A WESTERN Australian not-for-profit organisation has proved the old saying that one man's trash is another man's treasure, by recycling waste materials from mine sites and donating the proceeds to charity.
A WESTERN Australian not-for-profit organisation has proved the old saying that one man's trash is another man's treasure, by recycling waste materials from mine sites and donating the proceeds to charity.
In 1996, environmental officers at the Granny Smith goldmine near Laverton raised $20,000 in eight months from recycling mine waste and donated the profits from the materials to the local school.
Today, Ruggies Recycling has established waste disposal relationships with 62 mines across the state, diverting between 600 and 700 tonnes of waste material from landfill each year, and the proceeds are still donated to charity.
Ruggies Recycling provides a full scope of waste recycling facilities, from e-waste recycling, to scrap metal recovery, cardboard and paper recycling and plastic recycling including chemical drums and poly pipes.
"Over that period of time, Ruggies has raised about $4 million for PMH and we share the proceeds that we get with the Royal Flying Doctor Service, because they're very much part of the action as well," Ruggies Recycling manager Tony Fitz-Gibbon told WA Business News.
Mr Fitz-Gibbon said coordinating waste recovery from isolated mine sites created a logistical nightmare, which was the organisation's greatest challenge.
"I spend a lot of my time pleading for the kindness of the major transport companies in the region to bring the waste back," he said.
"If we had to pay to bring it back, it would be still out there. The only way that the Ruggies program has worked is because of the gracious nature of the trucking companies; they will bring it back for free.
"In places like Kalgoorlie it's practical, and even in the Pilbara where the main roads pass within 100 kilometres of the mine site, but some of the new mines that are starting out in the Mid West are out on their own a bit."
The commodities slump of the past 12 months has also put a damper on Ruggies Recycling's operations, but instead of recycling materials for lower returns, Mr Fitz-Gibbon said the company had employed a long-term strategy.
"Some of those mines, we encourage them to stockpile materials," he said.
"Scrap steel lost 72 per cent of its value within eight months and in that time the fuel prices went up, so there are certain products that we've told the mine sites to stockpile for a while."
Mr Fitz-Gibbon said the next step for Ruggies Recycling was to establish similar programs at hospitals interstate.
"With some of the large national companies, somebody would get transferred to go to work in Queensland, and they'd ring me up and say 'hey, nobody's doing this Ruggies Recycling out here, can we get it going?'" he said.
