blue plastic wheelsResource Efficiency

When we are buying or manufacturing a product, we need to consider its whole lifecycle, including its design, manufacture, packaging, transport, use and then re-use or recycling.

At present, materials are extracted from the earth, used for a limited period and then returned to the earth or to the atmosphere in a different form as "waste".  This approach has massive social and ecological costs for every person on earth. 

In Brisbane alone, each person generates roughly 1,000kgs of waste per year.  This includes 500kgs of household waste and a further 500kgs if the waste generated by industry is included.  This does not include the waste that is generated at every stage of the production process in the form of water, air and soil pollution.

Reverse Garbage aims to keep materials cycling within the economy, reducing the demand for "new" raw materials as well as reducing the environmental impact of waste.

We encourage:

  • Reduced consumption
  • Re-use of the material in the same application
  • Re-use of the material in a different application
  • Recycling as a last resort.

Billions of tonnes of useful materials are wasted despite the possibilities for re-use or re-cycling.  This provides a real opportunity for arbitrage - collecting materials from people who place little or no value on them and selling them to people who place a higher value on them. This is the basis of the work of Reverse Garbage.  We aim to reduce waste and to encourage the creative and efficient use of resources.