then after dumping you have to weigh your vehicle again, and to get through the gate out you need a Token (you would have needed to pay for the load you are disposing of upon entry to the centre, you can pay either by waste voucher* or cash to get a Token). My mom brought her old LED monitor, garden cart, standing lamp, and other unwanted kinds of stuff to be dumped. As you can see in the pictures below, you can easily drop off your rubbish based on the following sign. It only took less than half-hour to finish the dumping process. It was a clean and simple process to dispose of both unwanted, recyclable items as well as green waste and general household rubbish.
Resource recovery goes further than just the management of waste. Resource recovery is also part of a circular economy, in which the extraction of natural resources and generation of wastes are minimized, and in which materials and products are designed more sustainably for durability, reuse, repairability, remanufacturing, and recycling.
In my previous blog, I displayed a video while I was on top of the waste mountain, in that video you can see some of the birds around the waste mountain were staying there looking for food, at Willawong Resource Recovery Centre I also found Australian White Ibis, one of the iconic birds in Australia, they usually called them as the Bin Chicken. The Bin Chicken has adapted to feed on a never-ending food source, our waste 😅.
I was so glad to accompany my mom and do a quick tour to the Resource Recovery Centre, I'm satisfied with the ease of dumping my rubbish and it felt nice to take out your unwanted & old broken stuff to the recycling center instead of keeping your pile of unwanted stuff at house, it does help to get more spacious room.
Thank you for reading & see you!
*You will get some waste vouchers from Brisbane City Council when you pay for Queensland waste levy. Queensland waste levy has been developed to reduce waste to landfill, encourage waste avoidance, and provide a source of funding for better resources recovery practices, the levy also will be included fees and charges for commercial waste disposed of via Council’s four resources (recycling, green waste, waste, and commercial) recovery centre and landfill.