You may have heard that recently Total Solar Solutions Australia won the Maroondah City Council Business Excellence Awards –’Environmental Sustainability’ category!
What does that mean and what happens to our waste?
For many commercial businesses, waste is unfortunately something we all have too much of. Often it is put in the bin at the end of the day and not given a second thought.
At Total Solar Solutions Australia, it is inevitable for us to have waste however over the last decade we have been making a conscious effort to minimise our impact and we hope that we are getting better.
For a long time we have separated our cardboard into its own bin for recycling. We have a lot of cardboard! In fact our cardboard bin is double the size of our general waste bin!
What comes in the cardboard? Mostly solar inverters, split system air conditioners, hot water heat pumps and batteries. Some clever companies (like Fronius) are also using cardboard instead of polystyrene inside the box to keep goods safe during transit.
For the last 5 years we searched for a way to recycle the plastic clips that connect the panels when stacked together during transit. 12 months ago (to the delight of our whole team) we found a way to create a dedicated bin for these clips and are proud to say that we now keep a wheelie bin a fortnight of this plastic ending up in landfill.
Most recently, our largest waste pain point was the dreaded polystyrene. While we are overjoyed that there are future plans to ban polystyrene packaging, we were very aware that we had a problem now due to the volume of polystyrene around split system air-conditioners, solar batteries and some inverters. We also knew that in the lead up to summer (air conditioning season) that it was only going to get worse. After some research, we found a local business Foamex around the corner from our warehouse that in fact, collects polystyrene and recycles it onsite. This means that we can keep as much out of landfill as possible while also keeping down the emission created during transport of this waste by transporting it ourselves directly to Foamex to be recycled onsite.
We also feel that its very important to recycle our scrap metals such as cable, copper pipe and aluminium as well as failed air conditioners where possible. For the last 10 years we have had dedicated bins for all our scrap metals. By keeping these metals “clean” it is much easier for the metal yards to recycle and keep out of landfill. Some inverter companies such a Fronius, also refurbish failed inverters locally in Australia to be re-used.
Not only is waste important to recycle where possible but we also feel it is our duty to limit as much waste as possible where we can.
There is a large problem with failed solar panels in Australia often ending up in landfill or only partly able to be recycled. Only recently in Victoria, Lotus Energy opened Australia’s first solar panels recycling facility. Recently we sent 20 solar panels that had either been removed from homes due to deterioration or damaged when trees had fallen onto roof’s during storms. While it is fantastic that we can now almost 100% recycle old solar panels, by choosing to purchase quality solar panels we can reduce the need to recycle them until later down the track.
So, I encourage you, when looking to purchase solar, ask the questions:
How is it packaged? How long will it last? Where does it go once it fails? Is it shipped via sea freight? Are parts repairable under warranty? And finally, ask the business about their own waste management plan.
After all, there is no Planet B.
