A&P Australia and Cleanaway: Delivering Sustainability.

As one of Australia’s leading marine engineering businesses, A&P Australia is continually working on improving its green credentials wherever possible.

The company is about to deliver a major re-fit programme on HMAS Choules, which presented a great opportunity to consider A&P Australia’s environmental impact and set a target to segregate over 60% of all waste arising from maintenance periods and to increase recycling rates.

To help us deliver our objectives we partnered with national waste management business Cleanaway.

A total waste management solution

The first phase of our strategy was to provide more options for waste segregation and develop clear and concise signage for skips and containers.

More materials could then be sorted into separate bins to maximise recovery, with containers for fluorescent light tubes, ferrous and non-ferrous scrap metal skips, wood, general waste and cardboard.

We also created a designated waste area on the ship’s plan, focused on the type of waste coming from the maintenance tasks onboard.

Cleanaway also carefully managed the process so that the Objective Quality Evidence (OQE) was comprehensive, providing transparent traceability of the disposal of all waste throughout the maintenance period.

‘Do the right thing’

We wanted to come up with a message that would be simple and engage both our staff and contractors.

Scott Willey, Managing Director A&P Australia, said: “Our message to the team was ‘Do the right thing!’ to encourage people to put waste in the correctly labelled skip.

“The changes proved effective immediately with a 25% increase in the total amount of waste being segregated compared to the previous maintenance period.

“The relationship between Cleanaway and A&P Australia has not only helped to improve the accuracy for measuring recycling performance, but also increased the volume and types of waste we are able to recycle.

“The success of our waste management strategy gives us the confidence that we can achieve a more sustainable future.”

The benefits of a partnership approach

Cleanaway Key Account Manager, Michael Ryan, said: “Cleanaway provides a total waste management solution for A&P including tank cleaning, oily/bilge water and general waste services and recycling. We are proud to be part of the team supporting the HMAS Choules to operate safely, efficiently and with great sustainability outcomes.

“We’ve worked together to not only design solutions that work for the ship but embed them with the teams that use them with the ‘Do the right thing!’ initiative.

“Waste removal projects provide many challenges, from the planning and logistics involved all the way to finding a home for the waste, but it is made easy dealing with A&P Australia who streamline the process by segregating waste. The top-level communication they provide means we are always on the same page no matter what the task at hand.

“As a consequence of the ongoing support and projects A&P Australia involves us in, we have been able to up-skill our existing staff and hire more Cleanaway employees. These additional resources mean we are now able to support other defence projects on the island.”