I'm a failure. I have and will always be a failure…when I try to be perfect. Perfection is impossible. But why do so many people suffer from perfectionistic thinking?
So we THINK we are helping reduce our shame when we try to be perfect, but in reality, perfectionism is like pouring gas on shame because we always come to realize that 'I'm a failure'.
How can you embrace the idea that 'I'm a failure' as a healthy way to combat perfectionism?
It's time to be realistic about what you can and can't do. It doesn't make you a failure to see that you have limitations in life, it makes you human. Welcome to the club.
You may need stretch in this area by vulnerably asking for help, replacing the perfectionistic lies with truth, purposely decrease your standards, and increase your self-care to give you a chance to rest from the warring high expectations in your head.
Have you ever felt paralyzed because of all the imperfections around you? Do you have trouble focusing and relaxing when things are out of your control? Has it led to anxiety or depression?
If so, it's time to set yourself free from the impossible standards you set in your head. Equate the perfectionistic thoughts to an abuser who is out to hold your life hostage. Start fighting this enemy with truth that perfection is impossible, so therefore it's normal that 'I'm a failure'.
Failures aren't something to wallow in and beat yourself up over. They are opportunities to learn and grow! If we get stuck in the fact that we failed, we've missed the chance to see an area to work on. Seeing where you need some improvement helps you navigate goals and helps you become more self-aware about your life. This mindset is a spring board out of a shame spiral and into a place of learning about yourself and growth.
It's time to shed the perfectionistic mindset and embrace that I am an imperfect, real, failing, mistake making human- and so is everyone else. This helps us with the internal war in our minds as well as how we operate with those we love in relationships.
Look for a chance today to offer grace and love to yourself and others when someone's humanness is showing.
What areas of perfectionism are the hardest for you to break and accept your limits?


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Home Media centre Press releases 'Best present I could wish for' – WWII veteran receives Covid-19 jab on 97th birthday
Search below for news of our Homes and the residents, staff and volunteers who make them so special. Contact the Press Team for any further information or photos you require.
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'Best present I could wish for' – WWII veteran receives Covid-19 jab on 97th birthday
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Joan receiving the Covid-19 vaccine on her 97th birthday
A WWII veteran celebrating her 97th birthday has become the first Royal Star & Garter resident to receive a Covid-19 vaccine.
Joan Sprigg, who served in the Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS), was given the jab at the charity's Solihull Home on Wednesday, 6 January.
All 50 residents, plus staff members were given the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccination. Healthcare professionals opted for it to be administered in the Tudor Coppice Home's large dining area, as it allowed social distancing and good ventilation.
WWII Navy veteran said: "I really encourage others to have it."
Royal Star & Garter provides loving, compassionate care to veterans and their partners living with disability or dementia, at Homes in Solihull, Surbiton and High Wycombe.
Speaking afterwards, Joan said: "This is the best birthday present I could have wished for!"
Among other residents being vaccinated at the Home were Harry Southern, a Leading Seaman in the Navy who served in the Far East during WWII, and his wife of 70 years, Sue.
Harry's wife Sue receives the vaccine
Harry said: "This seems the best way we have of beating the virus, so I'm delighted Sue and I have received it. It didn't hurt and I really encourage others to have it."
Pauline Shaw, Director of Care, spoke about the importance of vaccines, and her delight that it was now available to Royal Star & Garter residents. She said: "My mother was permanently disabled from contracting a virus, poliomyelitis, in 1952 when she was just 26. The polio vaccination was made available in 1953 and has since prevented millions of people throughout the world from developing severe disability or dying. This is a living example of the impact of viruses and proof of the efficacy of vaccinations, as polio can now be prevented. The Covid vaccine will provide protection for our residents who are vulnerable or elderly."
Residents at Royal Star & Garter's Surbiton and High Wycombe Homes are due to receive their Covid-19 vaccines imminently.
For more information about the charity, go to www.starandgarter.org
Events High Wycombe Richmond Solihull Surbiton
Veteran's charity Royal Star & Garter marks 105th birthday
Royal Star & Garter, a charity which provides loving, compassionate care to veterans and their partners living with disability or dementia, is celebrating its 105th birthday.…
High Wycombe Surbiton
Covid: Life on the frontline – Virus ordeal left sick mum fearing for her life
A Care Home Administrator and mum-of-two has revealed how she thought Covid would kill her after contracting the virus and falling seriously ill during the first outbreak.…
Awards Surbiton
Charity care worker celebrated in The Queen's New Year's Honours List
A charity Healthcare Assistant who has supported veterans for almost 40 years has been awarded the British Empire Medal (BEM) in The Queen's New Year's Honours List 2021.…
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Budget carrier AirAsia will launch a daily flight between the central city of Da Nang and Chiang Mai, Thailand from April 14.
Flights will take one hour and 45 minutes.
According to the city's airport authority, Thai Vietjet, Bangkok Airways and AirAsia were currently operating direct flights between Da Nang and Bangkok.
It said nearly 400,000 tourists and passengers from Bangkok arrived in Da Nang via direct flights in 2018. The new route would offer more chances for tourists travelling between Vietnam's central region and Thailand.
The city, which is situated at the end of the East-West Economic Corridor – linking Myanmar, Thailand, Laos and Vietnam, had 23 daily direct flights carrying 2.35 million tourists in 2018.
The city welcomed 7.6 million tourists last year, including 2.87 million foreigners, earning more than US$1.06 billion in revenue.


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Q: trying to access jconsole mbean value I am trying to access MBean values through jmx and specifically getMBeanServerConnection. The tree setup in jconsole is difficult to traverse and I need some help with getting the values I specifically need or be able to get all the type,name and attributes. Here is what I have used to read the jmx mbean values:
//get an instance of the kafka metrics Mbean
            consumerBeanII =
 jmxCon.getMBeanServerConnection().getAttribute(new
 ObjectName("kafka.server:type=BrokerTopicMetrics,
    name=MessagesInPerSec,topic=data.in"),"MeanRate");
            System.out.println(" Message Mean Rate: " + consumerBeanII);
// this works

  consumerBean = jmxCon.getMBeanServerConnection().getAttribute(new
  ObjectName("kafka.server:type=FetcherLagMetrics,
     name=ConsumerLag,side=ReplicaFetcherThread-0-
            2,topic=data.in"),"Value");
            System.out.println(" ConsumerLag: " + consumerBean);
 //this does not work and throws exception

Error:
javax.management.InstanceNotFoundException:
kafka.server:type=FetcherLagMetrics,name=ConsumerLag,
side=ReplicaFetcherThread-0-2,topic=data.in

Now here is a snapshot of the jconsole tree and hierarchy:

so its basically as follows:
kafka.server --->  FetcherLagMetrics  -->  ConsumerLag --->
  ReplicaFetcherThread-0-2 ---> data.in  ---> 5 ---> Attributes --->
  Value

There are multiple subfolders under ConsumerLag  (ReplicateFetcherThread .*) and then all the topics under each of those folders. But it seems the value = 0 for all which is a separate issue anyway. Any advise or assistance appreciated

