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The notion of the circular economy is increasingly gaining traction in Australia, with growing recognition of benefits from rescuing waste from landfill to lowering carbon emissions and creating thousands of new jobs.
“The transition to a circular economy represents an ambitious movement – in all industries and across all aspects of the economy – towards a low-waste, high-resource-efficiency future,” says KPMG Australia chief economist Dr Brenan Rynne in a report on the circular economy commissioned by the CSIRO.
ResourceCo has recycled 60 million tonnes of materials, producing more than 2 million tonnes of circular economy carbon abatement to date. ResourceCo
The report found the circular economy could give Australia’s GDP a $23 billion boost and create 17,000 more full-time equivalent (FTE) jobs.
“Circular activities and processes not only extend the usable life of products but also extend their value, create new jobs and raise economic growth,” Rynne notes.
Rather than treating resources as finite, the circular economy is a model of production and consumption that sees waste as endlessly reusable. The CSIRO National Circular Economy Roadmap, launched last year, is the latest sign that the approach is picking up steam.
The recycling sector currently generates 9.2 jobs per 10,000 tonnes of waste, the road map outlines, compared with just 2.8 jobs for the same amount of waste sent to landfill.
Australia loses $419 million every year by not recycling PET and HDPE plastics, while sending lithium from batteries to landfill will result in a lost economic opportunity of up to $2.5 billion by 2036.
ResourceCo founder and managing director Simon Brown. ResourceCo
Even a 5 per cent increase in Australia’s recovery rate would add an estimated $1 billion to GDP.
“Australia is among the world’s best in advanced manufacturing and environmental research, and that unique science can turn industry and environment into partners by making sustainability profitable,” CSIRO chief executive Dr Larry Marshall said at the launch of the road map.
“Science can transform our economy into a circular one that renews and reuses what we previously discarded, and, indeed, a virtuous circle that creates higher paid jobs, advances new Australian technology, and protects our environment.”
The logical next step for the circular economy is to unify procurement policies, says Simon Brown, founder and managing director of leading recovery and re-manufacturing company ResourceCo. Doing so would help recyclers maintain the momentum they have developed through ongoing, sophisticated innovating in the recycling process.
“If we get the procurement settings right, whether that’s sustainability, carbon abatement or the circular economy, there’s enormous potential,” Brown says. “There is still a lot of work to do, but it’s such a fantastic opportunity.”
ResourceCo has been at the forefront of the circular economy since it was founded in 1992.
“From our perspective, all waste can be turned back into a valuable product. We see it as a new advanced manufacturing industry. It’s going to deliver enormous amounts of capital investment into Australia, and thousands of new jobs.”
The company extracts maximum value from a variety of materials otherwise destined for landfill. It collects more than 20 million tyres each year, recycling 99 per cent of them into products that are then used in everything from building insulation to surfaces for athletic tracks, roads and playgrounds. The tyres can even be used as the basis for tyre-derived fuel, an alternative energy resource that can replace fossil fuels such as gas, coal or oil in industrial applications.
“If you look at the opportunities in the circular economy, you’re talking 50 years of growth. It’s a very exciting industry to be in.”
— Simon Brown, founder and managing director of recovery and re-manufacturing company ResourceCo
Construction and demolition, commercial and industrial waste, plastics and textiles, contaminated soils and glass materials – ResourceCo can transform them all into valuable materials bought by clients ranging from multinationals, heavy industry to government organisations.
The company has recycled 60 million tonnes of materials, producing more than 2 million tonnes of circular economy carbon abatement to date – the equivalent of taking 450,000 cars off the road. ResourceCo averages a 90 per cent recycling rate for all the material it takes in, and now has 25 plants across Australia, employing more than 900 people.
It is a busy time for the company and construction is currently under way on a new facility in the Pilbara, which will enable ResourceCo to manage the large volume of rubber waste produced through mining. Another facility is due to open soon at the Port of Brisbane, bringing an integrated resource recovery facility to the Queensland capital.
ResourceCo has a pipeline of projects with growth opportunities and estimates this would create 1.5 million tonnes of circular economy carbon abatement annually and would see it recycle 10 million-plus tonnes of material per annum.
With tens of millions of tonnes of waste still heading to landfill every year in Australia, Brown says the transition to a circular economy will not only help forge a more sustainable future, but also unlock untapped value.
“If you look at the opportunities in the circular economy, you’re talking 50 years of growth. It’s a very exciting industry to be in.”
This content has been funded by an advertiser and written by the Nine commercial editorial team.
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