Stage One Proposal: Waste Reduction
by Jake Combe and Charleen Morris – October 2021
Re-connecting on Christmas Island, Charleen and Jake quickly developed a mutual respect for one another through their shared interest in the island’s waste management and sustainability problems.
They recognised the opportunity for the detention centre, as one of the primary contributors of waste on the island, to action environmental change that would deliver an initiative to achieve its stated ambition of avoiding and reducing resource use, and avoiding landfill.
Outside of work, Charleen and Jake co-authored a research based waste management proposal for the Shire of Christmas Island and the detention centre, which was positively received, a project that demonstrated a pathway to significantly reduce and/or eliminate the use of single-use plastics.
Project Overview
On Christmas Island it is easy to look around, disappointed by foreign waste that has travelled to our shores and washed upon the beaches. But that doesn’t mean we should ignore our own responsibilities to waste management and our contribution to plastic and waste pollution that has occurred on the island.
The staff and detainee population of the Immigration Detention Centre (IDC) contributes to approximately 25 per cent of the total Christmas Island population, which creates a unique opportunity – perhaps unlike any other location in the world to take the initiative regarding the island’s waste crisis and support the improvement of the current back-dated waste management practices.
With such a large footprint, thoughtful methods can implement change on a grand scale in this community that could become a blueprint for its other operations, and a leading example to other companies.
This project has been designed in a scalable way to enable each stage to build upon the success of previous stages.
Stage One seeks modest improvements in reducing waste and increase sustainable work practices to demonstrate corporate social responsibility and relationship building with key stakeholders. Subsequent stages, outlined below, builds upon the corporate social responsible generated from Stage One.
Contents
- Executive summary 3
- Project Overview 4
- Goals and Objectives 4
- Project stages and milestones 4
- Key stakeholders 5
- Stage One: Waste Reduction 6
(a) A cost-effective solution for CIIDC food waste 6
(b) Reduction in single use plastic waste 7
Replacement of single use containers with partitioned service trays 7
Partitioned service trays made from BioCane 8
(c) Waste reduction assessment and purchasing to reduce waste 8
(c) Benefits of Waste Reduction 9
Program Elements 10 - Projected costs of Stage One implementation 10
- Management support required 11
Further information 12