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


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Interpreter Staff
Russian Military Helicopter Crashes In Rebel-Held Territory In Syria, Killing All 5 On Board
Tail rotor of the Mi-8 helicopter that crashed near Saraqib this morning. Photo via TRT Arabic
LIVE UPDATES: The previous post in our Putin in Syria column can be found here.
Syrian Regime Helicopters Reportedly Drop Chlorine Gas On Saraqib, Near Site Of Crashed Helicopter
There are reports tonight that Saraqib, the rebel-held Idlib town near which a Russian helicopter crashed earlier today, has been struck with chlorine gas bombs.
Conflict News translates a tweet from Raed Al Saleh, head of Syria Civil Defense (known as the White Helmets):
fetching tweet…
Syria's pro-opposition SMART News Agency has published photo of an infant being treated for gas inhalation. The photo does appear to be new.
Latih Fares, another volunteer with Idlib Civil Defense, reported 27 people had suffered the effects of chlorine gas poisoning, but that the situation was under control.
The Syrian regime has been recorded using chlorine as a chemical weapon on numerous occasions. The reports of a helicopter strike fit the crude attack profile routinely used, in which cylinders of chlorine are dropped in barrel bombs.
Set as default press image
Syria: Strong Evidence Government Used Chemicals as a Weapon
(New York) – Evidence strongly suggests that Syrian government helicopters dropped barrel bombs embedded with cylinders of chlorine gas on three towns in Northern Syria in mid-April 2014, Human Rights Watch said today. These attacks used an industrial chemical as a weapon, an act banned by the international treaty prohibiting chemical weapons that Syria joined in October 2013.
View full page →
Aug 01, 2016 21:41 (GMT)
In the last few minutes, Fares has reported follow-up air strikes on Saraqib, though fortunately only one person was lightly wounded.
— Pierre Vaux
Syrian Rebels Waging A Significant Counteroffensive Against Aleppo
As we've been reporting, the city of Aleppo, Syria's now-ruined financial center that was once the jewel of the northern half of the country, is still largely held by anti-Assad rebels, but it has been completely surrounded by a coalition of fighters loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad for 21 days. Last week the regime launched a significant attack against the city, raising concerns that the civilians trapped in the city would be slaughtered.
In the last 24 hours or so, Syrian rebels have launched a significant counteroffensive to open the blockade. Breaking news from the front lines is hard to verify, but we can see from looking at many accounts that the rebels may have achieved a victory.
But here is the key tweet — according to some reports, the most important artillery base in the entire city is now besieged by the rebels:
The Ramouseh Artillery Base and Academy was the key to maintaining some control in Aleppo for the Assad regime between the summer of 2012 and today. The artillery units there were crucial to intimidating protesting students, and later in the regime's efforts to flatten the Hamadaniyah and Salah el Din districts just north of the base. The artillery turned regime strongholds into death traps, transforming the battle for Aleppo into a game of inches waged by snipers, artillery, and aircraft. Since regime forces were often outnumbered over the course of those years, this leveled the playing field.
Since the intervention of Russia, Iran, Hezbollah, and Shi'ite militias from Iraq, those areas have been recaptured by the regime. As we can see at a glance from looking at LiveUAMap, which places developing news on a map, this attack puts a key Assad stronghold in a pincer:
via http://syria.liveuamap.com/
Drone footage released by Jaish al-Fateh was reportedly taken in the area and appears to show a suicide attack against the Al Hikma school, just west-northwest of the artillery academy:
The video:
To confirm the location, the first picture below is from the video, and the second is from Wikimapia.
This proves that the rebels have launched a significant assault on the outskirts of southwestern Aleppo. It remains to be seen whether various rebel groups have punched through Assad's lines, much less whether or not they can hold that corridor open or recapture significant territory. It's also unlikely that the area can be used to evacuate civilians, since fighting is so heavy in this area.
— James Miller
Aleppo: Barrel Bombings, Strikes On Hospitals, Dwindling Food Supplies
Roy Gutman is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and former McClatchy Middle East bureau chief who is currently a freelance writer based in Istanbul.
Starting July 28, he has begun relaying reports from sources inside besieged Aleppo. Here are summaries of events over the weekend in the city:
Report from besieged Aleppo Saturday July 30, Day 20
"Humanitarian corridors" that weren't: Contrary to reports in Russian and official Syrian media (picked up by Reuters), the Aleppo siege media center said no families from besieged East Aleppo crossed into government-held territory Friday. The Syrian Network for Human Rights warned civilians that the pamphlets dropped form government helicopters showing maps of crossings were a ruse. Even if the crossings were open, Western diplomats say these are not "humanitarian" corridors, but one-way transit points in a forced displacement.
Piling on: the US-supported SDF forces based in Shiekh Maksoud killed or wounded 20 rebels Friday morning and captured 12 others in clashes near the Kurdish neighborhood. Rebels withdrew to the Al Shakif area in the north of the city.
Rebel counter attack: Rebels fired missiles at regime positions on the Castello road and shelled a regime position in the Karm Al Tarrab neighborhood, killing or wounding many, opposition news sources said. Russian warplanes provided air cover to regime forces and bombed rebel locations in the Al Hullok neighborhood.
Opposition activists shared today photos that show Iranian militia fighters in the north of the city.
Food supplies: bakeries are using up 45 tons of flour a day to feed the population estimated at 325,000, but this is only half the flour they received before the siege began, the Aleppo local council said. Many bakeries cannot operate at full capacity because of fuel shortages.
Meanwhile, residents are drawing lessons from other Syrian cities that have been under siege. They are taking better care of their livestock and planting vegetables in every free space in and outdoors.
School exams: Halab (Aleppo) TV broadcast a report showing the opposition interim government administering secondary school exams to school pupils in school basements — to avoid big loss of life in the event of regime bombings.
Report from besieged Aleppo, Sunday July 31, Day 21
More hospital bombings: The regime air forces destroyed three medical facilities in the last 24 hours. Late Saturday night regime warplanes bombed the Anadan city hospital northwest of Aleppo and on Sunday struck the only bank blood in the city of Al Atareb west of Aleppo. Regime warplanes also raided Al Huda hospital in the village of Al Hurr west of Aleppo, putting the hospital out of service. Other strikes targeted flour mills al Atarib and put them out of service.
Barrel bombings: Inside Aleppo, three people were killed in the Al Hullok neighborhood in barrel bombing Sunday. Regime missile strikes were also reported in the neighborhoods of: Al Muasalat, Al Qaterji, Al Karaj, Al Sha'ar, Al Shakif and Bustan Al Basha.
Rebel offensive: At the start of a military operation to break the siege, rebels attacked regime positions in the south of the city, captured many hills and military positions and killed four Afghan Shiite militia fighting for the regime. Fighting is said to be fierce and escalating. They claim to have killed nine regime soldiers, captured 12 and killed four tanks and captured three. Opposition activists talked about the mass flight of the Iranian- led militias south of Aleppo. Russian and regime warplanes responded by firing missiles, killing 10 civilians so far.
Crossings a 'ruse': The local council in Aleppo warned civilians of the dangers of attempting to cross into West Aleppo to surrender to the regime. The White Helmets, the leading civil defense organization, also warned against the "ruse of the humanitarian corridors." It said one civilian was killed Saturday in an attempt to cross from the besieged part of the city in Salah Eldinn area. The White Helmets declared a state of emergency in Aleppo and the western countryside Sunday.
Empty shops: Many shopkeepers in besieged Aleppo shuttered their premises after they ran out of food staples, the exception being shops with a supply of canned goods, Masar Press news agency said. On occasion, a farmer from rural Aleppo is able to bring in vegetables to besieged neighborhoods. At the sight of a car carrying vegetables, customers queue up, and the waits can be long.
In order to try and prevent air strikes, residents of Aleppo set fire to tires yesterday to create a smoke screen:
Syria conflict: Aleppo residents create 'smoke curtain' – BBC News
A 'smoke curtain' to disrupt warplanes above Aleppo was created on Sunday by residents burning tyres, according to Syrian activists.
Russian Military Helicopter Crashes In Rebel-Held Territory, Killing All 5 On Board
A Russian military helicopter has crashed southwest of Aleppo, killing all five on board.
The helicopter fell in rebel-held territory in the Idlib province, northeast of Saraqib.
The Russian Ministry of Defense claims that the Mil Mi-8 helicopter was shot down while returning to the Hmeemeem airbase in Latakia after delivering humanitarian aid to Aleppo.
According to the MOD, two of those aboard were officers from the Russian Center for Reconciliation of Opposing Sides in Syria.
However video of the wreckage clearly shows expended rocket pods:
This would mean that even if the helicopter was not on a combat mission, it would still be legitimately perceived as a threat from the ground.
Joseph Dempsey, an analyst at the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) suggests the craft was a Mi-8AMTSh – a dedicated armored assault variant.
Aleppo Idlib Mi-8 Russian military intervention in Syria Russian military losses in Syria Russian support for Bashar al Assad Siege of Aleppo Syria Syrian Civil War
Would Assad Really Use Chemical Weapons Again?
Russia Claims All Women And Children Evacuated From Eastern Aleppo Despite Reports Of Thousands Remaining Trapped
Russian State-Sponsored Art Group Produces Tasteless Calendar of Syrian Women Thanking 'Russian Liberators'
West is Again in the Midst of a 'Phony War,' Portnikov Says
Moscow Scrambling to Fill Ranks of Its Forces in Syria and Elsewhere
State TV Video Shows Russian Special Forces Fighting on the Ground in Syria, Supposedly Killing ISIS


All SUNRISE VILLAS homes currently listed for sale in Scottsdale as of 04/24/2019 are shown below. You can change the search criteria at any time by pressing the 'Change Search' button below.
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cardiscope™ ANALYTICS is a software application for use in the field of health management. It is designed to monitor the health status of individuals or groups and to evaluate measures to improve the state of health.
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Grimuald, Grimoald o Grimwald (Cividale, vers 600 - 671) va ser duc de Benevent (Grimoald I de Benevent), i rei dels longobards i rei d'Itàlia del 662 al 671.

Joventut
Fill menor del duc de Friül Gisulf II i Romilda, l'any 610 va ser fet presoner juntament amb els seus germans (Cacó, Tasó i Radoald) pels àvars que planejaven matar-lo després d'haver matat al seu pare. Els germans van planejar la fugida i, segons la llegenda relatada per Pau el Diaca, un dels germans, pensant que Grimoald era massa petit per fugir a cavall a la carrera, va pensar que era millor per a ell morir que portar el jou del captiveri i va decidir matar-lo. Però Grimoald va suplicar amb llàgrimes i va demanar que el deixessin participar en la fugida; el seu germà finalment va consentir i Grimuald va mostrar que encara que nen era capaç de sostenir les regnes i seguir la fugida germans. No obstant això, va ser més lent que ells, de manera que un àvar va allargar la mà i el va agafar, però no el va matar per ser massa jove per ser perillós, i va decidir mantenir-lo com un servent. No obstant això Grimoald Ingentes animos angusto in pectore versans (va mostrar una gran fortalesa de cor i esperit, Pau el Diaca, Historia Langobardorum, IV, 37) i va desembeinar la seva espasa curta i va donar un cop a l'avar assegut a la cadira al davant d'ell, i després va agafar el cavall, va reprendre el vol i arribar als germans.

