Greenbatch adds new dimension to plastic recycling

Darren Lomman says he has never looked for a job for the sake of a job, instead seeking to find solutions to tough community problems.

That goal was the motivation behind the innovative disability solutions provider Dreamfit Foundation, of which Mr Lomman was founder and chief executive.

The two-time 40under40 winner (2007 and 2014) ran Dreamfit for 14 years, until it was bought by a larger organisation in 2015.

He said his latest entrepreneurial venture, Greenbatch, would be the first facility in Western Australia where recycled plastics were reprocessed into a product, in this case 3D printing filament.

“I was thinking about the 3D printing space, this rapidly growing market; we’re now starting to see products appear everywhere – from shoes, to sunglasses, skateboards to aeroplanes, we’ve now got 3D-printed stuff in space,” Mr Lomman told Business News.

“The Woodsides and Rio Tintos are looking at it around how they can deal with inventory controls; Boeing is now printing parts in planes.

“So the entrepreneur in me says, ‘Well, if you want to start in a new industry, get into one that’s taking off’.”

Mr Lomman said he initially looked into medical purposes for 3D printing, but it was by chance that he came up with the idea for Greenbatch.

“I heard an advert on TV that said by 2050 there will be more plastic in the ocean than fish,” he said.

“I thought, ‘What’s WA doing that the rest of the world can learn from?’”

As his plans percolated, and in response to what he said was a shortage of available detail on WA’s recycling system, Mr Lomman followed a truck to a recycling facility and managed to meet with the chief executive.

“I asked him who he was sending it (rubbish) to, and he couldn’t give me one name of a single place,” Mr Lomman said.

In 2015-16, 3,300 tonnes of PET plastic were collected for recycling, of which 2,800t were exported offshore and 500t sent interstate, according to a Department of Water and Environmental Regulation spokesperson.

“We are a mass exporter of waste plastic,” Mr Lomman said.

“China has actually just cracked down on the importation of waste plastic because it is so bad for their environment (to burn) … so we’ve started shifting our waste to other countries, like Indonesia.”

Environment Minister Stephen Dawson said WA’s waste performance needed to be improved.

“The fact that the amount of household rubbish being diverted from the tip has fallen by 20 per cent in four years is dismal, well below the targets set,” Mr Dawson told Business News.

“Initiatives such as those being developed by Greenbatch are good examples of how thinking innovatively can help tackle plastic pollution.”

Mr Lomman said Greenbatch was a social enterprise and any profits would be used to sustain the organisation.

“Schools are our very specific target,” he said.

“I estimate about 70 per cent of high schools have 3D printers right now, they’re getting common.”

The initial tie-up between Greenbatch and individual schools would include provision of a recycling cage for students and teachers to deposit plastic bottles.

“A roll of film is roughly $35, if they collect 350 bottles, we take that, we claim the 10 cents through the container deposit scheme, so we get paid the $35, and we can exchange those 350 bottles for a range of free filament for the school,” Mr Lomman said.

He said the container deposit legislation, where the state government paid 10 cents for each plastic bottle, would be rolled out in January 2018 and Greenbatch would be leveraging that.

“There’s something like 9,400 schools across Australia,” Mr Lomman said.

“If we can get 10 per cent of schools choosing to use ethically sourced filament rather than virgin plastic filament then we’ll save about 2 million plastic bottles per year from going into waste incinerators, oceans and landfills.”

Mr Lomman said he launched a crowdfunding campaign on October 18 with the goal to sign up 50 schools and raise $50,000.

“We’ve had investors who want to get involved in this; but I don’t want commercial investors, I don’t want this to be profit driven,” he said.

“I’d love to see the business community get behind this as well.”

Mr Lomman said he would be looking into corporate sponsorship options to attract funding.