Australia is stockpiling or burying football fields of waste every day but there is a home-grown solution to the incredible rubbish recycling problem highlighted this week by The Sydney Morning Herald.

We have the technology in Australia to lead the world on rubbish, and to turn what is a waste stream (glass, e-waste or electronic waste, and plastics) into reformed materials. The answer is micro-factories.

Green-friendly micro-factories can reduce landfill, create new jobs, provide opportunities for businesses and boost our declining manufacturing sector - but the technology needs the government to support it, and businesses to use it.

Traditional manufacturing often takes place in large and immobile factory sites near raw material supplies or in remote locations. But these micro factories can operate on a site as small as 50 square metres and can be located wherever waste may be stockpiled.