Després de la matança a Oderzo, a mans romanes d'Orient, dels seus germans, Cacó i Tasó, co-governants del ducat de Friül, es va convertir en duc el seu oncle Grasulf II. No volent ser sotmès a un familiar, Grimoald i el seu tercer germà Rodoald van fugir a Benevent amb el duc Arechis I, qui els va rebre sent encara infants i els va considerar com a fills. A la mort d'Arechis el ducat de Benevent va passar primer al seu fill Aió (Aiulf) i després, quan va caure en batalla a mans de pirates eslaus desembarcats a Siponto, a Radoald.

Usurpació
Va succeir el 651, com a duc de Benevent al seu germà Radoald; el 662 va intervenir en la lluita per la successió entre Godepert i Perctarit, els dos fills d'Aripert I entre els quals aquest sobirà havia dividit el regne. Grimoald en un intent d'imposar-se a tots dos i prendre el tron, es va aprofitar de la petició d'ajuda de Godepert, que li va oferir a la seva germana en matrimoni.

Sentint-se legitimat en la seva reclamació en virtut d'aquest matrimoni, va donar el ducat de Benevent al seu fill Romuald o Romoald i va marxar cap al nord amb les tropes, tant del seu ducat, com dels ducats aliats de Spoleto i de Túscia. Arribat a Pavia, la capital elegida per Godepert pel seu regnat, va matar el governant legítim i va usurpar el tron; Perctarit a Milà, conscient de la seva inferioritat evident, va abandonar el regne i es va refugiar entre els àvars.

Una assemblea nacional va legitimar la usurpació, però els seguidors de la dinastia bavaresa es van unir a Asti i Torí, on va mantenir contactes amb els francs contra Grimoald. El nou rei mentre va amenaçar als àvars amb la guerra si no li lliuraven a Perctarit, al que com a cunyat va convidar a Pavia; Perctarit es va veure llavors obligat a tornar a Itàlia i presentar-se al rei. Perctarit va rebre una pensió i una residència, però, era una amenaça constant com un pretendent al tron, i Grimoald planificava la seva eliminació, però, advertit a temps, l'antic rei va aconseguir escapar i passar a Nèustria amb els francs.

És possible que el conflicte dinàstic fos un reflex de la interferència política externa: Grimoald va ser un aliat del seu homònim, el majordom de palau de l'Austràsia, Grimoald I (avantpassat dels carolingis), mentre que Perctarit rebia el suport de la reina de Nèustria, Balthida. Aquest conflicte s'entreveu per l'enviament de les tropes franques de Nèustria a Itàlia: el xoc amb Grimuald va ocórrer el 663 a Refrancore, prop d'Asti, on l'usurpador va obtenir una victòria aclaparadora; Perctarit va haver de romandre a l'exili a Nèustria.

Regnat
Alhora, el 663, Grimuald també va obtenir una important victòria contra els romans d'Orient. L'emperador Constant II va intentar recuperar tot Itàlia i va marxar amb forts contingents militars al sud, va irrompre en territoris de la Pulla subjectes al ducat de Benevent, va obtenir cert èxit contra Romoald i va posar setge a la mateixa Benevent. La intervenció de les forces de Grimoald això no obstant, va obligar a l'emperador a retirar-se a Nàpols, després de patir grans pèrdues. La victòria va enfortir la posició del rei, fins aleshores precària. Després el seu fill Romoald va passar a l'ofensiva i van ocupar la totalitat de la Pulla, amb l'excepció d'Otrant.

Grimuald va exercir drets de sobirania amb una plenitud fins ara mai aconseguit pels seus predecessors. Va enfortir encara més el control de la zona centre-sud amb la contractació d'un contingent de búlgars que havien desertat de les files dels romans d'Orient i els va establir en territori escassament poblat entre Sepino, Bovino i Isernia en un gastaldat creat ad hoc. També poc després del 663 va promoure com a duc de Spoleto al seu gendre Trasmond (Transamund o Trasimund), que era comte de Càpua.

Fins i tot en l'estructura de poder, la Longobardia Maior (els territoris longobards del nord) va ser reorganitzada. A Friül, amenaçada per àvars i eslaus, va reemplaçar al duc Llop (663-666) que durant la campanya contra els romans d'Orient fou regent pel nord d'Itàlia i va donar poques proves de fidelitat, per Vectari o Wechtar de Friül (666-678), més fiable. La seva tasca d'enfortiment del poder reial, que va començar des del moment de la seva ascensió al tron a través de l'assignació als seus fidels de Benevent de grans propietats a la Vall del Po, a favor dels esforços continus per integrar els diferents components del regne. Va donar als seus súbdits una imatge en continuïtat amb la del seu predecessor Rotari, alhora savi legislador (va afegir noves lleis a l'Edicte), patró (va erigir a Pavia, una església dedicada a Sant Ambròs) i guerrer valent.

Va morir a causa de complicacions derivades d'un vessament de sang el 671. Es rumoreja que els metges que li van guarir la ferida li van aplicar una gasa amarada en verí. El va succeir efímerament el seu fill Garibald.

Grimoald segons Pau el Diaca
Malgrat la imatge de crueltat que suggereix l'eliminació de Godepert, Grimuald va ser tractat molt favorablement per Pau el Diaca, que en la seva Historia Langobardorum narra els fets en el llibre quart i cinquè. El relat atribueix la responsabilitat per l'assassinat de Godepert no a l'usurpador, sinó al duc de Torí Garibald, el que hauria ordit un pla per enfrontar el governant legítim amb el llavors duc de Benevent. El favor mostrat per Pau el Diaca, un orgullós patriota longobard, prové en part del fet que sota el regnat de Grimuald el regne va arribar un dels cims de la seva fortuna, i en part de l'ascendència de Grimuald de Friül: « Fuit autem corpore praevalidus, audacia primus, calvo capite, barba prominenti, non minus consilio quam viribus decoratus » ("Era fort de cos, en primer lloc per l'audàcia, calb, amb barba, adornat amb saviesa no menys que amb força", Historia Langobardorum, V, 33.

Bibliografia
 Lidia Capo, Commento in Paolo Diacono, Storia dei Longobardi, Milà, Lorenzo Valla/Mondadori, 1992.
 Jörg Jarnut, Storia dei Longobardi, Torí, Einaudi, 2002.
 Sergio Rovagnati, I Longobardi, Milà, Xenia, 2003.

Guerrers longobards

Reis dels llombards
Reis d'Itàlia
Persones de la província d'Udine
Morts a la Llombardia
Ducs italians
Militars italians
Polítics de Friül-Venècia Júlia

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
at the table of peace with Toowoomba Muslims today
It was a delight to meet with local Muslims today to affirm our shared concern for one another, our city and peace in the world. A number of people spoke well, not least Dr Shahab Abdullah the spokesman for the local Iraqi Muslim community. Tea and cake then helped seal the deal. What a contrast with the over-reaction of some, including those who closed three local military museums this week, thus, to my mind, exacerbating community anxiety rather than alleviating it. Even the police present seemed a bit embarrassed about currently having to wear firearms as part of the security reaction to recent events. Whether that is alarmist or not, it certainly does not reassure those of us who tend to feel less secure in the presence of weaponry rather than with it. More positively, it was a joy to speak with five Indonesian Muslim women who are in their last week of five in Toowoomba. They spoke with wonderful pleasure of their experience here, not least the excited interest they had conjured up in visiting a local school yesterday. Once again the benefits of 'table fellowship' shone through: last week in the Buddhist monastery, Sunday in St Luke's, today among USQ Muslims. Such is an important path to peace. As another Christian pointed out to me last week, in a much more conservative Christian setting, Jesus was much more a guest than a host. Should more be willing to step out of their comfort zones and risk vulnerability, there would similarly be much more joy and solidarity to quell our own anxieties and transform the world's genuine fears. Anyone for another cup of tea?
religion for peace (my last week's Toowoomba Chronicle article)
A great Christian (Hans Kung) once said 'there will not be peace in the world until there is peace between the religions of the world, and there will not be peace between the religions until religious people meet, understand one another, and work together for peace.' Recent events, especially in the Middle East, show how true this is. Perhaps in the past it was possible for different religions to ignore one another or to compete, sometimes violently. Today, when people of different faith live next door to each another, we need another way...


