Queensland’s recycling industry needs a shake up. Most observers will grant that. Even locals. But now one company has put its money where its mouth is splashing out what sources say is around $60 million for a range of recycling assets across the capital Brisbane.
The buyer, Queensland Recycling Technologies (QRT), a joint venture between Alceon QLD and Brisbane Recycling Consortium (BRC) said there was plenty of room for “improvement, development and smart management and investment”.
QRT is headed up by Alceon Qld’s Todd Pepper and BRC’s Ed Bull, whose background lies in property and investment. The owners have named the new recycling business, RINO and appointed Daniel Blaser as general manager and Richard Jacobitz as chief financial officer.
Landfill levies combined with billions of dollars of planned infrastructure works and better recycling technology would see demand for better waste management steadily increasing, the new owners said in a statement that underscored the business case for the deal.
Vendor was Byrne Resources and the portfolio included two commercial waste recycling transfer stations at Pinkenba in inner north Brisbane, and a river sand quarry at Waterford in the outer south of Brisbane.
Mr Blaser said the industry in Queensland was “a very fragmented waste management and recycling system and what we’re looking to do is provide some scale and some efficiency in how we manage waste and with that really improve the recovery rates.”
Mr Bull added that the introduction of the Queensland landfill levy plus better recycling processing technologies had increased the competitiveness of recycling in the waste disposal sector.
“Queensland has very low recycling recovery rates compared to the southern states which have had landfill levies in place for much longer and as a result have much more mature recycling industries. There is much room for improvement, development and smart management and investment,” he said.
A waste levy was introduced in Queensland on 1 July 2019, applying to 39 out of 77 local government areas, covering around 90 per cent of the state’s population.
The new entity said that with a 25-year and almost $65 billion pipeline of infrastructure development planned for Brisbane including major works such as Queens Wharf, Cross River Rail, Brisbane Metro, Brisbane Live and more, “the demand for considered, cost effective C&D waste is only set to rise”.
It said it intends to invest “significant capital” into increasing the recovery rate of the business, improving the quality of recovered products for resale and ultimately reducing the amount of waste sent to landfill.
Job movements
AMP Capital has appointed Robert Hattersley to the newly created position of chief investment officer real estate, commencing next year.
With over 30 years’ experience in property Mr Hattersley most recently worked for Lendlease as group chief investment officer, prior to which he held senior roles with Mirvac.
In his new role, Mr Hattersley will leverage his global reputation with investors to raise capital for AMP Real Estate’s existing funds and creating new products.
Also at AMP Capital Chris Nunn has been bumped up the chain to head of platform operations and ESG (environment sustainability governance).
His former job as head of sustainability real estate has now been filled by Darren Teoh who was previously part of his team.
Mr Teoh joined the company in 2015 after arriving in Australia with a mechanical engineering degree from the University Tenaga Malaysia to do an MBA at the University of Queensland.
His portfolio of achievements includes working with Arup in Queensland after which he worked as lead ESD consultant on the Global Change Institute building at the UQ.
Meanwhile it’s understood that Nunn who’s been busy showing off the completion of his Passive House home through an impressive video is the new chair of the Better Buildings Partnership, taking over from Alicia Maynard of ISPT.
Mr Nunn, by the way, is also the chair of the Passive House Association of Australia so it’s no surprise that his private project, we understand, is said to have caught the attention of NSW Energy Minister Matt Kean who made a personal visit to the property and then wrote an article about it in the local paper.
In other job movements, Marianne Foley will join development and infrastructure consultancy, TSA Management as NSW general manager after a massive 18 years with Arup, where she held a range of senior leadership roles.
Industry veteran Craig Rodgers will join Mirvac this week as national technical operations manager.
Marianna Southwick has signed on as Mott MacDonald as Australian precincts lead, bringing with her 25 years of experience in the field across numerous sectors, including innovation districts, health, education, culture, sports, transport and tourism.
Our pick of the jobs
Lendlease is looking for a national sustainability manager to work with the investment management team to achieve outcomes in line with the company’s sustainability targets.
The role involves managing a small team to focus on investor engagement, attracting new sources of capital and developing new products in the investment market related to sustainability.
If you’re interested you’ll need at least 10 years experience in real estate investment and/or impact investment and an “excellent” understanding of carbon emissions in the property sector. As well as the usual being a team player and so on.
Sustainable investing is a rapidly growing area in Australia and around the world and with the power and willingness of Lendlease it might just be the golden/green opportunity to have an impact on making finance greener.
For those who have always dreamed of working in the wine industry, but are also passionate about sustainability, the company behind Australia’s biggest international wine brands is looking for a sustainability analyst.
Treasury Wine Estates is looking for someone to take a data-driven approach to sustainability, working beneath the supply sustainability manager to ensure regulatory compliance and improve the company’s overall sustainability footprint.
Being a data-focused role, you will be expected to continually refine and improve the company’s approach to data collection and help increase this focus company-wide.
The company landed in the AFR’s top places to work list this year, which some might suspect might have had more than a bit to do with “employee product allowance”.
Cheers!
For jobs and market chatter tips please contact duncan@thefifthestate.com.au