Ward Petherbridge – Managing Director
The Waste Converters site has been owned by the Petherbridge family for over 30 years when Ward’s father, Geoff bought the Lyndhurst sand pit and solid inert waste tip in 1982.
After time spent living in Europe and studying environmental science, Ward joined his father’s business in 1997 with a vision to turn the facility into a recycling business. As a passionate advocate for industrial recycling Ward has built Smart Recycling, into a successful business that diverts over 50,000 tonnes of waste from landfill annually.
Ward also actively promotes “upcycling” through Waste Converter’s biennial sponsorship of Create from a Crate, an exhibition that showcases the reuse of waste timber via the skilled transformation of recycled pallets into objects of beauty or function including musical instruments, sculpture and fine furniture.
Through his position of Board Member on the Committee for Dandenong, Ward is active in the local business community helping to ensure the City of Greater Dandenong is recognised as a major manufacturing, processing, and business precinct providing employment and opportunity to the communities of the South East of Melbourne.
