2024 WasteSorted Awards - Winners’ Stories

Incredible Edible Broome Inc. - Winner  

A dedicated volunteer community group committed to fostering a vibrant local food community in Broome. Incredible Edible Broome Inc delivers ‘From Waste to Wellness’ workshops to a diverse group of community members and garden managers on how to divert organic waste from landfill and convert it into healthy soil for food production. Local food security issues are addressed through education on how to grow food and community engagement empowers individuals to turn waste into compos reducing organics in landfill. The group have overcome challenges of living remotely by closing the loop on food production while building a sustainable gardening community.  

Little Things for Tiny Tots – Highly commended  

Volunteer-powered charity Little Things for Tiny Tots was established in response to the increasing need of disadvantaged, vulnerable and at-risk individuals and families with babies throughout WA. They provide large quantities of repurposed material aid essential for individuals and families needing care at a critical time. Their support for individuals and families in need also delivers huge environmental benefits by reducing waste and reusing a range of clothes and equipment. New Baby Boxes include a beautiful handmade tote bag families can continue to use as their child grows reducing single use plastic waste. 

Carine Senior High School - Winner  

As the fourth largest public school in WA, a whole school approach to sustainability requires long-term planning and support from all staff and students. By implementing projects such as an annual fashion swap shop, eco station collection points and installing a kitchen garden, a long-term change in waste reduction is evident at Carine Senior High School. By upskilling others, the message of waste avoidance and proper waste management is shared amongst the whole school and has become part of the culture. Planning and flexibility each year has allowed for programs to remain running despite changes to staff timetables and the introduction of new students in Year 7. 

Somerly Primary School - Winner  

Inspired to do something about the juice boxes that were being thrown away, Somerly Primary School has since evolved their WasteSorted commitment to reduce waste and embed sustainability into their school culture and everyday activities. Introducing Waste Warriors into classrooms has empowered students to educate their peers about correct waste sorting, bin emptying and the compost system.  

Foodfolk Australia Pty Ltd. - Winner  

Providing catering services to major airlines as well as government hospitals, Foodfolk Australia exemplifies the power of family entrepreneurship and a steadfast commitment to sustainability. Recognising the significant waste (particularly food waste) generated by the airline and catering industries, Foodfolk have taken bold steps to address these challenges. Actively working to minimise their environmental impact by using waste management strategies such as waste diversion, sustainable packaging and food donation.  

Perth Chemical Specialists Pty Ltd. - Blast Breaker - Winner  

A small local company, Perth Chemical Specialists are creating a groundbreaking chemical innovation designed specifically for the treatment of Ammonium Nitrate Emulsion waste. A unique and impactful innovation for combating this significant and real-world waste management issue. Blast Breaker represents a technological breakthrough and is a testament to Perth Chemical Specialists commitment to innovation and excellence in addressing environmental challenges. 

Kathy Anketell - Lynwood Senior High School - Winner  

Working from the philosophy ‘waste is not waste until it is wasted!’, Kathy strives to reduce school waste and the unnecessary use of resources. Currently employed at Lynwood Senior High School as the Sustainability Program Coordinator, Kathy has been instrumental in the development of student-driven projects and supports the school community in their endeavours to help reduce their carbon footprint. She capitalises on people’s enthusiasm to reduce waste and works to find solutions or funding to progress waste management projects. 

Green Skills Inc. - Denmark Tip Shop - Winner  

Offering essential services of diverting waste from landfill, the Denmark Tip Shop is managed by the environmental charity Green Skills Inc. A focal point of the community, the Tip Shop provides the opportunity for residents and visitors to the Great Southern region to reuse and upcycle. This includes a shared facility for waste education initiatives including art workshops to teach the community how to repurpose unwanted items. It has far-reaching impact for community education, behaviour change and frontline diversion of unwanted goods from landfill. The Green Skills team and volunteers genuinely care about the environment, community and capacity building for positive change. 

Workpower – Highly commended  

Since 2017, Workpower has grown from managing a single reuse shop into a multi-faceted recycling team, expanding its recycling services across Perth and into regional areas. With a mission to maximise waste diversion from landfill, especially for those hard-to-recycle materials. Workpower achieves this mission by managing reuse shops, streamlining recycling programs, and diversifying recycling streams.  