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Treading carefully on waste exports
January 15, 2020 January 14, 2020 by Waste Management Review
It's time we transformed into an economy that values all our resources and takes accountability onshore, writes Matt Genever, Director Resource Recovery, Sustainability Victoria.
The announcement by the Council of Australian Governments in August that Australia would ban the export of certain types of waste came as a surprise to most in the industry.
Global markets are already closing their doors to some degree, but Australia is still exporting around four million tonnes of material annually despite import restrictions set by China and other countries. Thus, the decision will certainly have implications for Australia's domestic sector and the impacts will depend on how the ban is enacted and what materials are targeted.
Waste versus commodity
The intent of the ban is clear and easily justifiable. The images seen across media earlier in the year of mixed Australian waste, including soiled nappies, turning up at multiple Asian ports were not well received by the community. The social license of this great sector is already under siege and these images certainly didn't help.
However, the situation is much more complex than this. It is unlikely that anyone could successfully argue that soiled nappies represent a tradeable commodity, but it does beg the question of where, and how, we draw the line between a waste and a commodity.
The recyclables being targeted as part of the ban include plastics, paper, glass and tyres.
Over the years, we've become more opportunistic in moving large volumes of plastics and paper offshore, which has led to less work being done locally to fully separate or "add value" to these resources.
In the case of tyres, there are valid questions being raised about where whole tyres, in particular, end up and how they are treated.
It's this idea of "value adding" that offers the greatest opportunity for Australia, and equally where the most work needs to be done from the perspective of defining the boundaries of the ban.
How far does one need to go to add value? Is it simply separating material into different material types or is it fully commoditising it into a manufacturing-ready feedstock?
This is a conversation that Australia, and other nations, has been having for years.
In fact, there is a whole document dedicated to this called: Australian Waste Definitions: Defining waste related terms by jurisdictions in Australia. It is certainly not bedtime reading, but it is worth looking at the many and varied definitions we have for waste across each state and territory.
Words like "rejected", "abandoned", "surplus" and "discarded" commonly appear, as does the phrase "where not intended for recycling".
In a world where one person's trash is another person's treasure, there is a fine line that must be walked here in developing these definitions.
Balance is everything
The complexity in defining a waste and how and when it becomes a commodity should not be the driving force that diverts us from this course of action. Like so many things in this system, it's really all about balance.
We have an obligation to protect human health and as global citizens this needs to extend far beyond our own ocean-locked borders. Having said that, we also have an obligation to ensure that we are positioning our sector to develop its own domestic capacity and have the ability to participate in a thriving global commodity.
The sweet spot in here offers pause for some very optimistic reflection. There are already strong signs that industry is in a state of growth.
New investments are coming online and many businesses have already taken the leap toward commoditising the materials they collect. From hot-washed PET going into new bottles to government procurement of glass sand, the tide is most certainly turning.
So, Australia's collective decision to ban exports needs to support and accelerate the change underway but at the same time consider our place in a global marketplace – one where we already have high operating costs (energy, in particular) and high
labour costs.
When one door closes, a window opens
Regardless of definitions, the idea of value-adding or commoditising our resources is one that is appealing. The opportunities for economic growth, new skills, new infrastructure and new jobs in the recycling sector are significant, but are only the tip of iceberg.
When we start commoditising our resources domestically, a whole range of opportunities for local manufacturing emerge. I was immensely pleased with the level of interest in Sustainability Victoria's recent Buy Recycled Conference 2019.
I spoke with a number of manufacturing businesses that have the capacity right now to absorb more recycled content but are unable to source it from the local market. With the door to exports closing, its heartening to see the window into our domestic manufacturing is well and truly open.
While there are probably more questions than answers in the commentary above (in the spirit of walking a fine line, I too must traverse my own path of balance), there is no doubt in my mind that the rewards here far outweigh the risks.
We've got to get the definitions right. We've got to get the balance right. But it's high time we transformed into an economy that values all our resources, takes accountability for their management onshore and is focused on adding value and commoditising material when it reaches end of life.
This article was published in the December 2019 edition of Waste Management Review.
Federal Government opens export ban consultation
Waste export bans alone won't drive resource recovery
Balancing the good and the bad of plastics
Categories Last Word Tags commodity, export ban, Matt Genever, Sustainability Victoria
Protecting agricultural soils
January 8, 2020 January 7, 2020 by Waste Management Review
Opinion piece:
Queensland's agricultural sector is concerned about growing challenges to the NSW Government's MWOO decision, writes Georgina Davis, Queensland Farmers' Federation CEO.
Recent rhetoric from the waste management industry around the decision by the NSW Government to reaffirm it's 2018 ban relating to the application of mixed waste organics output (MWOO) to agricultural land and forestry is disappointing. With a recent article even discussing opportunities to challenge the decision through a merit appeal or other legal challenge.
The number of individuals who consider agricultural land to be a dumping ground for stabilised municipal waste (including MWOO) is unacceptable; all to simply avoid landfill tax and operational costs associated with source separation, resource recovery, treatment and appropriate disposal to engineered, licensed facilities where required.
Queensland Farmers' Federation (QFF) has been actively advocating to the Queensland Government to ban the application of stabilised municipal solid waste to farmland for some years.
Currently, mixed waste compost is applied to farmland in Queensland using AS4454 (Australian Standard for Composts, Soil Conditioners and Mulches) to provide a suitable threshold.
AS4454 is limited, and at best, only infers minimum quality standards. It does not contain criteria for new and emerging contaminants such as PFOS and PFOA and the physical contaminant levels still permit significant levels of contamination [for plastics (soft) (<0.05 per cent dry matter w/w – visible proportion only) and glass, metals and rigid plastics (<0.5 per cent dry matter w/w)].
Many jurisdictions have suffered an early 'shred and spread' application of municipal wastes and untreated organics to land, which were driven by the desire to avoid increasing waste disposal charges, often as a result of a landfill tax.
In these cases, many environmental regulatory authorities were slow to realise the loopholes, determine environmental harm, and in turn, control application or specify application rates.
Application rates were decided by farmers and in some cases, the market value (or free of charge nature) of these products against the increasing price of traditional chemical fertilisers or quality organic products.
Early applications of stabilised waste/mixed waste composts to UK farmland in the late 1990's to early noughties (to avoid the landfill tax) were dealt with through a judicial process.
This was a result of Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs seeking to recover significant sums of outstanding landfill tax or contractual breaches between local government, contractors and landholders. In some cases the judicial actions were to recover funds to remediate the land.
Fortunately for the UK an exemption for stabilised waste from the landfill tax was never granted, and the growing demand from continental Europe for refuse derived fuels (RDF) resulted in many MBT/BMT plants being converted to RDF/SRF manufacturing facilities.
Areas of the United States and Europe have seen ongoing concern and opposition to the spreading of mixed waste composts, compost-like organics (CLOs), stabilised wastes, manures and untreated biosolids to land, in particular to farmland.
This has resulted in some jurisdictions setting high quality standards for both organic waste treatment processes and the resulting organic products and land/plant application limits. While others have always simply banned the application of mixed waste composts and CLOs to farmland.
One issue is that it is easier to define and prove environmental benefit than environmental harm, particularly where the application soils are weak, degraded or deficient in a range of nutrients or organic matter.
As such, mixed waste composts and CLOs in many cases easily demonstrate their beneficial application, sometimes in preference to single stream (green waste) composts; whilst the contamination risks are harder to define and more expensive to prove.
This is particularly true for the cost of analysis to identify micro-pollutants and the required commitment of undertaking longitudinal surveys to determine the risks of bioaccumulation in soils and plants, or retardation of plant growth.
Recently in the UK, there has been an outpouring of public and political concern regarding the environmental impacts resulting from the application of green waste composts manufactured from source segregated (domestic) waste streams to farmland.
Concerns regarding the land application of these products include the impacts of physical pollutants such as plastics, biological factors including pathogens and genetically modified organisms, animal diseases, the toxicity from heavy metals; and more recently as highlighted in the literature, the bioaccumulation of persistent organic pollutants and micro-pollutants.
The UK's PAS 100 standard for example, allows 0.12 per cent of plastic in a final composted product – the equivalent of 1.2 tonnes of plastic in 1000 tonnes of compost. However, continued analysis has shown that the level of plastic contamination is rising in the UK, with the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency and the Environment Agency England, now introducing a 50 per cent reduction in the allowable (not desirable) level.
There is also an assumption by many that applying MWOO or CLO's to forestry or pasture presents a 'lower risk'.
While that land may be used only for forestry or pasture now, the changing climate, changing hydraulic characteristics of water catchments (with some areas seeing more or less precipitation); and more pressure to grow food for domestic and export markets, coupled with restrictions on clearing undeveloped land (Vegetation Management legislation in Queensland for example); it is increasingly likely that new land for growing food may utilise existing timber and foliage production areas or pastoral properties.
Once soils are contaminated it will be prohibitively costly and technologically challenging to remediate them.
The manufacture of MWOO and CLOs also poses a risk to the viability and sustainability of the organic recovery/composting sector.
Queensland's agricultural sector needs a vibrant and healthy organic manufacturing sector capable of supplying quality soil and potting mixes through to contaminant-free compost and mulching materials for tree crops.
While many farms produce their own organic products, the quantities are insufficient to meet all of agriculture's needs and many primary producers do not have the physical land footprint, appropriate location, infrastructure capacity, feedstocks or 'want' to manufacture their own organic products.
Land and soils are precious. Some farmland is genuinely irreplaceable and critical to ensure future food and nutrient security for our communities. There is also a growing consumer expectation and requirement for transparency and traceability surrounding the food chain.
Queensland, and indeed Australia, is a significant exporter of quality produce, and as such, it is imperative that Queensland maintains the quality of its farmland and food chain production standards.
For 2019–20, the total value of Queensland's primary industry commodities (combined gross value of production and first-stage processing) is forecast to be $17.80 billion. And the gross value of production (GVP) of Queensland's primary industry commodities at the 'farm gate' is forecast to be $13.94 billion; noting a considerable reduction on previous years due to climate impacts including the ongoing drought.
Any activity perceived (not necessarily proven) to contaminate farmland would damage our reputation and demand for our primary produce. Domestic consumers are also quite rightly questioning the provenance of their food. They want to know animal husbandry conditions and where their carrots were grown down to the farm, the paddock and the soil type.
QFF supports a precautionary principle and science-based decision-making, acknowledging the deficit of credible and valid scientific data concerning many of the emerging contaminants and their end of life outcomes in the environment.
Farmers are custodians of the land and they want to be confident that the soil ameliorants they are using do not pose any negative environmental or health impacts.
QFF will continue to advocate for clear policy concerning the permitted end-uses for stabilised non-source segregated municipal solid waste and CLOs that does not include application to agricultural land; and will continue to promote quality composts, mulches and soil ameliorant products to the agricultural sector.
Georgina Davis is the Founder of consultancy firm The Waste to Opportunity Enterprise and Adjunct at the Australian Rivers Institute, Griffith University.
What happened to MWOO?
NSW EPA opens MWOO consultation
The state of biosolids in Australia and the US
Categories Last Word Tags compost, MWOO, organics, Queensland Farmers' Federation
Tackling waste together: Matt Kean
December 18, 2019 December 18, 2019 by Waste Management Review
NSW Environment Minister Matt Kean lays out the government's objectives for its 20-year waste strategy.
The origin of the saying "one man's trash is another man's treasure" may be lost to time, but its meaning has never been more relevant than today.
Australians treasure the concept of recycling and rightfully demand a recycling system that is effective, affordable and sustainable.
The readers of Waste Management Review are at the cutting edge of one of the biggest environmental challenges facing New South Wales and our country.
I'm committed to working with the industry to build a truly sustainable sector which enjoys public trust and confidence.
Our state is vast and the economics, infrastructure and issues of regional New South Wales pose different challenges to the ones we face in the city.
But people in the city and the bush are united in their clear expectation that when we say we are recycling, that is what we are doing.
They are united in expecting us to keep our word when we say we are protecting the environment and human health.
And they expect that the management of waste be efficient and effective, so the bins are collected on time and their local environment is protected.
The NSW Government is fully engaged with the Commonwealth and the other states as we work to meet the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) agreement to ban waste exports while building up the domestic recycling industry.
To make sure we do our part to create a truly national plan, and to get our response right to the challenges we face here in NSW, we are developing a 20-year waste strategy.
We are ending the cycle of knee-jerk policy that leads to poor outcomes.
To get the strategy right for the short and long term, we're going to consult intensively with local government, the waste, manufacturing and remanufacturing industries, the charitable sector, waste and recycling experts and local communities around the state.
We have three objectives for the strategy and all our state waste policies: sustainability, reliability and affordability.
Sustainability means the NSW waste industry is self-sustaining, delivers improved environmental outcomes and avoids the human health impacts associated with poorly managed waste.
Reliability means putting consumers at the centre of the strategy. It means making sure that the bins are always collected and our waste is managed in accordance with community expectations, so if we say something is going to be recycled, it is actually recycled.
Affordability means ensuring that waste services are delivered at a reasonable cost and with the customer in mind.
The government must enable industry to extract value and support them through developing policies and creating markets through our commitment to a circular economy.
In February this year we published the Circular Economy Policy.
Moving to a circular economy will provide long-term economic, social and environmental benefits for NSW.
The policy specifies real action and timing and provides a roadmap on how we will transition to a circular economy.
It will inform the development of another key priority – the Plastics Plan, an ambitious, nation-leading comprehensive plan to deal with the issue of plastic waste in NSW.
The plan will look at options to reduce single-use plastics, prevent plastic litter, address the impact of microplastics and support plastics reuse in a circular economy.
Work on the plan is underway and community consultation will begin later this year.
If you want to see a model for how the government sees the future of waste management, you should take a look at the Return and Earn Scheme.
It's the most comprehensive litter reduction scheme in the state's history, and it delivers for the environment, the community and the industry.
More than two billion cans, bottles and plastic containers have been collected – waste that is definitely not going into our lakes, waterways, bushland or parkland.
More than $440,000 has been raised for important community work in New South Wales directly through Return and Earn.
And Return and Earn ensures high quality recyclables with low levels of contamination enters the recycling stream.
Many of these plastic, glass and aluminium containers collected under the scheme are processed for reuse within Australia.
The scheme is a benchmark of how industry, government and the community can work together to achieve great waste outcomes.
When we look at municipal solid waste – the everyday items we use and throw away – each person in NSW produces about 0.53 tonnes of waste. Across NSW, we produce around 21.4 million tonnes of waste per year.
Waste management is a huge environmental challenge. But it comes with enormous opportunity to innovate and do things differently, looking at new technologies to reduce the total impact of waste on our environment.
I am looking forward to working with industry, local government and our communities to deliver this ambitious agenda. We have an opportunity to deliver great outcomes for the people of NSW.
Matt Kean addresses industry at AWRE
NSW awards $1M to community recycling centres
Categories Last Word Tags COAG, Matt Kean, NSW
Victoria's Parliamentary Inquiry – five critical actions
The Victorian Parliamentary Inquiry has made 45 recommendations to advance Victoria's waste management and resource recovery system. NWRIC CEO Rose Read outlines which of these recommendations are critical to setting the state on the pathway to a circular economy.
For the past four years Victoria's waste and recycling system has been beset with a number of setbacks. From fires at material recycling facilities, illegal tyre and construction waste stockpiles to hazardous chemicals illegally buried or gone up in flames. The factors driving these setbacks are many. From criminal activity and substandard business practices, to unevenly policed regulations and China shutting its doors to poorly sorted materials.
In response to these challenges the Victorian Parliament's Environment and Planning Committee initiated an inquiry into waste management, receiving more than 90 submissions and presentations.
The result, over 45 sweeping recommendations touching on many elements of waste and resource recovery; from chemical and hazardous waste management, landfill levies, waste to energy infrastructure needs to organics recovery, product stewardship, household waste, kerbside services and community education.
The challenge now for the Victorian government is to determine which recommendations are mission critical. From a waste and recycling service provider perspective, the NWRIC is calling on the Victorian government to progress the following actions first.
Grow domestic markets
Create stronger market pull for recovered plastics, organics, paper, glass and tyres by requiring greater use of recovered materials in products, packaging and construction as well as compost to soils. This should be approached from three different angles.
Firstly, introduce recycled content requirements for state and local government procurement and an obligation for agencies to publicly report on compliance with these requirements. As well as support manufacturers to streamline the testing and standards development processes for products containing recycled materials, especially products purchased by government.
Secondly, require a minimum recycled content level in new packaging produced in Victoria and work with manufacturers to reduce their use of virgin plastics.
Thirdly, advocate for the Commonwealth Government to introduce import requirements for products to have packaging that contains recycled materials.
Improve source separation
Making it easier for the community and businesses to source separate by ensuring all local councils are compliant with Standards Australia policy on bin lid colours within 12 months, and improving the capacity of multi-unit developments to collect, sort and recycle household waste.
Introducing a container deposit scheme to supplement improved municipal kerbside recycling services is critical. As is rolling out a consistent FOGO collection scheme state-wide. Where appropriate, also consider adopting a fourth glass bin or removing glass from the yellow bin and provide drop off points.
Increasing funding of state-wide recycling education is essential, as is supporting the widespread adoption of the Australasian Recycling Label in Victoria.
Advocating to the Commonwealth Government for both a national battery and solar PV system product stewardship schemes urgently to remove dangerous and flammable items form the current collection systems.
Integrate local and state planning
Embed waste and recycling infrastructure plans into local and state planning regulations and plans. Planning for waste and recycling facilities has been a national challenge, and Victoria is no different.
Even though Victoria has a SWRRIP and Regional WRRIPs in place, a leading recycling facility owned by Alex Fraser Group in Clarinda is facing eviction. This facility processes close to one million tonnes, representing approximately 10 per cent of Victoria's recycling capacity.
This example illustrates the disconnect between waste and recycling infrastructure planning and local and state planning regulations and plans. Without strategically located dedicated sites for waste and recycling facilities, appropriate buffer zones, security of tenure industry cannot provide efficient and competitive resource recovery and waste management services to the community and businesses.
Expedite energy recovery
Implement energy recovery technologies in Victoria, to complement existing landfills and to better manage those materials that cannot be recycled.
While we all want to recover and recycle as much as possible there are some products and materials that are not suitable for recycling. Well-developed energy recovery facilities that meet all environmental and health outcomes have a role to play in optimising the recovery of embodied energy from those non-recyclable materials as well as dealing with contaminated biosolids currently being stockpiled in Victoria.
Reform landfill levies
Adjust the Municipal and Industrial Landfill Levy (MILL) and increase share of funds invested back into the sector. Any financial incentive to transport materials from or to other jurisdiction's landfills should be removed. The NWRIC White Paper on State Waste and Landfill Levies highlighted how interstate price differentials in levies has created a levy avoidance industry where potentially recyclable materials are ending up in landfill or illegal stockpiles.
The whitepaper also highlighted the lack of transparency, accountability and investment of levy funds back into the sector. As illustrated in Victoria where in excess of $500 million is sitting in the Sustainability Fund and the majority of expenditure from this fund has been on climate change activities rather than waste management and recycling initiatives.
The reporting of how the MILL funds are invested is also overly complex with little assessment of the effectiveness of investment on waste and recycling outcomes.
The NWRIC, looks forward to seeing how the soon to be released Victorian Circular Economy Policy and government budgets incorporate and fund the recommendations of the Parliamentary Inquiry and the outcomes from the Infrastructure and Landfill Levy reviews. If we are not reusing materials in products, packaging or construction or compost on soils we are not recycling let alone going circular.
VIC tables waste inquiry report
VIC councils awarded $1.25M for kerbside upgrades
NWRIC calls on VIC Premier to intervene in Alex Fraser decision
Categories Last Word Tags NWRIC, Rose Read, Victorian Parliamentary Inquiry
What do we need to do after MEM?
November 26, 2019 November 26, 2019 by Waste Management Review
Australian Council of Recycling CEO Pete Shmigel gives the recent Meeting of Environment Ministers a tick, but a number of areas don't pass muster. He explains why.
Read moreWhat do we need to do after MEM?
Categories Last Word Tags Australian Council of Recycling, COAG, Meeting of environment ministers, MEM, Pete Shmigel
Waste export bans won't deliver the National Waste Policy Action Plan resource recovery targets unless recycled materials are used in packaging, products and infrastructure, writes Rose Read, CEO of the National Waste and Recycling Industry Council.
Led by the Federal Environment Minister Sussan Ley, state and territory environment ministers agreed at their recent meeting on a timeline for COAG's waste export bans and signed off on the National Waste Policy Action Plan.
The proposed waste export bans in large are being introduced to reduce harm to human health and the environment overseas. But the likelihood of them delivering the 80 per cent resource recovery target by 2030, or the 70 per cent plastics recovery rate by 2025 on their own is low.
To achieve these resource recovery targets, the demand to use recovered materials locally needs to be fast tracked.
The environment ministers commitment on the 8th November to identify significant procurement opportunities such as major road projects that could use recycled material is a good start. As is prioritising work to develop specifications and standards for the use of recycled materials in building, construction and infrastructure development.
