Leaving a positive impact is more than an ambition – it’s the mission for Australian manufacturer Cacti Conserve. The social enterprise started in 2019 to tackle the waste burdens generated by business through supplying recycled industry specific consumables. During this time, they’ve worked with a wide range of organisations big and small, helping make a dent in their waste footprint.
Eco Site Safety products offer a range of stock and custom site consumables in recycled materials, and compostable or biodegradable alternatives, which have been used locally and nationally. Their focus is substituting virgin and unrecyclable materials with recycled and recyclable replacements. This allows projects to change the consumable source materials resulting in waste reduction, without changing their site requirements.
Having worked in the construction sector for 19 years, Cacti Conserve Managing Director Jackson Ellis has seen an increasing emphasis on project waste volumes and types. “We know the material classes are becoming more complex. Managing project waste at the point of procurement is necessary to kerb unrecyclable materials leaving site”, says Ellis. This has been their driving force for local innovation with circular economy principles in mind.
Across the country initiatives have been launched to facilitate and encourage private and public sector organisations to transition from virgin material to recycled material products. Initiatives like Victoria’s Recycled First Policy delivering 3.5M tonnes of recycled materials delivered into Big Build infrastructure projects, have seen tremendous support from both local suppliers and government appointed contractors. The success of this scheme has been driven, in no small part, by ecologiQ – a state led office supporting this transition through events, technical guidance, industry awards and advocacy for greener infrastructure. Over the years Cacti Conserve has been both a presenter and patron to these events and attributes the growth of their Eco Site Safety range to the enthusiasm of the sector generated through facilitation of ecologiQ’s events.
Cacti Conserve ensures all products produced are recyclable at end-of-life. They offer solutions for disposal into local recycling streams and also an in-house Responsible Disposal Scheme for expired products to be collected / returned for local recycling. This assures our customers that their Eco Site Safety purchases will never need to end up in landfill.
While mitigating needless waste is the mission of their business operations, as a certified social enterprise Cacti Conserve is bound to a social mission with far reaching impact. From day one protecting the interests of Australia’s environments has been central to governance, and each year Cacti Conserve donates more that 50% of profits to local, Australian conservation projects. Contributing to projects which improve the outcomes for at-risk habitats and ecosystems across the country, stokes the passion to make a positive impact. It also gives our customers peace of mind knowing that they have made a meaningful difference by simply choosing greener site consumables.