SESSION 2:  FOOD + GARDEN ORGANIC WASTE MANAGEMENT

Peter Olah

National Executive Officer, AORA

Peter Olah is the National Executive Officer of the Australian Organics Recycling Association (AORA), the national voice for the organics recycling industry. Peter is an experienced leader, having led the Surveying & Spatial Sciences Institute, the Council of Mayors SEQ, the NSW Rural Fire Service Association, the Hotel Motel & Accommodation Association, Scouts Australia NSW, and Hurstville City Council.

 

Matt Allan

Senior Consultant, RAWTEC

Matt Allan is a Senior Consultant at Rawtec. With more than seven years’ professional services experience and a background in organisational psychology, Matt is passionate about finding ways to better manage resources from a finance, environment and human behaviour perspective. Matt has been involved in a range of waste-related projects including the SA recycling activity survey report and kerbside waste audits.

Shani Wood

Environmental Officer, City of Holdfast Bay

Shani Wood is the Environmental Officer for the City of Holdfast Bay. She has developed key behaviour change projects for the City of Holdfast Bay and was recognised for her contribution to the waste sector through recently being awarded the 2019 South Australian Women in Waste award.Shani has a Bachelor of Science in Biodiversity and Conservation and is passionate about fostering sustainable behavior change within the community.

Simon Grenfell

Executive Officer, Fleurieu Regional Waste Authority

A civil engineer and waste practitioner Simon has over 15 years in local government and waste management experience. Whilst working for Alexandrina Council he held senior management positions and was responsible for public realm infrastructure construction and maintenance as well as waste management.  As a Fleurieu Regional Waste Authority board member and council officer was integral to the implementation of fortnightly collection of kerbside waste throughout the region.  Now as the FRWA Executive Officer Simon is driving the organisations increase in waste services, the diversion of waste to landfill and reducing the communities impact on the environment.

Rob Gregory

General Manager, East Waste

For the last three years, Rob Gregory has been the General Manager of East Waste, a regional subsidiary responsible for the waste services for 7 large member Councils in South Australia. With a fleet of 44 vehicles the East Waste team completes over 8 million bin lifts and 40,000 hard waste collections per year.   Rob has strong expertise in managing large workforces to deliver programs and services for the community. During a decade within Local Government, Rob developed strong expertise in oversight of waste management contracts and community education to drive change. Rob’s Local Government experience has also provided him with a thorough appreciation of the legislation and governance requirements required to successfully operate in this space. Rob also sits on the Board of KESAB environmental solutions. 
Sarah Wheeler
Associate Director Research, Centre for Global Food and Resources, University of Adelaide

Sarah is the Associate Director of Research with the Centre for Global Food and Resources at the University of Adelaide and is the current President elect for the Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society (AARES) for 2020. She graduated with her PhD in 2007, was an ARC Future Fellow (2014-2018), and has over 115 peer-reviewed outputs in the research areas of irrigated farming, climate change, Murray-Darling Basin (see here for a recent overview of water policy issues in the Basin), organic farming, water markets, water scarcity, mental health, crime and gambling.  She is an Associate Editor of the Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, and has been past Associate Editor of Water Resources and Economics and guest editor for a special issue of Agricultural Water Management, and is on a number of editorial boards for water journals.  Sarah was born on an irrigated dairy farm in NSW, and grew up on a dryland mixed farm at the top of the Great Dividing Range in the New England region. She has worked as an economist both nationally and internationally, in places such as Rural Solutions South Australia, ESCAP United Nations (Bangkok), Environment Agency (UK) and the South Australian Centre for Economic Studies.