sustainability and innovation

Zero Waste Lifeline complements the beauty of the wetlands, is low maintenance and has a minimal impact on the environment:

• The installation allows for safe nesting spots for the diverse bird life in the wetlands - yet it does not harbour predators such as rats and snakes.
• The birds became comfortable with the artwork while it was installed:
  During installation we were on site three days in our great big boots with our big heavy machinery, and every day the birds all flew away but they were back the next morning. In fact there was a nest on the next island over, with six big pelican eggs in it and a pelican sitting on top and even she didn't seem too worried about it. Greg Healey - artist, Zero Waste Lifeline.
• The structures will be lashed by wind, rain, pollutants, and the inevitable corrosion of a highly saline environment.
• The isolation of the unguarded site severely restricted the choice of recycled materials. These materials must be recyclable, yet lack a resale value that would make them a target for thieves.
• Several of the design options prompted by Zero Waste SA's brief, which initially desired the use of recycled or salvaged materials, were discarded because of their toxicity to the wetlands system.
• Tyres were too flammable; car bodies were likely to leach toxins into the water table; brick and concrete or builders' aggregate were too heavy for the man-made islands.
• The rings were constructed from zinc coated galvanised steel because of its robustness.
• Zero Waste Lifeline is built to sustainable without outside assistance as the available funding made no provision for costly, ongoing maintenance schedules
• The forms do not use any more material than is necessary.

In this project philosophical and practical issues interlace. The challenging physical and environmental factors inherent in the location directly represent the larger questions of sustainability that the installation was designed to highlight.

Cathoel Jorss, writer, Zero Waste Lifeline

innovation

The engineering specifics required innovation:

• Concrete-based footings would have been environmentally devastating, requiring pumping and major excavation and a significant amount of concrete.
• Through the assistance of the Department for Transport, Infrastructure and Energy, a young engineer, Chris Ward, under the guidance of Richard Herraman suggested steel piers on three-metre pylons driven into the ground. Chris Ward had also worked on the mechanism for the Sydney Olympics flame.
• The footing design is a clean and simple solution which saved the need for any excavation and did not destroy any landscape.
• Mass concrete on the islands would have made for an easier installation procedure, but it would have proven incredibly expensive and environmentally invasive.

It's not just digging a hole - there's also the question of what you do with the fill material once it's extracted. For every wheelbarrow of concrete, you actually end up with one and a half wheelbarrow loads of dirt, because the soil becomes much less compact as it is dug out. In a living, breathing ecosystem like the Range Wetlands we cannot simply spread the excess soil around the site like you normally would. That would have destroyed the place.

Greg Healey - artist/designer, Zero Waste Lifeline