This project seeks to broaden understandings of the collection of ‘bulky kerbside materials’ and the factors that affect their movement through local council waste-streams, leading to the investigation and development of new knowledge for landfill volume reduction, diversion and recycling.
Bulky Kerbside Collections
Recycling and revaluing waste initiatives currently exist for many household goods and materials. Despite increasing global attention to the economies of reuse and recycling of these, there has been little consideration of collection systems which support bulky kerbside collections or the conditions under which bulky waste materials enter landfills.
This project addresses the theme of making future industries and is a joint collaboration between UOW researchers and the Illawarra Shoalhaven Joint Organization (ISJO). The ISJO coordinates the regional waste strategy of five councils, including Wollongong Council, Shellharbour Council, Shoalhaven Council, Kiama Council and Wingecarribee Council.
Specially, the project will focus on timber, lounges and carpets, as these feature in over 50 percent of ISJO bulky kerbside collections, with the goal of providing insights and outcomes for alternate collection models.
Report: Bulky Waste
A report about benchmarking, characterising and valuing resources in household bulky waste clean-up services, prepared for the Illawarra Shoalhaven Joint Organisation (ISJO).
READ THE FULL REPORT READ THE SUMMARY REPORT
The team
Dr Elyse Stanes (ACCESS/ASSH) is the project leader. She is a cultural geographer, with expertise in qualitative research design. Her research focuses on tracing everyday cultures of consumption to wider politics of excess and waste.
Dr Paul Chad (BAL) is a Marketing Lecturer. He has extensive practitioner expertise in recycling processes and has previously been involved with the Packaging Council of Australia and steel can recycling.
Dr Mark Nelson (EIS) holds expertise in the area of engineering mathematics. His expertise specializes in application of mathematical techniques such as bifurcation theory, continuation methods, dynamical systems methodology and singularity theory to practical problems.
Dr James Ng (NIASRA/EIS) is a statistician specialising in social network analysis, spatio-temporal modelling, and the application of statistics to solve a wide range of social, economic and political problems.
Senior Professor David Steel (Director of NIASRA/EIS) is an applied statistician. He has extensive experience in statistical design and analysis, including content research and consulting with government agencies and businesses.
Sarah Wright (BAL) holds specialisations in environmental and pollution law. She was formally a solicitor with the NSW Environment Protection Authority, and her research focuses on ensuring the effective regulation of pollution and waste through the law and related regulatory tools.
External Research Partnerships
This project will work closely with the Illawarra Shoalhaven Joint Organisation (ISJO), which
provides a forum for local councils and regional stakeholders to work collaboratively to address issues of regional significance in order to benefit our diverse local communities.
Representing the ISJO will be Yvette Barrs, regional program manager for waste and resource recovery; and Nicole Parsons, regional coordinator for community engagement and education around waste and resource recovery.
