A green change of business turns rubbish into resource
For Anything Environmental duo Jason Mordey and Jo Higgins, it is not so much a case of ‘someone’s trash is another one’s treasure’.
It is more about turning rubbish into a resource.
“That’s my catchphrase: we turn rubbish into a resource,” Jason said.
Three years ago the Anything Environmental’s Paget depot yard was nothing more than dirt. Today it is a $8 million company that is a hive of activity processing between 50,000 and 100,000 containers a day.
During the busy Christmas period, they can process up to 300,000 containers a day.
In fact, some of their staff can count 700 cans in two minutes, which according to Jason is faster than any machine.
But it is not just the containers in the containers for change scheme that Anything Environmental are recycling, it is the local community’s mindset they are changing.
The business has big dreams of putting the Greater Whitsunday region on the map as a recycling hub, leading the way towards a circular economy and sustainability – with the aim to one day be world leaders in recycling.
“Mackay is wanting and needing something else to put us on the map.
“We are the quiet achievers and not everyone knows what we do, and why we do it, it is because somebody has to make a change for the better and we believe in it.”
Before Anything Environmental, Jason and Jo had a successful earth moving business and decided there was a business opportunity in recycling after what they saw in skip bins on many construction sites across the region going in to land fill.
“We spent a lot of money and did a feasibility study with the support of local skip bin companies bringing us skip bins after six months we worked out exactly what was inside those skip bins,
“That is where it all started”.
Jo said the skip bin companies would drop off the material to them and they would go through and work out what the high-volume commodities were, and they found that 96% of the materials in the skip bin were completely recyclable.
One of the biggest parts of Anything Environmental’s mission is to educate people on recycling and avoid valuable commodities going to land fill.
Jo said after seeing many people were bringing their containers in for recycling packed in single use plastic bags, they started to collect them too, because they were not prepared to send them to landfill.
They diverted 36,000 tons of single use plastic bags, which according to the NSW environmental department is estimated to be 6.5 million bags.; which were then sold for recycling in Brisbane.
“I am really passionate about avoiding landfill,” Jo said.
Along with inventing machines to break glass and separate the glass so it can be recycled, to designing a cage system that can be stacked and transported, Anything Environmental are constantly evolving and making sure the wheels are always in motion.
“Innovation is about making change happen, it isn’t always about technology, but out of the box thinking, people power and old fashion hard work, “Jason said.
An example of innovation and collaboration is the cage system Jason designed and then Linked Group Services built the system locally and has patented.
“The way the cages stack and work; there is no cage system like them in the world.
“The key is the fork pockets are inside, that allows the cages to be stacked. The cages have wheels on them and there is no loss of room.
“Our truck carries 103 cubic metres of material; you cannot carry anymore material on a truck than the purpose designed one we have. It is literally full to the brim. No wasted space on them at all,” Jason said.
Jo said they put their success down to trial and error.
“We want to make it easy for people to recycle.
“We always pivot to the customers to make it easier for them.”
Jason and Jo said they are seeing a shift in our region when it comes to recycling with many people not wanting to be part of the problem, but rather the solution.
For more information on Anything Environmental visit: https://www.anythingenvironmental.com.au/home-environmetal
“Innovation is about making change happen, it isn’t always about technology, but out of the box thinking, people power and old fashion hard work.”
