STEPHEN RICHARDS

Managing Director,  Big Bag Recovery


Stephen is a product stewardship and circular economy practitioner who has designed, built, and operated programs to meet businesses Environmental, Social and Governance objectives.

Stephen founded Farm Waste Recovery in 2015, which merged into Big Bag Recovery in 2021 and Circular Communities Australia in 2022.

Big Bag Recovery (BBR) is the Federal Government accredited program for plastic packaging over 15kg/l of contents (sacks and bulk bags). BBR is the practical application of the National Environmental Protection (used packaging) Measure 2011. Circular Communities Australia was created to manufacture new products from the BBR program.

BBR won 2021 Product Stewardship Centre of Excellence inaugural award for innovation and scheme design.