FREMANTLE’S latest Churchill scholar has returned from the northern hemisphere with a report detailing how to tidy up Australia’s cruise industry. 

Fremantle Ports’ senior environmental advisor Rebecca James travelled to ports around the world at the end of last year as part of a research mission on behalf of the Winston Churchill Trust. 

As part of the tour, Ms James visited England, the Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark, Canada, the USA, and Singapore, to gather information about best recycling practices from port operators, waste service providers, cruise companies, and policy makers from each destination. 

Upon her return, Ms James published her findings and developed recommendations for the Australian cruise industry, including to implement a national policy on recycling from international vessels, establishing specific criteria for port reception facilities, and involve ports in circular economy development, to name a few. 

• Fremantle Ports’ senior environmental advisor Rebecca James.

“One of the key things was the realisation that in developed countries, landfill is generally a last resort, and not the default, as it tends to be in Australia,” Ms James said. 

“Another example was from a dedicated maritime waste reception facility in Rotterdam that receives about 30 separate waste streams from shipping and offshore industries, which is separated into over 180 different recyclable pieces and boasts a 90 per cent recovery rate. 

“There’s some really exciting models [for Australia] to look up to.” 

On her trip, Ms James focused on three key groups to study, including port operations and logistics, waste reception facilities, and regulatory bodies, in order to best represent the circular economy she would like to see implemented in Australia. 

“It’s not just one person who can make any of these changes,” Ms James said. 

“I was on the ground seeing the logistics of how they handle waste, seeing how the waste reception facilities, and seeing what requirements were driving performance in the different jurisdictions. 

“The magic is happening when everyone there is working together.” 

Ms James says it is “really wonderful” to have published the report which has been 

“well-received” by her counterparts around the country. 

“One of the responsibilities of having a Churchill [scholarship] is that I’m making sure that we’re disseminating the findings and spreading the word, so once the report was published, it went to a big list of stakeholders, agencies, and industry that I have already been collaborating with, and I’ve had some really good feedback,” she said. 

“Being able to meet with all of those sustainability professionals and make those connections across all sorts of issues is a big thing for me to be able to bring back home as well. 

“Visiting all those places also made me realise there are a lot of people doing great things around the world, and there’s many lessons that we can bring back and add to some of the great things that people are doing here.”

The full report is on the Winston Churchill Trust website. 

by KATHERINE KRAAYVANGER