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The Lord Mayor said Brisbane City Council would push its contractor to improve collection rates.

Have your bins gone uncollected? Lord mayor says he’s ‘not happy’ with contractor

A 16-year collection contract worth almost $1 billion was issued in 2017. Now, Adrian Schrinner says the waste company is falling short of expectations.

  • William Davis

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Domenic Svejkar from KBR Consultancy says Sydney should unearth its lost waterways to cool the environment.

The pitch to bring Sydney’s hidden waterways to the surface

Colonial maps show a city with vast waterways now lost beneath roads and buildings, but “daylighting” hidden waterways in the suburbs could help cool Sydney down as the climate changes.

  • Aidan Elwig Pollock
Carolyn Ingvarson a homeowner who has solar panels and also heads a community advocacy group that advises their neighbours on all things green energy and she says the current lack of recycling is a big barrier to many people installing panels at her home in Canterbury.

The dirty secret in Australia’s love affair with rooftop solar

Nearly 4 million solar panels are discarded every year, but a new recycling scheme could turn trash into treasure.

  • Mike Foley
The biosolid processing facility’s capacity will be increased at Sydney Water’s Glenfield water resource recovery facility as part of a $3 billion upgrade to reduce sewage at the Malabar deep ocean outfall.

The $3 billion fix promised for Sydney’s mysterious poo balls

A major upgrade of the city’s ageing sewerage system will also unlock housing development in south-west Sydney and could provide an environmentally friendly water source to data centres.

  • Caitlin Fitzsimmons
City of Melbourne workers are accused of stealing recyclables from a nightclub’s bin

Melbourne nightclub irked as council workers captured removing 10¢ bottles from bins

CCTV footage appears to show two men collect items from bins behind Inflation nightclub and put them into a City of Melbourne truck.

  • Lachlan Abbott
Plastic is being burnt for fuel and food cooking across the developing world.

This WA-led study revealed the scale of plastic burning for fuel. What are we going to do about it?

Our findings show that burning plastic as household fuel is far more commonplace than previously thought.

  • Bishal Bharadwaj
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The most divisive issues include capping production, managing plastic products and chemicals of concern, and financing to help developing countries implement the treaty.

Biodegradable plastics that actually break down might finally be here

What if you could add enzymes to plastic, which would decompose the plastic into safe and biodegradable parts after use? Scientists are doing just that.

  • Bianca Hall
A ‘We are not Sydney’s dumping ground’ banner on the outskirts of Parkes opposing the proposed Parkes Energy From Waste site. The Wiradyuri people alongside many of Parkes residents oppose the proposed $1.5 billion incinerator that will have the capacity to process 600,000 tonnes of Sydney waste per year. Parkes, NSW. December 5, 2025. Photo: Kate Geraghty

Could this town solve Sydney’s waste problem? Locals don’t think so

A plan to generate electricity by burning 600,000 tonnes of Sydney’s waste near a western NSW town has locals worried about their health and livelihoods.

  • Angus Thomson
Cleanup workers are seen undertaking maintenance on a leaked sewerage pipe in Wentworth Park, Sydney, Friday, 5 December 2025. Photo: Sam Mooy / The Sydney Morning Herald

Fears sewage leak from cracked pipe could flow into Sydney Harbour

Emergency works are under way to repair damage nine metres beneath an inner-city Sydney suburb.

  • Cindy Yin
Retail assistant Dorothy Togara says the quality of secondhand clothing imported from Australia has declined over the past few decades.

Our Pacific neighbours are drowning in fast fashion. And we’re the ones to blame

Pacific nations have become the dumping ground for our lowest-quality second-hand clothing. A new documentary examines the impact of “waste colonialism” and the steps we should be taking to end it.

  • Lauren Ironmonger