Positive attitude to waste

SCU’s Outstanding Alumnus of the Year Gordon Fraser-Quick on his recent trip to China.

While he was on a trip to China recently, Gordon Fraser-Quick watched a mother and father pulling rubbish out of a pile of discarded material in a tip while their young child lay on top of it. As a leading environmentalist who has spent years of his life working toward sustainable waste management, he was shaken when he realised what a phenomenal amount of waste and pollution there was in China.

Gordon said that within three days of being in China, he took his basket of beliefs, knowledge and experience and threw them out.

“Everything I thought I knew about waste management and environmental sustainability became irrelevant and inconsequential when I realised the extent of China’s issues with pollution and economic growth,” Gordon said. “They have the start of the solution where people are actively engaged in collecting materials, but they haven’t yet implemented a comprehensive recycling service.”

With a long history of environmental innovation, Gordon was named as Southern Cross University’s 2010 Outstanding Alumnus of the Year for his demonstrated excellence in his field of environmental work.

With a Bachelor of Applied Science and a Graduate Diploma of Education under his belt, Gordon has spent years of his life working as an environmental consultant and now pioneers the solar industry on the North Coast. He has designed and constructed the world’s largest worm farm in Lismore and was instrumental in the introduction of the kerbside collection of organic waste and recyclables in this area. His innovative models of integrated waste management have now been adopted by 190 councils across Australia.

Gordon is working on taking some of the waste management technologies developed here in the Northern Rivers over to China as part of the ‘Gateway to China’ program. While in China, he was teaching people how to implement the technology and is also having conversations with four other countries to introduce the technologies there.

“There’s 100 million tonnes of plastic used in the world and only 17 million tonnes of it are recycled per year,” Gordon said. “Sustainability is about a state of mind as well as economy – we sometimes don’t see the results of today’s decisions; a short-term gain is ultimately at a long-term cost.”

While in China, Gordon said he travelled on public transport and several times the bus or train was delayed and diverted because of floods or landslides caused by environmental degradation.

“The rivers looked like kerbside gutters,” Gordon said. “The riverbanks were collapsed and in one place I saw a riverside bench in the middle of nowhere which was two metres deep in plastic that would have been deposited there during a flood.”

“In the 18 days I was there I saw the sun very little because of the air pollution,” Gordon said. “If I was motivated and passionate before – that was my apprenticeship. Now I need to rebuild my energy and enthusiasm to save the world from a river of plastic going out into the ocean.”

Looking to the future, Gordon plans to lecture in waste technology at SCU next year so he can help to educate the next generation of waste managers and provide opportunities for people to get involved in changing the future.

“In Australia we are lucky to be in such a plush area of the world,” Gordon said. “Rather than being downtrodden I’m struggling to rebuild my motivation and redouble my efforts.

“I have an ongoing, deep commitment and connection to the earth. I want to apply the indigenous principle of stewardship and leave behind a positive rather than a negative legacy.”