Michael McNamara has 39 years’ experience establishing and managing resource recovery operations in Australia. Throughout his career Michael has managed purchasing, processing and sales of over 2 million tonnes of recovered materials with a commodity value of $800 million. Commencing in Queensland, Michael built Comalco’s Aluminium Can Recycling collections network in Queensland and the Northern Territory and founded Metal Recyclers Queensland.
He then managed the glass beneficiation plant (Recyclers NSW) processing 800,000 + tonnes of glass containers for ACI/Owens Illinois. Michael managed Sydney municipal waste and recycling contracts for Thiess Services. He rebuilt Aspex Paper recovered paper operations until they were acquired by Cleanaway.
As Cleanaway’s NSW Recycling Manager for 11 years, Michael headed their Resource Recovery Plan 2020-2025. This Plan included gathering critical data for PET, glass and fibre markets and the plant designs and economic studies to process these materials. The $45 million Cleanaway and Visy PET bottle recycling plat at Albury was designed by Michael and others. Michael has also directed the design and costing of a number of glass beneficiation plants and Material Recovery Facilities (MRFs).
In 2017-19, Michael conducted waste management and resource recovery audits of Saudi Arabia’s three largest military cities. These reports and recommendation have been a catalyst for the modernization of waste management and recycling in the Kingdom. In 2018 Michael undertook consulting work in China, visiting seven major cities inspecting facilities and operations where resource recovery has become mandated by federal government legislation.
After nearly 40 years working in the Resource Recovery sector Michael retains his enthusiasm and ambitions for a world where all products are recyclable and are recycled.