Eastern Metropolitan Regional Council - Waste Management Initiatives - Winner  

EMRC is providing services in waste management and education (including recycling textiles), resource recovery and sustainability to their four member Councils located in Perth’s Eastern Region. Undergoing a strategic review of the past five years, EMRC has developed a sustainability strategy, aligned the business with the Sustainable Development Goals and grown its waste education delivery. They have repositioned away from being landfill-centric and towards greater resource recovery and a more sustainable and circular leading regional local government. 

Southern Ports - Port of Esperance Renewal - Winner 

When a once-in-a-25-year opportunity arose to renew the Port of Esperance’s multi-million-dollar berths, Southern Ports saw opportunities. It set out to avoid perceived waste materials from the redevelopment going to landfill. They reused additional construction waste from stockpiles across the port land that could be repurposed. With careful planning alongside key partners, Southern Port achieved the reuse of 4,100m3 of construction material originally destined for landfill. 

City of Kwinana - Face-your-Waste, Street by Street - Winner  

Serving a diverse community of approximately 45,000 residents, the City of Kwinana is committed to sustainable development and enhancing public services to improve the quality of life for residents. The City implemented a ‘Face-your-waste’ program, an initiative designed to gather data on recycling perceptions while educating residents at their bins. Results included cultivating a positive perception of local government services, demystify recycling and decrease contamination, promoting circular behaviours and building stronger neighbourhood bonds. Their strategy turned passive residents into active participants, improving recycling attitudes while building relationships in the community.  

Shire of East Pilbara - Waste Education Theatre - Highly commended  

The Shire of East Pilbara looked to educate and engage local youth on waste with a Waste Education Theatre. The program was funded and run by the Shire in conjunction with Jally Entertainment and provided an engaging, educational and relatable local youth program focusing on correct waste disposal methods, litter prevention and waste reduction. This was achieved using fun and engaging musical theatre, making the show informative and interactive.  

Uluu - Winner  

Uluu’s technology is fermenting seaweed into an ‘alternative to plastic’, that tackles plastic pollution by offering an alternative to fossil fuels and microplastics. The materials, known as PHAs act like plastic but are made from farmed seaweed, not fossil fuels. Currently two applications are being targeted – rigid products including packaging, consumer electronics, furniture and car interiors, and fabrics where fibre-grade pellets can be used to produce an alternative to polyester, which is used to make about half of all clothing. After three years of research and development, Uluu launched its first commercial product in January 2024, a surf wax comb in partnership with Quiksilver.  

Perth Chemical Specialists - Raman Spectroscopy – Highly commended  

In a WA First, Perth Chemical Specialists introduced Raman Spectroscopy to the market, a chemical technique able to address the challenge of accurately identifying unknown wastes. It involves shining laser light on a sample and measuring how it interacts with the sample. Essentially, Raman Spectroscopy acts like a molecular fingerprint, helping chemists identify unknown substances based on their unique light scattering patterns. Using this technique and continuously innovating, Perth Chemical Specialists aim to mitigate risk, as well as improve landfill management practices and environmental outcomes.  

Wagyu Lamb Pty Ltd. - Winner  

Mottainai Wagyu Lamb is a food innovation by Wagyu Lamb, the world’s first and only highly-marbled lamb meat. Wagyu Lamb collaborates with horticulture farms in the Lancelin/Gingin region to repurpose carrots that do not meet specification and would typically end up in landfill. Wagyu Lamb buys these discarded carrots, transports them to their feeding facility, and incorporates them into the diet of growing lambs, making up to 70 per cent of their daily ration.  

Damaged Goods Distilling Co. – Highly commended  

Seeing food as flavour potential and not waste, Damaged Good Distilling Co, was created by Tim Laferia and Pia Papenfuss – an acclaimed cocktail bartender and fine-dining chef. The company takes the food waste stream byproducts from other food businesses, or sourcing directly from farmers, and turns them into world-class distilled spirits and liqueurs. Every product at Damaged Good Distilling Co is created with a hero food waste stream as the main flavour or fermentable sugar.  

The Office of Major Transport Infrastructure Delivery (OMTID) was established in May 2020 to unite top talent within the Transport Portfolio and execute an ambitious program of multimodal transport infrastructure projects in Western Australia. Tasked with delivering major METRONET rail projects and significant road networks, OMTID partners with Main Roads Western Australia and the Public Transport Authority to expand transport networks at an unprecedented pace. OMTID places a strong emphasis on sustainability, consistently achieving over 90 per cent diversion of construction and demolition waste from landfills, and actively promotes material reuse across projects. Their commitment to building for future generations is evident in their alignment with the Waste Avoidance and Resource Recovery Strategy 2030, ensuring that sustainability remains a core priority.