Onroad Safety Solutions Pty Ltd

Basic Information

Applicant Type: Organisation

Organisation Name: Onroad Safety Solutions Pty Ltd

Main Questions

Problem Solution

The Australian waste management industry is confronting a severe and escalating operational crisis driven by the improper disposal of lithium-ion batteries. These batteries, often hidden in everyday consumer products, are entering the municipal waste stream at an alarming rate. When subjected to the physical stresses of collection, compaction and processing they ignite, causing fires in collection vehicles and downstream facilities. This is not a peripheral issue; it is a daily operational hazard that poses a significant and direct threat to worker safety, critical infrastructure, and the financial viability of the sector. The frequency of these incidents is increasing almost exponentially, leading to a corresponding surge in operational costs and crippling insurance premiums, threatening the insurability of the entire industry.

Existing solutions, such as retail and council drop-off points, have proven insufficient. They rely on proactive consumer behaviour, creating a "convenience gap" that results in dismally low collection rates for Li-ion batteries. Consequently, the vast majority of these hazardous items continue to enter kerbside bins.

Our proposed solution directly addresses this problem by integrating battery segregation into the existing kerbside collection framework.

This approach is preventative by design. By ensuring batteries are never crushed or punctured within the main waste stream, it eliminates the primary trigger for thermal runaway and fire. It is a practical, scalable solution that tackles the problem at its root, transforming a dangerous operational liability into a manageable, segregated resource.

The initial market for the proposed solution is the municipal solid waste sector and businesses that recycle lithium batteries which may have difficulty in securing sufficient high quality feedstock to scale their operations. Further development may enable expansion into other areas, including commercial, industrial and construction solid waste collection.

Impact

The most significant challenge in reducing fires in waste vehicles is prevention of highly combustible items entering the waste stream. Waste generators have a poor record generally in separating recyclable materials from general waste, and with batteries there is the added problem of accessibility to safe disposal options. Current solutions require people to think ahead when visiting a business that may provide access to a disposal bin and in some businesses the bins are not well-positioned. In addition, where people may store batteries or devices for later disposal, there is an added risk of poor handling, which may create a premises fire risk. There is a clear community safety benefit.

By providing a convenient point of disposal as part of the normal collection process it is expected that there will be a higher probability of safe disposal and a reduction in the number of fires due to these devices during collection, handling and processing. Removing the devices from the waste stream eliminates or reduces the need for complex solutions to detect them at the point of entry to the bin and to detect and fight fires during processing.

Reducing the likelihood of fires provides a positive impact to the community through a reduction in the cost of waste collection and through reducing the incidence of hot loads causing waste trucks to dump loads to be dealt with by firefighters on suburban streets.

Providing a source of high quality feedstock for downstream processing allows businesses to scale battery resource recovery operations with confidence, helping to meet the Qld Government’s ambitions to advance a circular economy framework for waste management.

Since this problem is global, an innovative program of this nature has the potential to create an export market in the technology which is extremely lucrative.

The value of this proposal is difficult to estimate, however it is undoubtedly very high. I would be very pleased to work with interested partners to carry out a comprehensive business case and to develop a viable product offering. There is only a limited development program required, since there are no new technologies required, and the cost of modifications to vehicles and bins is low. The principle complexity in implementation is the rollout of modified bins to premises. One possible mechanism is to do a progressive swap and modification process, rather than replacement of the current bin fleet. This would enable uptake and effectiveness of the scheme to be evaluated and allow identification and implementation of any modifications that may be required.

A similar approach to segregation may be able to be implemented for other types of bin, including front-lift, rear-lift and skip (Marrel) bins. Feasibility for these types of product has not yet been investigated.

Business Model

Onroad Safety Solutions is a small consultancy that has only recently commenced operations to provide advice and training on managing safety risks in heavy vehicle transport.

The business does not have access to the resources required to implement this proposal and would need to partner with one or more larger businesses operating in the design and construction of bins and vehicles, waste collection and management and resource recovery from lithium-ion batteries.

No business model has yet been developed, the proposal is at the early concept stage.

It is envisaged that if suitable partners can be found, initial work would be required on the engineering of a suitable segregation compartment within the truck, together with design and engineering of a suitable modified segregation compartment within household bins.

Due to the potential scale of the demand for this proposal, it would be viable to launch as a business at the stage of initial design, since there is no new technology required to implement the scheme and with suitable partners, funding would be readily able to be raised.

Market Readiness

The proposal is at technology readiness level 3: feasibility has been assessed through consultation with a waste management business and a desktop analysis of the problem and market.

No design or engineering of prototypes has yet been carried out. No partnerships have been negotiated.

Design, engineering, construction and testing of prototypes needs to be completed before a pilot can commence. Since this is simply an extension of existing technology, it is not anticipated that these stages will be prolonged and that they could be completed within less than 6 months. This period could be further compressed if required. A pilot could then be commenced.

A pilot would require a substantial number of households to be involved, equivalent to at least the number of bins which could be collected by a single truck in a week, ideally. In order for useful data to be collected, the pilot would need to be run for at least 8 weeks, to allow for devices in use in households to reach the end of their useful life and require disposal.

Following the pilot, an evaluation of the data on disposal rates and any modifications required to the mechanical design and processes would need to be conducted before broad production for market could commence.

Team

I have attached my CV for reference.

I have broad experience in commercial operations, having started and run a state-level branch operation of a substantial national engineering firm with success, taking it from inception in a mature market to a turnover approaching $800,000 in less than 5 years, including a city-based headquarters laboratory and 3 mobile (caravan-based) laboratories. The project was completely greenfield, with all the facilities requiring specification and fit-out to meet rigorous NATA requirements for the provision of geotechnical testing services to the construction, mining and offshore gas sector.

I started and operated for nearly 8 years a small log recovery and timber milling business which also provided joinery services through a partner business. This business was a particular challenge because of a lack of capital and substantial competitive pressures, requiring some significant lateral thinking to try to remain competitive, but which ultimately failed.

For the past 3 years I was employed as a policy advisor at the National Heavy Vehicle Regulator, with responsibility for delivering two industry codes of practice. Since commencing this business, I am engaged in a project on behalf of WCRA and WRIQ to develop and deliver training packages to the waste sector on Chain of Responsibility compliance and use of the codes of practice.