However, this will only increase demand for glass and crumbed tyres. It won't increase the demand for recovered plastic, paper and cardboard locally.
What is needed to create markets for plastics, paper and cardboard is legally requiring packaging companies, manufacturers and retailers to increase the proportion of recovered materials in packaging put onto the Australian market, including imports, as most of these materials come from overseas.
Some may say that manufacturers have already committed to this. But evidence to date suggests this is limited to one or two global brands that cover less than 40 per cent of the packaging market.
Likewise, none of the major supermarkets have committed to increase the proportion of recycled content in the packaged products they sell. Nor is there any commitment to indicate the level of recycled content on packaging to give consumers the choice to buy recycled.
On the phased timings proposed to implement the export ban:
The NWRIC considers the timeline for mixed plastics is insufficient for industry to purchase and install equipment, especially as there are limited markets.
The timeframe should be extended to match the 2025 APCO recycle content target. If the government wants this to progress more quickly, manufacturers should be required to meet specific plastic recycled content targets sooner.
The NWRIC also does not support the banning of single resin/polymer plastics that have not been processed (e.g. cleaned and baled PET), nor the banning of baled paper and cardboard. Both these recyclates have legitimate overseas markets, clearly demonstrating they are value added products that will not have a negative impact on human health or the environment.
To give government confidence that there will be no harm to human health and the environment overseas, exporters should be able to verify their downstream pathways and material recovery rates with the aid of third-party audits.
Submissions in response to the government's discussion paper on implementing the banning exports of waste plastic, paper, glass and tyres discussion paper are due by 3 December 2019.
MEM sets waste ban timeline, but several "missteps"
Waste export bans are one part of the solution
Tyrecycle questions export ban delay
Categories Last Word Tags COAG, export ban, National Waste Policy Action Plan, Rose Read
Time to get Australia's product stewardship back on track
October 30, 2019 October 30, 2019 by Waste Management Review
Product stewardship is an effective way to deliver cost effective solutions that minimise the impact of products, goods and materials on the environment and human health. Product stewardship is also an important tool that can drive resource recovery and the circular economy in Australia, writes Rose Read, CEO of the National Waste and Recycling Industry Council.
What exactly is product stewardship? Simply, producers take responsibility to minimise the human health and environmental impacts of their products throughout their complete life cycle.
From designing out waste to recycling at the end of life and everything in between.
Producers, manufacturers, brands and/or retailers take the primary responsibility and work with their supply chains (upstream and downstream) and customers to minimise harm to human health and the environment.
Product stewardship has been part of Australia's regulatory framework since the late 1990's. However, it has had a very stop and start history due to inconsistent government willingness to put in place the necessary regulatory and policy frameworks essential to make producer responsibility possible.
From 1998 through to 2001 there was a flurry of regulatory and voluntary activity with the establishment of the Used Packaging National Environment Protection Measure in 1998 and the Product Stewardship (Oil) Act in 2000.
At the same time industry led voluntary schemes for mobile phones (MobileMuster) and farm chemical containers (DrumMuster) kicked off. Meanwhile, various pilot take-back projects started for select IT equipment and televisions. As part of its 2001 Waste Avoidance and Resource Recovery Act, the NSW Government introduced a provision to establish extended producer responsibility (EPR) schemes in NSW.
However, for the next decade little progress was made in addressing the growing impacts of products on the environment due to governments' ongoing preference for voluntary, industry-led product stewardship programs.
Fortunately, in 2011 the Federal Government took the lead, stepped up and introduced the Product Stewardship Act, which is a robust piece of legislation that provides a framework for government and industry to reduce the impacts of products on the environment and society.
The first suite of products to be addressed under the Act were televisions, computers, printers and accessories. Within 12 months the Product Stewardship (Television and Computers) Regulation was passed establishing the National Television and Computer Recycling Scheme (NTCRS) requiring all companies who import or manufacture these products in Australia to provide free, reasonable accessible collection services, achieve agreed collection and recovery targets.
The result, within five years collection rates jumped from 18 per cent (under sporadic voluntary programs) to 60 per cent. Australia's e-waste collection and recycling capacity increased, creating jobs and revenue for Australia at minimal cost to local councils, state or federal governments. Not to mention hundreds of thousands of tonnes of electronic waste being diverted from landfills. With, more than 90 per cent of the materials recovered to an Australian Standard for reuse.
Unfortunately, though, the impetus government for smart, cost effective regulation to create a level playing field for producers was short lived. As eight years on all we have is a suite of poor performing, partly industry funded, voluntary schemes for tyres, paint, printer cartridges, and mattresses.
Plus, we still don't have any form of producer responsibility scheme for batteries, other electronics or photovoltaics. Even though these products have been on the product priority list for up to six years.
But fingers crossed, with the new Federal Government's election commitment of $20 million for product stewardship the tide is changing. However, we have yet to hear from the government as to how it will invest these funds. Let alone what the outcomes from the Product Stewardship Act Review are, which was initiated way back in 2017.
So, here are a few suggestions to help them get things moving.
Do not change the objects of the Act. They are fine. Just get on and implement them.
Using regulation effectively and efficiently
Free riding is the biggest barrier to getting producer stewardship schemes up and running. To solve this problem, amend the Act so that when a product is placed on the priority list all organisations who put those products in to the Australia market must either:
register and establish a voluntary accredited scheme either as part of the government's process or on their own within a given timeframe, or
be a member of an existing accredited voluntary scheme.
If not, they will be required to pay an agreed advance recycling fee for each unit placed on the market to the Product Stewardship Fund, which will be used to support local and state government activity in recovering and dealing with the product.
To ensure the APCO packaging targets are met within the required timeframes, establish a regulation under the Act that replaces the Used Packaging NEPM and call out these targets, with penalties similar to the NTCRS for failure to meet the targets.
Getting the priorities right
Batteries and photovoltaics, given the diversity of both these industries free rider regulation needs to be put in place. A voluntary approach will not work. Therefore, resources should be applied to establish the necessary regulations under the Act and assist the industry in getting these two schemes up and running by the end of 2020.
Expand the scope of the NTCRS to include all electronics. The ACT, SA and Victoria have all banned e-waste from landfills. This means the cost of collecting and processing these products is unfairly being borne by local councils and state governments rather than the producers and users.
Making Voluntary Accreditation Meaningful
Amend the voluntary accreditation system to a three-tiered approach:
Tier 1 – companies register to develop a voluntary scheme within 12 months that includes a three-year product stewardship business plan.
Tier 2 – companies apply for accreditation by submitting a three-year product stewardship business plan.
Tier 3 – companies apply for renewal of accreditation by submitting a five- year product stewardship business plan.
At each tier the Federal Government will provide funding (on a dollar for dollar basis) and/or in-kind resources for any of the following activities – material flow analysis, risk assessment, cost sharing agreements, market development, communications, governance compliance requirements, industry and stakeholder engagement, business planning assistance. As well as government accreditation and access to product stewardship logo.
The first priority would be to have the current suite of voluntary programs for tyres (TSA), paint (Paint Back), farm chemical drums (DrumMuster, ChemClear), printer cartridges (Cartridges for Planet Ark), soft plastics (Redcycle) become accredited. Why? To increase industry participation, improve performance and transparency and to promote them to the community.
The second priority would be to encourage other companies and industries to apply to become accredited through direct approaches and greater engagement with industry.
It's time for the new Minister for Environment and Energy and her Assistant Minister for Waste Reduction and Environmental Management to turn their election promises into action. It's also time for state and territory governments to get behind the federal government's product stewardship commitment by contributing matching dollars to the National Product Stewardship Fund.
If the federal government doesn't get going soon waste will continue to be exported. Landfills will fill up with products that leach potentially harmful substances. Stockpiles and risk of fires will continue to grow due to lack of markets and infrastructure to process products. Batteries will continue contaminate kerbside bins, causing explosions and fires, putting recyclers and infrastructure at risk. Potentially recyclable, rare and valuable resources will be lost.
Reviewing the PSA
Mandatory product stewardship cost on consumers calculated
Levy reform urgently needed
Categories Last Word Tags NWRIC, product stewardship, Rose Read
October 11, 2019 by Waste Management Review
A national approach to levy pricing, adoption of the levy portability principle by all jurisdictions, and more transparent management of levy funds are urgently required, writes Rose Read, CEO of the National Waste and Recycling Industry Council.
Waste or landfill levies are a key regulatory tool used to improve recycling and fund environmental liabilities from waste generation. They have a significant effect on both the commercial environment of nearly every waste and recycling business and community behaviour. They also generate significant amounts of funds for each jurisdiction. Therefore, carefully considered levy regulations nationwide are essential to advancing Australia towards a circular economy.
The National Waste and Recycling Industry Council (NWRIC) has recently undertaken a review of the current status of waste and landfill levies across Australia (see www.nwric.com.au). It examines by jurisdiction, how much the levies are, what waste types are levied, where and when they apply, how they are administered, the amount of funds raised each year and how these funds are spent.
It also analysed the impacts and benefits of these levies on waste and recycling outcomes across Australia and identified a number of issues that need to be addressed urgently to ensure the levies achieve what they were set out to do and not drive waste down the hierarchy.
Waste/landfill levies were first introduced in 1971 by NSW at a $0.56 per tonne. Since then South Australia, Victoria, Western Australia and Queensland have introduced levies. In 2018-19 rates ranged in price from $0 to $250 with an estimated $1.13 billion raised. In 2019-20 this is expected to increase to $1.54 billion with the introduction of the waste levy in Queensland. This will equate to approximately $58 per capita per year, up from $39 per capita per year in 2018-19.
Of the $1.13 billion funds raised in 2018-19, an estimated $282 million or 25 per cent nationally was reinvested into activities relating to waste and recycling, state EPA's or climate change (in the case of Victoria). At a state level the reinvestment rate of the levy ranged from 10.9 per cent in NSW, 25 per cent in WA, 66 per cent in Victoria to 73 per cent in South Australia. Funds not reinvested were either retained in consolidated revenue (as in the case of NSW and WA) or retained in nominated funds such as Victoria's Sustainability Fund, SA's Green Industries Fund or SA's Environment Protection Fund where some of the funds may be invested in various non-waste or recycling related environmental activities.
In 2019-20 it is estimated that of the $1.54 billion in funds raised, around $569 million or 37 per cent will be reinvested into waste and recycling activities. This increase can largely be attributed to the Queensland government's commitment to reinvest over 70 per cent of the levy, with local councils receiving 105 per cent of their levy contribution
On the positive side, the levies have increased resource recovery over time and enabled the commercial development of local resource recovery businesses including material recovery facilities, processing facilities for plastics, paper, cardboard, glass, timber, organics, alternate waste treatment plants and waste-to-energy facilities for fuel manufacture, thermal and electricity generation.
The levies have also funded various waste and recycling initiatives. These range from state EPA and local government environmental compliance activities, community and business waste and recycling education campaigns, research and development, data collection, construction of new infrastructure by local government and private enterprise, to cleaning up waste and pollution generated from illegal actions.
On the negative side however, differentials in levies across regions and between states has created a levy avoidance industry, both legal and illegal, resulting in potentially recyclable material ending up in landfill, and hazardous material being disposed of inappropriately. This has become big business particularly in NSW and WA due to the significant variability of levy rates for solid, hazardous and liquid wastes. It is estimated that between 1.5 million to three million tonnes of waste has been transported per annum either significant distances to landfills where levies do not apply, dumped into the environment, stockpiled or in the case of hazardous wastes hidden or mislabelled to reduce or avoid state levies.
Key learnings from this analysis are the vastly different approaches states and territories take to levies. This ranges from how much is charged between regions and states, what wastes are levied (e.g. solid, liquid, hazardous or prescribed) and how they are defined, where liability for the levy is charged, how the levy is administered and how levy funds are managed and reinvested into activities to improve waste and recycling practices and reported on.
Of major concern is the lack of transparency in most jurisdictions of how many funds are collected per year, how and where they are invested in waste and recycling activities and assessment of the effectiveness of the investment in achieving waste and recycling strategies and targets.
The NWRIC believes there is an urgent need to reform the current state levy structures, pricing, administration and investment management. It is critical this reform is done in a coordinated manner between all state and territories to remove interstate inconsistencies that are clearly driving poor waste disposal behaviours contrary to the objects of the levy to increase resource recovery and environmental protection.
This will be the only way to ensure the best return on investment of levy funds in delivering better waste management and resource outcomes expected by the community.
This article appeared in the October edition of Waste Management Review, some figures have been changed.
Industry responds to SA waste levy increase
QLD councils to receive waste levy payments
Looking into a later levy
Categories Last Word Tags levy, NWRIC, Rose Read, White Pap
Tightening standards to build markets for recycled organics
October 9, 2019 October 9, 2019 by Waste Management Review
The drive to divert organic waste from landfill around Australia has created a supply of recycled organics that remains largely underutilised and undervalued, writes Angus Johnston, Principal Consultant at Jackson Environment and Planning.
Too much organic material is released as low-quality pasteurised products, containing too much contamination. Due to the policies and regulations of state and federal governments, a lot more supply will come on-line in the next five years. There remains an urgent need to tighten standards for compost use and build markets that will absorb this supply.
Urban markets for compost (e.g. landscape supplies) are well developed but highly competitive, because supply often exceeds demand. These markets cannot consistently use all the organic matter available for recycling. Using compost for gardens and landscaping also squanders the opportunity to return carbon and nutrients to the soils they were extracted from — the farms where our food and fibre are grown.
Fortunately, there is enormous potential demand for use of compost in agriculture. At an average annual application rate of 10 tonnes per hectare, we only need 100,000 hectares to absorb one million tonnes of compost.
There is roughly 65 million hectares of farmland in NSW alone. However, this demand can only be accessed at the right price, quality and specification. That price doesn't have to be low, but quality and performance absolutely must be high.
The highly regulated nature of the organic recycling sector means that state and local government can strongly influence whether compost price and quality conditions are met by industry. Industry can also play a role by agreeing on and adopting higher product standards.
Organics recycling is suffering from the same issues that caused the China National Sword packaging crisis.
Local government procurement of recycling services often has a much greater focus on transfer of risk and price than on recycled product quality, beneficial use and value adding. This approach creates an incentive for contractors to do the minimum processing necessary to divert waste from landfill and comply with state government regulations. They then release these low-quality outputs into the market as 'compost'.
Low quality products that cost less to manufacture can then be sold at a lower price point. Such products undermine the market for higher quality products that cost more to produce. If a farmer can purchase a product claiming to be 'compost' for $10 per tonne (delivered), why would they pay $100 per tonne?
If that low-cost compost does not deliver enough tangible result, or is clearly full of rubbish, farmers often apply their negative experience to every product claiming to be a compost. Only a few farmers take the time to understand the difference in value between the $10 and $100 product.
This scenario has played out repeatedly in agricultural and other compost end markets, and is still happening right now around the country.
Every time contaminated immature products are sold as "compost" we undermine the credibility of compost and organic recycling. There are producers that make quality fit-for-purpose composts and have built up trust for their brand in certain markets. They can command high prices for their products, however, they are the exception rather than the rule.
There needs to be tighter standards and improved quality assurance and quality control. For example:
Mandatory requirement for independently audited quality assurance programs at each processing facility
Regular auditing of batch test results to requirements of the relevant Resource Recovery Orders and Exemptions (in NSW) or equivalent standards in other states
Physical contamination requirements reduced to 0.2 per cent (plastic, glass and metal) and 0.02 per cent (film plastic) by weight for all soil conditioners
Soil conditioners to meet the AS4454 definition of compost or mature compost (not just pasteurisation)
Define compost using selected test results (such as respirometry) rather than a minimum six weeks process duration
Some established commercial composters may see the tighter standards above as a threat because their current operations have been set up to meet lower standards. Many are locked into long-term contracts at set gate fees. This is where state and local governments have a role in supporting industry to make a transition to higher standards by helping to fund facility upgrades, allowing variations to contracts, and regulating free riders who don't adopt tighter voluntary standards.
There is a cost to implementing higher standards, but there are also rewards:
Access to much greater demand from agricultural markets
Fewer complaints from the public and customers
Fewer fines and less negative attention from the regulators
Reduced product related risk
Higher barriers to entry for new competitors
A more 'level playing field' during tendering
The packaging recyclers did not seek to tighten their own standards and neither did the processors of mixed waste in NSW. Both groups could have agreed to produce cleaner products to a higher standard but chose not to. For these recyclers either their customers or their regulators decided to tighten their standards for them, at great financial and reputational cost to the recyclers involved. Some businesses didn't survive the change.
Tighter standards need to be introduced in consultation with all stakeholders, and with time allowed for the industry and their customers to adapt.
The Australian Organics Recycling Association provides an ideal forum for industry led tightening and enforcement of standards.
Raising the bar for composting in Australia
Composting remains our biggest recycling opportunity
NSW EPA: let's chat compost
Categories Last Word Tags Angus Johnston, compost, organics
September 25, 2019 September 25, 2019 by Waste Management Review
The Prime Minister's August announcement to ban the export several waste types is a welcomed development. It has the potential to reboot local reprocessing and markets for recovered materials, writes Rose Read, CEO of the National Waste and Recycling Industry Council.
First, just the facts. As part of the Council of Australian Governments communique on 9 August 2019, the Prime Minister, along with the states and territories announced:
"Leaders agreed Australia should establish a timetable to ban the export of waste plastic, paper, glass and tyres – while building Australia's capacity to generate high value recycled commodities and associated demand."
Further, the communique also said:
— "Leaders agreed the strategy must seek to reduce waste, especially plastics,"
— The government will work to; "decrease the amount of waste going to landfill and maximise the capability of our waste management and recycling sector to collect, recycle, reuse, convert and recover waste,"
— "The strategy should draw on the best science, research and commercial experience, including that of agencies like the CSIRO and the work of Cooperative Research Centres."
These developments are a decisive push in the right direction. However, there are two key elements that need to be addressed to achieve its intention of stopping waste being dumped in developing countries, and stimulating Australia's resource recovery industry.
These two elements are: building markets at home and clearly specifying how waste paper, plastic, tyres or glass must be processed to become a resource suitable for manufacturing.
Building markets at home
In regard to building markets, two key priority materials stand out. The first is plastics. In order to use the plastics we currently export at home, we will need to increase domestic reuse of plastics by more than 180,000 tonnes per year. To use those plastics here, every Australian would need to purchase products that contain an additional seven kilograms of recycled plastic per year. This still only represents seven per cent of the total plastic waste produced by Australians annually.
Using plastics in civil infrastructure will help. Examples include street furniture, decking by local councils and railway sleepers such as the recent project by Sustainability Victoria, Integrated Recycling and Metro Trains. Integrated Recycling say more than one million railway sleepers in Australia need to be replaced, so just creating railways sleepers from mixed plastics could create a market for up to one quarter the plastics we previously sent overseas.
However, clearly higher end markets for plastics are also desirable, especially putting PET and HDPE back into packaging. These higher end markets will create the necessary pull to stimulate development of Australia's reprocessing capacity and the collection systems to ensure quality material.
The second market is tyres. According to the Federal Department of the Environment and Energy, Australians generate in excess of 400,000 tonnes of end of life tyres per year. Plenty of scope remains for creating local markets for tyre derived products. Key products produced from tyres include rubber crumb, or explosives and adhesives. Likewise, waste tyres can become high quality engineered fuels for local or export markets.
Positive procurement by local and state governments as well as businesses including the waste and recycling industry is also urgently needed. As consumers of products and materials we must match our rhetoric with action by preferentially purchasing products with recycled content.
Clear specifications and definitions necessary
Clearly, the intention of these bans is to stop the export of unprocessed waste to countries that do not have the ability to process it responsibly. So to untangle this problem, the first step is to have a clear definition of waste.
State and Territory EPAs have done preliminary work in this area as part of their domestic landfill bans, which identify certain goods and materials that should be processed and not buried. Examples include whole baled tyres, whole cars and white goods, all of which are banned from landfill in South Australia.
The next step is to define and agree nationally what minimum material specifications must be met before each waste material type becomes a resource suitable for manufacture locally or overseas.
To some this may seem simple, but in reality it is quite difficult as currently each state and territory have a different approach to this problem. For example in NSW, 'Resource Recovery Exemptions and Orders' are used. In Queensland, there is an 'end of waste (EOW) framework' of the Waste Reduction and Recycling Act 2011.
This divergence in approaches will need to be resolved urgently, as national agreement on 'waste' and 'resource' definitions will be key for the COAG's national ban on the export of waste paper, glass, plastics and tyres is to be successful.
In closing, this approach should also be harmonised with the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes, which has recently expanded its scope to include various plastics. It should be noted that the Australian Government has yet to ratify these latest changes to the Basel Convention.
COAG proposes export ban
Industry welcomes COAG recycling pledge
NWRIC meets with ministers
Categories Last Word Tags COAG, export ban, NWRIC, Rose Read


