A SENIOR environmental advisor at Fremantle Ports has received an academic fellowship to explore opportunities to improve recycling practices from cruise ships visiting Australia.
Churchill Fellowship recipient Rebecca James is set to visit ports in Singapore, the United Kingdom, Europe and the US West Coast to benchmark cruise ships’ recycling practices.
She aims to study the latest methodologies in these countries and regions, and how Australia can improve on them.
“Cruise ships have incredibly sophisticated segregation and recycling systems on board, however due to biosecurity regulations in Australia, these recyclables are usually required to go to autoclaves or deep burial landfill,” Ms James said.
“This is an industry that is a significant and positive contributor to the Australian tourism economy and, generally, the cruise operators themselves are keen to play their role, but current Australian policies and practices hinder the best waste management outcomes.”
Ms James plans to meet with port operators, cruise companies and regulators to better understand waste and recycling practices, incentives and regulatory measures in various jurisdictions.
She said Fremantle Ports hopes to lead change nationally.
“I’ve been working in recent years with stakeholders and regulators to trial a process in Fremantle where clean materials from cruise ships can be inspected and cleared for recycling, therefore maximising their resource value and diverting material from landfill, while ensuring important biosecurity requirements are still met,” she said.
“But we don’t yet have the waste logistics chain set up to adequately maximise recyclables.
“The easy path is to say it’s too hard, or accept an existing regulatory requirement, but I always believe that we should push the boundaries and challenge ourselves to do better.”
Ms James will also meet stakeholders on broader port circular economy hub initiatives and bring that information home to Australia, so it can be shared in the ports industry.
Her project has also been selected for an additional award presented by the Churchill Fellows Association of WA.
The Winston Churchill Memorial Trust aims to fund the overseas research of Australians striving for excellence so that they might bring back learnings for the betterment of Australia.
