A solution for the recycling crisis: turn plastic into energy

Australia's recycling crisis needs us to look into waste management options beyond just recycling and landfilling. Some of our waste, like paper or organic matter, can be composted. Some, like glass, metal and rigid plastics, can be recycled. But we have no immediate solution for non-recyclable plastic waste except landfill.

A worker separates plastic bottles at a recycling depot in Beijing.

At a meeting last month, federal and state environment ministers endorsed an ambitious target to make all Australian packaging recyclable, compostable or reusable by 2025. But the ministers also showed support for processes to turn our waste into energy, although they did not specifically discuss plastic waste as an energy source.

Read Muxina Konarova’s comment in The Age - “A solution for the recycling crisis: turn plastic into energy.”

'Wonderwall' has Matthew Wright in awe - 'a utility killer'

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esla’s 'Powerwall' has been released to much acclaim. Tesla’s founder Elon Musk says that his company’s battery storage product doesn’t need any marketing and it will sell itself. You can see by the buzz and countless articles from every news outlet around the world reporting it that he’s pretty much right.

Matthew Wright - he is in awe of
Elon Musk's "Wonderwall".

Tesla has gone to market with its home commodity battery storage product using the opposite model of what it has for its cars. Where Tesla's cars were released initially at an absolute premium and differentiated with style and performance, the Powerwall is cutting the price by more than half when compared to existing options on the market.

The Powerwall will come with a computer and some smarts in-built. This should provide the ability to send power out based on a pre-programmed schedule to take advantage of time-of-use/flexible tariff structures. In Australia, that can mean as much as 15-30c/kWh (kilowatt-hour) difference between buy and sell price. Furthermore there will be the ability to receive a signal for when solar production is in full swing, and for those on market based feed-in-tariffs (6-8c/kWh) they’ll be able to charge the battery during these times.

Read Matthew Wright’s story on Climate Spectator here: “In awe of Elon Musk’s wonderwall – a utility killer”