For two days we will be birding around Vanua Levu at the Silktail stakeout and around the Daku Resort area. We will spend time looking for more of the Fijian specialties listed above, but we'll also search for the little-known, endemic Silktail, along with Orange Fruit Dove, Maroon Shining Parrot, Fiji Shrikebill, and Island Thrush (different subspecies to those on other islands we've visited so far).
All day we'll be birding for lowland and highland endemics on Upolu. We'll spend the whole day, and most of the next one, searching for birds such as Crimson-crowned Fruit-Dove, Cardinal Myzomela, Polynesian Wattled Honeyeater, Buff-banded Rail, Blue-crowned Lorikeet, Mao (a friarbird-like honeyeater), Red-headed Parrotfinch, Pacific Imperial Pigeon, Metallic Pigeon, Many-colored Fruit Dove, Samoan Triller, and Samoan Flycatcher,and we look for (or dream of) the mythical Tooth-billed Pigeon.


Current mix design standards are mainly of the prescriptive type, i.e. recipe-based specifications that prescribe limiting values for certain mix design parameters, such as minimum cement content and maximum water/binder ratio. This has numerous economical, technical and environmental disadvantages and is one of the driving factors behind the development of performance-based specifications to act as alternative means of design of concrete mixes. Such an alternative method in South Africa is the Durability Index (DI) Approach, which has grown increasingly in use.
Despite this, a dominant assumption among professionals in the industry is that the durability of a concrete mixture is directly proportional to its binder content. This results in uneconomical, unsustainable and often non-durable concretes due to various implications of high cement contents such as high costs (cement is the most expensive constituent of concrete), thermal effects and Alkali-Silica reactions. This research will aim to link mix design parameters such as binder content and water/binder ratio, as well as mechanical properties such as compressive strength, to concrete durability so as to review issues behind the specification of minimum cement contents and obtain findings that will potentially bring about sensible and justifiable changes to mix design specifications and standards.


