Greeks who succeed in business have a reputation for being ingenious and resourceful. The case of Melbourne-based company Repurpose It makes for an illustrative example.
They specialise in making the most out of construction and demolition waste, the notorious biggest contributor of all landfill waste.
CEO George Hatzimanolis with a team of six co-founders set up the recycling plant in 2017 in Melbourne’s Epping, transforming a 150-acre clean fill into a resource recovery park.
READ MORE: A Greek pioneer in the war on waste
Business has been booming since, with the operator managing to double in staff and turnover every year.
And it looks like a win-win for industry and environment. They process the waste material and turn it into a re-sellable useful resource to the industry.
In doing so, they estimate to have directed 400,000 tonnes of waste in the circular economy spiral, helping divert around 60,000 tonnes of CO2 from the atmosphere.
Their next step is yet again ambitious made possible with the acquisition of one of the largest suppliers of bark mulch for the landscaping industry in Melbourne.
The Repurpose It team is now able to combine household organics with construction material in their processed waste channeling recycled garden products in retail.
Key suppliers to the venture are no other than local councils’ green bins.
“The cost to councils to send to landfill is going up by more than 50 per cent in the next three years,” Mr Hatzimanolis explains.
He says they opportunity they offer them comes at a lower disposal cost with some security in the long-term.
Melbourne’s Whittlesea council is already convinced having signed a $20m contract for their household organics for the next ten years.
The Repurpose It team believes more Victorian councils will soon follow suit, in line with the state’s goal to divert 80 per cent of
its green waste from landfill.
While competing with giant multinationals in the industry, they have a distinctive know-how up their sleeve based on European technology and standards.
Imported processing technology allows for extracting organic waste from food and beverage packaging, diverting materials into different waste streams.
Compostable packaging is also part of their projected workflow, as supermarkets introduce them more and more in replacement of single-use plastics.
“There are a lot of materials that can be recovered from the waste we generate. Our vision when setting up the business was about investing in technology that could recover those precious resources,” Mr Hatzimanolis had told Neos Kosmos in a past interview.
The Greek Australian CEO also states confident about the reputation they’ve build as a local operator, scoring two of Victoria’s Premier Sustainability Awards in 2020.
“We recognise the old model needs to be challenged because we need to take more accountability for the waste we use and how we can recover it.”
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