Louise Hardman is an aquatic person, she loves anything to do, be it leisure, sports or work.
It was her specialization in sea turtles and birds while working as a zoologist that eventually led her to clean the plastic of the world’s largest body of water.
“When I saw a young green turtle in 1992 die from ingesting plastic, it was the catalyst because I wanted to prevent plastics from going into the ocean,” he said.
“It wasn’t until 2016 when I started the business that I was finally able to put it into practice.”
Garbage refund
The elimination of plastic pollution from waterways is not a new concept, but the commodification of recovered plastics is.
Ms. Hardman focuses her efforts on regional and remote communities in Australia and the Pacific islands.
“The concept is that we want to do mobile recycling programs,” Hardman said.
“I would work with communities, remote regional communities to establish plastic waste recycling programs.”
Louise Hardman and Evans Head residents are clearing waterways in northern NSW. (ABC TV: Movin ‘to the Country / Mark O’Leary)
Pride for work
Miimi Aboriginal Corporation, based in the city of Bowraville, New South Wales, was one of these communities.
The corporation’s director, Tricia Walker, commissioned Ms. Hardman to set up a mobile recycling station to help create a revenue stream and jobs.
The Shruder has settled in a community in northern NSW. (ABC TV: Movin ‘to the Country)
“My experience over many years is that many of our young people have lost their connection to the country and I think it is imperative that they return to the country and recognize the environments that exist, and be able to protect them,” Ms Walker said. .
The creation of the mobile recycling container took several years.
Each container is different and is designed for the specific needs of the community.
They have several components, and may include an extruder, a crusher, and a baler.
Mobile recycling centers convert plastic into prepared pellets for remanufacturing. (ABC TV: Movin ‘to the Country)
They transform plastic from hard waste into pellets, ready for manufacture.
Ms Hardman said she also provided training in plastics identification so customers could determine what materials could be used in manufacturing.
Louise Hardman teaches people how to use the mobile recycling center. (ABC TV: Movin ‘to the Country / Mark O’Leary)
Ms. Walker said the arrival of the first recycling bin was a source of immense pride for the Miimi Aboriginal Corporation.
“I love it because I’ve seen these kids grow up in this valley,” he said.
“These are good guys, these are good kids, they have a lot of respect and they have a lot of knowledge.”
Ms. Hardman also helped with contacts in the manufacturing world.
Mrs. Walker said the knowledge was invaluable.
“So you have all the contacts and willingly, it will help us get through the initial stages and get us some suppliers,” Ms. Walker said.
The program, Plastic Collective, is now a family business run by Ms. Hardman along with her brother and sister.
He currently works with 15 communities in the southern hemisphere.
It also sells “plastic credits” to large organizations.
“The goal was to help the world’s most vulnerable and remote communities whose lives and environments were being destroyed by plastic waste and where waste collection is mostly non-existent and plastic pollution is rampant,” Hardman said.
Sale of the new resource
The sale of extruded plastic pellets is not without problems.
Convincing manufacturers to use “non-virgin” plastic can be difficult.
Different melting and cooling times can be a point of conflict.
Rikki Gilbey opts to use recycled ocean plastics instead of virgin plastics. (ABC TV: Movin ‘to the Country)
But manual bodysurfing aircraft maker Rikki Gilbey said it was not deterred.
He teamed up with Ms. Hardman to make sure her product was made from 100% ocean plastics.
Halina Baczkowski tests Rikki Gilbey’s manual airplane to improve her surfing skills. (ABC TV: Movin ‘to the Country)
“I was pretty naive with all of that, to be honest,” he said.
“I thought it would be very easy.”
He said he assumed someone would already sell the material and that he could only buy it and put it in a product.
“But yes, as it turned out, no one did,” he said.
He said it cost him more to use recycled plastic.
“Producing plastics is obviously a quick way to create products, but I was never going to make a product with virgin plastics for use in the ocean, especially,” he said.
“I’m a lover of the oceans.”
Opportunity in plastic
Ms. Hardman said the problems of waste recovery and commodification in remote areas inspired her to create Plastic Collective.
“What is missing in the regional areas is infrastructure, and the cost of transportation is really expensive to get to and from these islands or these remote communities or regional communities,” he said.
“That’s why the recovery of recycling is very difficult and that’s why there are landfills, there is pollution, there is waste that goes into rivers.”
He said what he liked most was seeing how a community went from feeling ashamed of plastics to pride.
For more information on Louise Hardman’s work and other groundbreaking stories, watch Movin ’to the Country on ABC TV on Fridays at 7.30pm or anytime on ABC iview.