Our approach of crowdfunding carbon removal is new - we understand that you probably have some questions. Here are some that we are often asked along with our responses. If you would like to know more about us, or have a concern that wasn’t addressed here, please contact us.
Donations received by Carbon Bins will be pooled until there are enough funds to purchase carbon credits from Australian carbon projects registered under the Federal Government's Emissions Reduction Fund. Once these credits are purchased and retired, they are no longer available to carbon polluting organisations to offset their carbon emissions.
More information about the Emissions Reduction Fund can be found here.
We will only use donations to purchase carbon credits from projects involving the planting of native trees to remove carbon from the atmosphere and restore biodiversity to the landscape.
Although we are a not-for-profit organisation, we still have bills to pay to keep Carbon Bins up and running. A small percentage from donations received will be used to help cover our operating costs. The remainder will go directly to the purchase of carbon credits.
Transparency and trust are part of our core values. Details of each carbon credit purchased by Carbon Bins and the projects that these credits come from, will be made available on the website soon.
Carbon Bins doesn’t plant the trees that remove carbon from the atmosphere. Rather, we raise funds so that we can pay other parties to do this for us – we crowdfund removal of carbon pollution from the atmosphere.
The world has delayed reducing carbon emissions for so long that humanity will need to suck enormous amounts of carbon dioxide back out from the air to avoid catastrophic global warming.
Technologies that suck carbon dioxide out of the air - known as ‘negative emissions technologies’ - are needed to achieve this. Planting trees is a biological negative emissions technology and scientific evidence shows that planting trees is still one of the most effective and low-cost ways to remove carbon pollution from the atmosphere.
There is a range of other negative emissions technologies currently in use or development. You can find out more about these technologies here.
No, it is so much more.
Offsetting involves a business, a government, or an individual paying someone else to remove a given quantity of carbon from the atmosphere in order to cancel out the pollution they may have been responsible for creating. People can still do this via Carbon Bins tap-and-go donation points. However, when we think about climate change as a waste management problem, we see that there is a need for us to dispose of carbon waste: we need bins for this kind of waste. Making a donation to Carbon Bins is the equivalent of putting your own rubbish in the bin.
But why stop with your own rubbish? If we all pitched in to pick up an extra piece of rubbish and put it in the bin then we all benefit from a clean community. Let’s do the same for our carbon waste. Carbon Bins goes beyond ‘traditional’ carbon offsetting by encouraging and allowing individuals to bin carbon pollution - even if it’s not theirs.
Carbon credits are issued from emissions reduction projects that:
Every tonne of emissions reduced results in the creation of one carbon credit. A carbon credit is a tradeable certificate that represents the avoidance or removal of one tonne of carbon emissions.
Carbon credits are issued to projects in Australia and overseas which can demonstrate that they have been verified to reduce or remove carbon emissions. For example, if a project has been verified to reduce emissions by 20 tonnes, then it is eligible to receive 20 carbon credits.
When the carbon credit is retired (or 'canceled' in some registries) it is removed from circulation in that registry and cannot be used again by another buyer.
All donations made to Carbon Bins and our project are, for the moment, not tax deductible... We're currently working on rectifying this situation, and will be updating information on our website relating to this matter as soon as things change.
We only purchase high-quality carbon removal credits from reforestation projects located in Australia which meet the following criteria:
Project performance is monitored and verified. Measurement and data collection procedures are scientifically sound and methodologically robust. Project monitoring data is rigorously verified by a third party to ensure it is accurate and does not overstate emission reductions.
There is a formal plan for managing and reducing the risk of carbon stored by trees being released to the atmosphere. Plans may cover physical measures like thinning or other treatments to reduce the risks of fire, financial management practices to reduce the risk of project failure or bankruptcy; and/or legal mechanisms or other measures to guard against removal or damage to trees by landholders. Mechanisms are in place to ensure that any carbon that is lost to the atmosphere is restored or replaced.
In addition to removing carbon from the atmosphere, the project generates additional environmental and/or social benefits. At a minimum, the project re-establishes native vegetation on previously cleared areas, increasing biodiversity and habitat for native animal and plant species. Social co-benefits include community employment opportunities and an alternative revenue stream for farmers.
Putting back forests - we only support projects that involve reforestation in areas that have been cleared of forests following European settlement. These are areas that have sufficient rainfall to support forests in the long-term.