I'm Darren Lomman, I am passionate about making our world a better place.
At just 19 I created my first charity, Dreamfit Foundation, which makes dreams possible for people with disabilities. As a result, over 1,000 dreams have been fulfilled, impacting more than 10,000 people’s lives. Recently Dreamfit Foundation was acquired by a large not-for-profit organisation. This has given me an exciting opportunity to apply my focus, engineering and social entrepreneurial skills to a brand new challenge!
Our Problem
It is estimated that by 2050 there will be more plastic in our oceans than fish. When I first heard this statistic, I was shocked. I couldn't believe it. This means that by the time my one year old daughter, Savannah is 34 our oceans will have sadly lost the fight to plastic. As a curious engineer looking for somewhere to refocus my passion, I found it. I started researching what types of recycling is done here in Western Australia. I wanted to find out if WA was leading the world, or part of the problem...
What did I find?
Western Australia has ZERO plastic reprocessing!
Not a single plastic bottle you, or I have ever put in a recycling bin has actually been recycled here in WA. Instead our waste plastic is sold on the international waste market where much of it is bought by waste incinerators who burn it to generate electricity. Burning waste plastic can generate 30 times more pollution than burning coal and we all know how bad that is for the environment. WA… We can do better…
Our Solution
Over the last year I have been researching and learning what it takes to reprocess waste plastic.
I have learnt so much in this time, and come so far... We have now developed a sustainable business model and in doing so have built an incredible team who have joined me and are ready to turn this vision into reality.
We are GreenBatch and we are truly excited to go on this journey on behalf of WA.
We will reprocess your waste plastic, giving it a new life. Our first venture is turning PET plastic bottles into 3D printer filament. This filament is the consumable that a 3D printer uses to create almost anything, limited only by your imagination!
Our Vision
But our vision doesn’t stop here. Our plan is to continue developing a diverse range of recycled products. By 2025 this will divert an incredible 100 million bottles, which would otherwise be destined for landfill, oceans and waste incinerators. Through application of technology, engineering and out of the box thinking, we are turning an environmental problem into an innovative new solution and finally closing the recycling loop here in WA.
Our First Rollout - School Recycling Program
Do you know that 70% of high schools already have 3D printers? Our School Recycling Program will feed their 3D printers with filament which was once waste plastic. This puts the power of recycling into the hands of schools and their students. To do this we will install plastic collection points in 50 pilot schools across WA and provide recycling education.
How This Works
Our team will pick up the waste plastic collected by the students and bring it back to our factory, turning it into 3D printer filament. This is then given back to the schools to be used in students projects. Underpinning this program is WA’s brand new adoption of the 10c Container Deposit Scheme which is being rolled out soon. This exciting advancement for Western Australia will ensure we can run this program sustainably into the future.
We Need Your Help
We can’t do this on our own – we need WA to get behind us which means we need your help!
By supporting this campaign, you will be a part of something big. You will be supporting the establishment of WA’s first plastic reprocessing initiative. This will reduce WA’s environmental footprint preventing millions of plastic bottles ending up in our oceans, landfills, and waste incinerators.
You can support our mission by buying a shirt made from recycled plastic bottles, or a bikini made from plastic from the ocean, or buy our locally painted artwork. Or just donate, so every single dollar will go towards this project.
ING Dreamstarter have thrown their support behind us by supporting us with an initial $15,000 donation to our campaign. However we will only receive this donation if we, together, are successful in reaching our $50,000 tipping point goal. So please help us to unlock ING's generous donation, and get Western Australia recycling!
We are building a movement here.
Will you join our #WarOnPlastic?
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Our Donor Rewards!
This is our Turtle Canvas which was painted by Francesca Cary, a local Perth artist and a GreenBatch volunteer.
The artwork is available on a T-Shirt made from recycled plastic bottles also!
This is our '2050 slogan' T-Shirt which is also made from recycled plastic bottles!
This is just one of the bikini sets that OceanZen Bikini make and are available with our gift vouchers. You can view their range here: OceanZen Swimwear
