Trash talking in Tasmania is usually around sport or GST distribution, but there are calls this week to make the state the waste research centre of Australia.

GreenCell chairman Ian Wright has spent decades researching ways of turning waste into valuable products.

He now wants Hobart to be set up as Australia’s centre for waste research.

“Australia is a leader in environmental research, and Hobart in particular – that’s why I want to do it here,” he told ABC Radio.

“People of Tasmania are a lot more proactive than people in the other states.”

The proposed waste management research facility would work in a similar way to the CSIRO and the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies (IMAS), to coordinate and collate research into ways to reduce waste and reuse products such as plastics.

Creating a central research facility is one of the aims of the Waste Management Association of Australia (WMAA), which also works to lobby state and federal governments to create more uniform waste policies across the country.

Working together to reduce landfill

Brad Mashman, managing director of Recovery (Tas) Pty Ltd and a member of WMAA, said having more uniform waste policies and targets would help Australia reduce its landfill problem.

“It’s really about setting goals,” Mr Mashman said.

“That needs to come out of Commonwealth programs, but also state governments need to be clearer and conclusive on the goals they set for each state, because waste doesn’t really change from state to state.”

Brad Mashman started Australia’s first tip shop in Tasmania more than 20 years ago. Photo: ABC

Mr Mashman said the Four Corners episode Trashed had exposed the gaps in Australia’s current waste management programs and how the different ways local councils managed waste could be exploited.

Having a central research facility and coordinated waste management procedures would help prevent this, he said.

“A lot of people generally think that Australia is doing the right thing around waste, but that’s only in pockets,” Mr Mashman said.

“Our intention is to work with University of Tasmania, for example, to make sure those pockets are pulled together into a research facility.”

Mr Mashman said it was up to governments to set a direction to allow and encourage enterprise to find profits with waste solutions.

“In the ’90s Tassie was leading in waste reform, particularly in up-cycling,” he said.

“What’s really good about Tasmania is that there’s lots of public and private entities working towards a better outcome.

“We do have the election coming up in March and that’s what we’re focused on, in seeing who’s interested up to that point, and there’s interest from every party in Tasmania.”

-ABC