Who is Mike Haywood?

Mike Haywood is a nationally recognised waste, resource recovery, sustainable fuels and project-development specialist with more than 30 years of industry experience.

In 2010, Mike established Mike Haywood's Sustainable Resource Solutions Pty Ltd, bringing together his operational experience, commercial judgement and practical understanding of waste, recycling and resource recovery. Since then, he has worked independently with governments, regulators, local councils, legal teams, infrastructure developers and waste and recycling businesses across Australia.

Mike’s work extends well beyond traditional consultancy. He assists clients to take complex projects from an initial idea through strategy, feasibility, regulatory approvals, commercial development and practical implementation. His experience includes waste-processing facilities, recycling systems, tender development and evaluation, operational improvement, environmental licensing, State Significant Development processes, alternative fuels, waste-to-energy and beneficial resource recovery.

He has also provided specialist advice and expert evidence in legal proceedings, including matters involving waste operations, recycling facilities and contaminated materials. During the recovery following the Cudlee Creek bushfires, Mike led and coordinated complex waste-removal operations involving asbestos controls, demolition, transport, recovery and lawful disposal.

Mike is currently applying this experience to the redevelopment of Redbank Power Station as a biomass-fuelled renewable-energy facility. His responsibilities have included managing the State Significant Development process, developing sustainable fuel and feedstock strategies, establishing processing specifications, evaluating transport and logistics requirements, and planning bulk fuel receiving and storage systems.

Earlier in his career, Mike started with Pacific Waste Management as a waste consultant, quickly rising to the position of Business Development Manager across South Australia, Western Australia and Victoria, with a brief stint as Call Centre Manager for the South Australian and Western Australian branches.

Following the merger of Pacific Waste Management and BFI, Mike moved on to spend thirteen years as General Manager and a Management Board Member of ResourceCo, where he helped develop major recycling, recovered-material and alternative-fuel operations. That experience gave him a rare combination of board-level, commercial and operational knowledge.

Mike has served in senior industry leadership roles, including National President of the Australian Council of Recycling, inaugural Board Member of Zero Waste SA and a Director of the Australian Industrial Ecology Network. He is also an experienced author having several articles published in industry magazines and is an established public speaker at industry conferences and a respected national industry advocate.

What distinguishes Mike is his ability to move comfortably between the boardroom, the regulatory process and the operational site. He understands that successful projects must be technically workable, commercially realistic, environmentally responsible and capable of being implemented in a real world operating environment.