Trash is not garbage. This is the motto of one of Peru’s most innovative recycling campaigns, one that has already turned a million plastic bottles into thousands of ponchilas. In Peru, a ponchila – a combination of the Spanish words “poncho” and “mochila” – refers to a backpack with a built-in poncho. The items were designed to protect the poorest children in the Andes, many of whom must travel several kilometres a day, often in [...]

First and foremost green waste should be about providing a lower cost service for a type of waste that can be recycled. When green waste can be recycled, that is when it is diverted from going to landfill (the tip) and turned into a useful product that can be used to meet a need in the community. The first saving achieved by recycling the green waste is that waste levies are avoided, saving the customer [...]

One of the things all of us can do to protect and improve our environment is: recycling. Today a plastic bottle may contain juice or water or soda … but what can it become after you use it? Let’s take a look at some of the everyday plastics that you use and what they can become. Milk Jugs & Other Plastic Containers Bottles and containers used for milk, shampoo, laundry detergent and household cleaners [...]

A facility that converts non-recyclable plastics into liquid fuel is being planned for Canberra. The proposed facility would be built in the industrial estate of Hume and divert 200 tonnes of plastic from landfill each day. "It breaks plastics down into a sludge and converts it into road-ready diesel and petrol," FOY Group managing director Stuart Clark said. "Plastics originally come from oil in the first place so it's really just reversing it — [...]

In Bogota, 700 tons of plastic is discarded daily, with only 100 tons of that recycled. But that’s all beginning to change, thanks to the work of architect Oscar Mendez. His company, Conceptos Plásticos transforms plastic and rubber waste into a construction material, and uses it to build houses for those who need it, across Colombia. Oscar and his colleagues Henry Cañon and Isabel Cristina started out with an aim of reducing the environmental impact [...]