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Why our waste should be seen as a valuable resource

Last updated: Jun 6, 2022

Summary

BINGO doesn’t see trash when it looks at the waste it collects; it sees valuable resources that can be recovered and used again. Established in 2005 as a family-owned collections business, hiring out skip bins and collecting building and demolition waste, it recognised the opportunity to do something with what it was collecting. Choosing to make recycling a central part of its business strategy, it has since evolved into one of Australia’s principal waste recovery and management companies, setting industry-leading recovery rates and energising the market for recycled building and landscaping products.

Problem

The waste generated by the Construction and Demolition (C&D) and Commercial and Industrial (C&I) sectors comprises three quarters of the total core waste generated in Australia.

Solution

Rather than sending materials to landfill, BINGO developed the infrastructure needed to sort and recover waste and remanufacture recycled products. The company processes these materials into its ECO Product range of recycled aggregate, road base, mulch and cleaned sand and soils.

Opening in 2021, BINGO’s Recycling Ecology Park in Western Sydney’s Eastern Creek is a state-of-the-art recycling facility that aims to have an impressive 90 per cent recovery rate.

BINGO also engages with industry and governments to help generate the end markets needed to make circular solutions the preferable and cheaper option.

Outcome

When it comes to building and landscaping supplies, virgin materials can be up to 500 per cent more expensive than recycled materials. BINGO's bedding sand is a great example of how you can save during construction – a tonne of ECO Product Bedding Sand will cost you $12.50 compared with $61 per tonne of virgin material. That is a mark-up of 508 per cent! When you factor in the environmental savings, the choice to use recycled product is simple.

Choosing recycled over virgin products also delivers significant environmental savings. Keeping these materials in circulation for as long as possible preserves their embodied energy, protects finite resources and reduces greenhouse gas emissions. Through resource recovery, BINGO abated 324,723 tonnes of C02-e emissions in FY20.