In a scrap yard in Switzerland, right in the middle of the beautiful Alps, you can find one of Eldan Recycling’s customers - Cablofer Recycling SA. The company is a scrap-metal processor dealing with ferrous and non-ferrous scrap on a 40,000 m² plot which has been collected from companies as well as from the general public.

This past year has seen great change and uncertainty in the energy and regulatory market for business. From increases in energy costs due to network augmentations and more increases on this front expected, to the splitting of the Renewable Energy Target (RET) into two parts, to the introduction and/or adjustments of a variety of state-based schemes, along with more stringent requirements for the commercial building disclosure scheme, and now, an expected carbon tax along with a plethora of grant and tax-break incentives to come with it. While my intent is not to discuss the specifics of what all these changes will mean, one thing is for certain, energy prices will increase and the effects on many businesses will be difficult to ignore.

ABB has launched a new concept for turnkey concentrating solar power plants (CSP) based on a low-cost, highly efficient and highly scalable technology that is claimed to use considerably less material, land and water than other CSP technology. The plants use 70% less material, require 40% less land and consume 80% less water per megawatt generated than parabolic trough designs.

Ford Australia is aiming to halve the amount of paint sludge disposed to landfill. Working in conjunction with Australian waste specialist Geocycle, the paint sludge from Ford’s Broadmeadows facility is being used as an alternative source of fuel in the cement-making process.

Hilton Worldwide has announced a partnership with the Global Soap Project, a non-profit organisation that recovers and recycles soap from hotels that would otherwise end up in landfills. The Global Soap Project sorts, reprocesses and remoulds used soap into new bars and distributes them to vulnerable populations in developing countries that are at risk of sanitation and hygiene-related disease. In its first year of the partnership, Hilton Worldwide expects this investment to result in the donation of more than one million new 110 g bars of soap to people in need.

Identified as being in the top ten of the most desirable places to live in Australia, the picturesque Tweed Valley is watched over by the majesty of Mt Warning, surrounded by five world heritage national parks and just 15 minutes from the pristine beaches of the Tweed Coast. Combine all of these awe-inspiring elements and you have a community that is expected to double its population to between 120,000 and 160,000 by 2031.

Funded by the Packaging Stewardship Forum (PSF) of the Australian Food and Grocery Council and Brisbane Powerhouse, 20 new waste and recycling bins have been installed at the Brisbane Powerhouse venue.

A collaborative effort between Lend Lease and the Sydney Harbour Foreshore Authority (SHFA) has seen the completion of the $550 million Darling Quarter development in Sydney’s CBD. In the heart of the development is the new Commonwealth Bank flagship campus which has used CSR Gyprock’s EC08 plasterboard.

Pulsar Process Measurement provides solutions for sludge-level monitoring on primary tanks, secondary tanks and SBRs. The Pulsar Sludge Finder 2 is suitable for primary and secondary settlement tanks, clarifiers, stationary and travelling bridge applications, gravity thickeners, reactor clarifiers, DAF thickeners, sequential batch reaction tanks and industrial process thickeners.

The term ‘green polymer chemistry’ is being used here to describe the production of established thermoplastics and elastomers from renewable sources, including polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP), polyvinyl chloride (PVC), polyethylene terephthalate (PET), polyamide (PA), epoxy resin and polyurethane.

In April 2011, Investa Property Group and Cogent, a subsidiary of Origin, established a trigeneration facility that reduces the carbon footprints of two commercial buildings in Sydney.

Ford and The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company are researching the use of coconut fibre reinforcement for moulded plastic parts to reduce the use of petroleum and make the parts lighter and more natural looking.

Silvio de Denaro* explains why and how the tyre industry is working hard to turn around the current ‘market failure’ in the resource recovery of end-of-life tyres.

On the outskirts of Cape Town in South Africa, in a poverty-stricken township known as Cape Flats, sits an environmental centre that is a standard stop on tour itineraries for designers, architects and students of international culture.

Australia has invested $10 billion in six major seawater desalination plants around its coastline in as many years to waterproof its capital cities - at the same time providing a significant boost for renewable energy.