Episode 2: In which we are introduced to Kimbriki tip
According to its CEO, Kimbriki is a 'small boutique tip'. For starters, this may challenge what you've always associated with the description 'small boutique', but in the lexicon of waste management, what works for hotels, bars, fashion stores or galleries works just as well for tips. Nestled in bushland between Frenches Forest and Mona Vale in Sydney's affluent northern suburbs, it presents as a showcase of sustainable waste management.
The manager of operations, Peter (the default name here is Peter - there seem to be several of them), believes that because of their location the local community has a high awareness of what constitutes good waste management, hence, levels of contamination in the recycling collections is minimal and people are very happy with the councils' four-bin collection system.
Certainly, an initial visual inspection of the separate piles of paper and commingled recycling that had come in this morning in the collection trucks revealed very little contamination: a sheet of plastic was evident amongst the piles of paper and a length of garden hose in with the other recycled material was all that I saw. Further down the hill the same was true with the green waste - mountains of clippings, prunings, branches and other garden waste awaiting chipping and on-site composting and not a single non-compostable item in evidence.
Kimbriki also has a demonstration-education centre, the Eco House and Garden, separate dumping areas for metal, electronic waste, tyres, matresses and concrete and other demolition waste, and wood waste, all of which are managed separately. Then there's the landfill, which is also continuously monitored for any items which may have a resale/reuse value and which are salvaged and placed for sale in the BuyBack section.
The overriding impression is one of orderliness and industriousness. Heavy machinery and garbage trucks move around the site continually. Despite Sydney having received a weekend drenching of around 100mms of rain, a water truck sprays the dirt roads on site to supress dust. Local residents and tradesmen in cars, utes and trucks drive in and out to the various dumping areas.
My induction and guided tour gave me the overview of the operations. Tomorrow I start to delve down into the details of what happens to the mountains of plastics and paper, the TVs (95% of which are in good working order, according to Peter), computers, twisted metal and old tyres.
The guys at Kimbriki are justifiably proud of what they do. The facility has been there since 1974 and will be there for a long time to come. They talk positively about changing people's behaviour and how kids are the catalyst for such change. The main thing that sets this facility apart from others in the Sydney metropolitan area is that Kimbriki is owned by the local councils of Pittwater, Mosman, Manly and Warringah and managed by a Board. It is not owned or managed by any of the big waste companies, most of which are multinationals. This means that the ownership and management have a strong vested interest in ensuring long-term ecologically and socially sustainable management. Keeping waste management local is a far preferable alternative than handing contracts over to the multinationals that will dig a hole, fill it with garbage, then when it's full, bulldoze it over, take the money and bugger off.
There's a lot to be said for small, boutique tips.
The manager of operations, Peter (the default name here is Peter - there seem to be several of them), believes that because of their location the local community has a high awareness of what constitutes good waste management, hence, levels of contamination in the recycling collections is minimal and people are very happy with the councils' four-bin collection system.
Certainly, an initial visual inspection of the separate piles of paper and commingled recycling that had come in this morning in the collection trucks revealed very little contamination: a sheet of plastic was evident amongst the piles of paper and a length of garden hose in with the other recycled material was all that I saw. Further down the hill the same was true with the green waste - mountains of clippings, prunings, branches and other garden waste awaiting chipping and on-site composting and not a single non-compostable item in evidence.
Kimbriki also has a demonstration-education centre, the Eco House and Garden, separate dumping areas for metal, electronic waste, tyres, matresses and concrete and other demolition waste, and wood waste, all of which are managed separately. Then there's the landfill, which is also continuously monitored for any items which may have a resale/reuse value and which are salvaged and placed for sale in the BuyBack section.
The overriding impression is one of orderliness and industriousness. Heavy machinery and garbage trucks move around the site continually. Despite Sydney having received a weekend drenching of around 100mms of rain, a water truck sprays the dirt roads on site to supress dust. Local residents and tradesmen in cars, utes and trucks drive in and out to the various dumping areas.
My induction and guided tour gave me the overview of the operations. Tomorrow I start to delve down into the details of what happens to the mountains of plastics and paper, the TVs (95% of which are in good working order, according to Peter), computers, twisted metal and old tyres.
The guys at Kimbriki are justifiably proud of what they do. The facility has been there since 1974 and will be there for a long time to come. They talk positively about changing people's behaviour and how kids are the catalyst for such change. The main thing that sets this facility apart from others in the Sydney metropolitan area is that Kimbriki is owned by the local councils of Pittwater, Mosman, Manly and Warringah and managed by a Board. It is not owned or managed by any of the big waste companies, most of which are multinationals. This means that the ownership and management have a strong vested interest in ensuring long-term ecologically and socially sustainable management. Keeping waste management local is a far preferable alternative than handing contracts over to the multinationals that will dig a hole, fill it with garbage, then when it's full, bulldoze it over, take the money and bugger off.
There's a lot to be said for small, boutique tips.
Think Waterworld meets Twilight in the land b4 time. I love my adopted family in the world of rhythm n rhyme. I dance with birds n sing with frogs. Listen 2 da weather. I'll forget U never. But protect U I must cos I love a littl less fuss. Safer that way :-). I live 2 fight another day. Cos life is grand. In the heartland
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