Our Purpose

As a new start-up company in the waste industry, we are used to getting the questions like “what” “why” and “how”?

Generally, this is a very encouraging phenomenon, it means that people care and have an interest in how society deals with the challenges created by decades of environmental impact caused by human activity.

It also reinforces our belief that, most people have, on an individual level, taken onboard the hard truth that our current way of life is unsustainable.

One of the major issues with trying to address both the damage done and how to improve on our current practices is that the challenge appears insurmountable. Global warming, plastics, finite resources, pollution – and the list goes on.

In a way, Westref Enviro is our way of trying to answer a few select questions of our own.

We have identified two areas where we think we can make a difference, based on our resources and skills:

–     A product stewardship program for lead contaminated wastes from the fire assay industry

–     Setting up a hazardous waste facility in the Perth Metro Area

These two projects may sound different, but in essence it comes down to having a solutions-based approach to small quantity waste streams. As smaller quantities of waste in general, and hazardous waste in particular leads to less incentive for incumbents to implement individual solutions for those waste streams.

So why have we chosen to commit to tackling this difficult problem with limited volumes?

To paraphrase mountaineer George Mallory, simply “Because it’s there”.

The quote was an answer to a journalist asking why he was going to attempt to climb Mount Everest.  In the early 20th century Everest was one of the few challenges still there for humanity to conquer and it gave societies still reeling from the self-inflicted damages caused by WWI new goals and aspirations.  

Today we see challenges all around us, they might not be as prestigious or interesting as being the first human to reach the highest peak on earth, but they will help us improve the environment and life in tangible ways – and more importantly it is what we can do.