The Hills. Saved from landfill

Some 1262 mattresses were saved from landfill, over a three-month period, as part of The Hills Shire Council’s highly successful trial mattress recycling program. About 180 were sent to charities for reuse and 1082 other mattresses were taken apart so that the individual components could be recycled. “Recycling these mattresses has enabled us to save valuable resources. For example, coil springs can be melted down and sold to manufacturers, and foam can be used to make carpet underlay as well as saving valuable landfill space,” said Shaun Hunt, council’s waste management education officer.

Huntingwood. Diageo launches new RTD

Diageo, the world’s leading premium drinks business, which has a production and a distribution facility, at Huntingwood, has created a new ready-to-drink (RTD) – a mixture of ginger beer and lime sold in a brown bottle – to help boost Australian sales from products introduced in the past year, from 7 per cent of total sale to 10 per cent of total sales. Diageo has 11. 5 per cent of Australia’s alcoholic beverage market.

Sydney Olympic Park. Silex Solar opens plant

The Minister for State and Regional Development, Ian Macdonald, officially opened Silex Solar’s solar panel manufacturing facility, at Sydney Olympic Park, in the former premises of BP Solar. Mr Macdonald said Silex Solar would use the facility for the commercial-scale manufacture of high performance solar cells and modules. In addition to the manufacturing capabilities, facility was home to R&D and testing facilities, engineering workshops, a purpose-built warehouse to cater for raw and finished goods, and sales and administration offices. Mr Macdonald said the company was the only significant Australian-owned manufacturer of solar cells and panels, and it expected to double its workforce to around 100 people by the end of 2010.