Dr Sarah King, Technical Director – Circular Economy and Resource Recovery at GHD, explains how a circular economy approach to waste can help Australia meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.
With the National Waste Policy and associated targets encouraging state government and councils to take innovative approaches to divert waste from landfill, there has never been a more exciting time to be working in the waste space.
As Australia tackles one of its greatest challenges – the transition to net zero – the circular economy addresses 70 per cent of global greenhouse emissions attributed to resource use and handling.
It’s been estimated that a circular economy could give Australia a $23 billion GDP boost by 2025, according to a report commissioned by the CSIRO. The waste sector, and those who generate waste more broadly, have an opportunity to derive greater value from materials, resulting in improved environmental outcomes and increased jobs. Adopting a circular economy approach will help us meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.
Australia’s recycling and waste reuse rate has remained at 60 per cent since 2018 despite waste generation increasing to 76 million tonnes per year. Achieving the national target of 80 per cent average recovery rate by 2030, will require embracing new technologies, innovative and collaborative partnerships and well-designed, evidence-based strategies.
Technology
The circular economy requires new technologies to cost-effectively recover, upcycle and recycle materials that might otherwise go to landfill. In plastics, the portfolio of technologies offered by advanced recycling – such as pyrolysis, hydrothermal or gasification – can address Australia’s current challenges in soft plastics or those not suitable for mechanical recycling.
While technologies for sorting mixed plastics and processing them into other products already exist, there are limits on how many times plastics can be recycled.
The next technological step is to break down plastics to their chemical building blocks, then process them through polymer and packaging infrastructure so they can be recycled indefinitely. This keeps the raw materials in use and offsets the need to consume more of the world’s finite resources.
If implemented strategically, these technologies have great potential in the Australian market to increase the uptake of recycled content.
Recycling is often dismissed as insufficient but remains a key element of the circular economy. It has been reported that global circularity is currently at 7.2 per cent and most of that is due to the contribution of recycling processes.
Criticism arises from the fact that recycling is not the only strategy for achieving a circular economy. Interventions earlier in the lifecycle can have much greater impact, such as the design phase, where 70 per cent of a product’s environmental impact is locked in. A transition to renewable resources and slowing the rate at which products and materials move through our economy are two other effective strategies.
A report led by the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology on Enabling Design for Environmental Good is an excellent reference for the role of design in the circular economy. Taking plastics as an example, good product design should either eliminate unnecessary plastics from use, only use plastics that are easier to recycle, or make it easier to disassemble products so the plastics can be recovered economically.
Collaborative Partnerships
While the importance of innovative technology cannot be overstated, collaborative partnerships enable the creation and adoption of these technologies in the most effective ways.
Kimberly-Clark Australia’s ‘The Nappy Loop’ project is an example of how collaborative partnerships can achieve a fundamental shift away from a linear supply chain. The project trialled anaerobic digestion technology to convert disposable nappies into nutrient-rich compost and bioenergy when combined with expired food waste. The plastics were also separated and recovered as part of the process.
Though the technology was critical to the success of the trial, collaboration from across the supply chain played an equally important role in the project’s success.
Under leadership of Kimberly-Clark Australia, and with support from Green Industries South Australia, G8 Education provided clean source separation, Solo Resource Recovery provided the transport, Peats Soils and Garden Supplies delivered the technology and processing, and CSIRO provided scientific validation of the trial.
Another example in circular economy supply chain partnerships is the Licella technology, that demonstrated proof of concept to process plastics in Australia. The partnership involved nine companies – Nestlé, CurbCycle, iQ Renew, Licella, Viva Energy Australia, LyondellBasell, REDcycle, Taghleef Industries and Amcor – to close the loop on soft plastics and collect, process, and convert waste plastic into a food-grade confectionary wrapper.
The collapse of the REDcycle soft plastics collection was a sad example of what happens when there is insufficient local processing capacity and markets for recovered materials.
REDcycle successfully implemented a collection scheme for a problematic packaging product that was supported by consumers and major brand owners. Unfortunately, the scheme suffered from its own success through increased material collection and a lack of domestic recycling markets.
The failure of the REDcycle program is evidence that the entire supply chain – collection, processing and market development – must be considered for recycling interventions.
Strategy
Realising the benefits and implementing a circular economy within an organisation or industry requires adherence to some fundamental concepts. The context of applying those concepts will vary.
Developing a strategy, roadmap or business model can set an organisation on a path to realise those benefits. By engaging with customers, industry segment or supply chain, a business can gain an understanding of how to regenerate materials, use fewer resources, make resources last longer and become more recyclable.
Australia needs to acknowledge that there are less-than-ideal outcomes as it shifts from the linear status quo. Simple sounding solutions such as converting all plastics to biodegradable polymers ignore the complexity of the challenge.
Biodegradable plastics are certainly one option but are not always fit for purpose when suitable composting facilities don’t exist, collection arrangements are not aligned, standards and labelling is voluntary, and consumers are confused about what bin to use.
Closing the Loop
As Australia transitions to a circular economy, lessons will be learned from missteps and failures, along with successes and celebrations. With the right technology, partners and strategy, Australia can adopt a circular economy approach to reduce waste, convert waste into a resource, transition to net zero, reduce environmental impact, and create sustainable jobs and communities of the future.
GHD works with clients to scope opportunities and develop strategies that can help close the loop. With technical expertise in concept development, feasibility evaluation and business case development, through to impact assessment and approvals, stakeholder engagement and detailed design of new infrastructure, the team can help businesses design out waste and maximise resource recovery and circularity.
For more information, visit: www.ghd.com