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Highway worker dies in hit-and-run on SR 347, 2nd worker death this year
Jamie Landers
For the second time this year, a highway crew member was struck and killed by a vehicle in a maintenance work zone on an Arizona highway.
The Native American employee, whose identity was not released, was working for a local contractor along State Route 347 near Casa Blanca Road in Sacaton when he was hit around 9:30 p.m. Wednesday, according to a release from the Arizona Department of Transportation.
The employee was part of a crew working to improve the pavement surface along SR 347 in Sacaton. Crews have been sealing pavement cracks in recent weeks during overnight hours in areas between Interstate 10 and Hathaway Avenue.
Tamatha Villar, a spokesperson with The Gila River Police Department, said the driver of the vehicle fled the scene. The only description officers have from witnesses is that it was a small passenger car.
Traffic investigators are asking anyone with information to contact the Gila River Police Department at 520-562-4511.
"Highway construction and maintenance jobs are among the most dangerous in the nation," said ADOT Director John Halikowski in the ADOT release. "While this tragic event remains under investigation, it is again a reminder that drivers need to stay alert when approaching and traveling through work zones.
"Sadly, a family has lost a loved one. We hope all drivers will take that to heart," he said.
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In March, ADOT Incident Response Unit member Frank Dorizio was fatally struck by a vehicle while helping to set up a sign alerting drivers to pavement repairs along I-10 southeast of the Phoenix area. Dorizio was the first since 1998 to be struck and killed while working along a highway.
"Our goal at ADOT is to get everyone safely home with improvements that are made to your highways," said Halikowski. "We need all drivers to treat our dedicated highway workers as family members, close friends or neighbors. Please watch out for them."
Reach the reporter Jamie Landers at jamie.landers@arizonarepublic.com. Follow her on Twitter @jamielanderstv.


