Landfill not acceptable for waste disposal: Transpacific

Transpacific Industries Group chief executive Kevin Campbell says he hopes to one day not need to use landfill for waste disposal.

Campbell, who leads Australia's largest waste management company, says landfill was no longer an acceptable method of disposing of waste.

He said governments, which forked out $86 million in levies to Transpacific in the past year, were increasingly hesitant on approving new landfill sites.

"Landfill is no longer the panacea for all ills, you can't dig a hole and bury it," Campbell told a business lunch in Sydney on Monday.

"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.

Campbell said research showed Australia produced 47 million tonnes of waste each year, equivalent to 2.05 tonnes per person.

This was growing at five per cent per annum.

Although Transpacific had on average about 20 years of useful life left at its landfill sites, Campbell said he had set his staff the task of finding ways to reduce the waste it sent to landfill to zero.

That goal was prompted by hearing news that a hotel was attempting to produce no waste and recycle or reuse everything.

"I figured if a hotel can do it, a waste management company can do it. So that's the challenge that's out there," Campbell said.

"God only knows how we will do it but we are going to have a crack at it.

"We can save a fortune in landfill costs and increase even more the shareholder value."

Source: Industry Search