PlanningxChange 144: Waste, Recovery and the City with Maree Marshall

In this episode of PlanningxChange, Jess Noonan and Peter Jewell speak with Maree Marshall from Urbis about waste, resource recovery and the city. Maree has worked in the waste and resource recovery sector for more than 25 years, advising councils, government agencies and designers on how waste systems operate in practice. The discussion begins with the ordinary household bin, but moves quickly into the larger planning and infrastructure questions behind waste collection, recycling and recovery. Topics include FOGO, glass recycling, container deposit schemes, textile waste, op shops, apartment buildings, transfer stations, repair spaces, tool libraries, landfill, waste-to-energy and the idea of local circular economy hubs. Maree explains why recycling is not the whole solution, and why better outcomes depend on reducing consumption, separating materials properly, designing buildings and precincts more intelligently, and making reuse and repair easier for communities. The conversation also considers how waste moves through cities, whether Australia relies too heavily on trucks, the role of technology and AI in sorting systems, and the importance of realistic policy that works for households, councils and the built environment. Podcast extra / culture corner includes home repairs, tuckpointing, the op shop challenge and Peter reading Virginia Woolf's Mrs Dalloway. Episode released 1 July 2026.