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Home » » Policy » Further delays on aviation beggar belief, says Norfolk Chamber
Further delays on aviation beggar belief, says Norfolk Chamber
Commenting on reports that the government's consultation on aviation capacity will be delayed, Caroline Williams, CEO Norfolk Chamber of Commerce, said:
"The government has spent years working on a strategy for UK aviation, so reports that there will be yet more delays beggar belief. Businesses are tired of indecision and equivocation on aviation. Ministers can't tell businesses to look for new opportunities in emerging markets like Brazil and China, and then fail to provide the basic infrastructure needed to get there.
The consequences of inaction are stark. If the government does not act swiftly to increase capacity in the South East, strengthen our regional airports, and support the development of more connections to emerging markets, the UK will lose both investment and jobs. Our research shows that business leaders in high growth or emerging economies see direct air links as vital to maintaining the UK's prospects in global markets. Nine out of ten (92%) of these business leaders say direct flights influence their inward investment decisions; while eight in ten (80%) say they would trade more with the UK if flight connections were improved to their home markets.
Trade with fast-growing markets requires Britain to have a strong, resilient hub airport. New runways, at Heathrow and elsewhere, will be required to safeguard the UK's status as a global aviation hub in both the short and long term.
Continued delays only put the UK further at a competitive disadvantage. Aviation strategy must be at the heart of a credible plan for growth, not a political football."
Concerns raised over "agonisingly slow" A47 project
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