‘Cultural adjustment’ needed to build circular economy: CSIRO

More markets for recycled materials are needed to build a circular economy, says the CSIRO – along with less contaminated waste streams, and a greater reprocessing capacity.

In its Circular Economy roadmap for plastics, glass, paper and tyres, Australia’s national science agency says there is no single “silver bullet” for transitioning to a circular economy given the challenges are numerous and often interconnected.

The five
issues it identifies are:

• Lack
  of end markets for secondary materials;
• Lack
  of reprocessing capacity;
• Loss
  of source material through sub-optimal product design, consumption, and
  collection,
• Lack
  of consistency across jurisdictions; and
• Lack
  of system-wide capability to support a circular economy.

“These
challenges can only be overcome with a concerted effort to build a national
culture that values the re-use of secondary materials,” the roadmap says.

Dr Heinz
Schandl, a senior CSIRO scientist who led the roadmap’s development, said that
industries supplying products and materials needed to develop a “deeper
responsibility for their product” to bring a fundamental shift.

Australia
only recycles about 4 percent of plastics, 33 percent of glass and 36 percent
of paper, the roadmap says, and in 2019 exported 1.4 million tonnes of those
materials as “waste”.

Significant volumes of glass, paper and plastics also end up in landfills either because recycling loads are contaminated and can’t be sorted, or the products are designed in a way that doesn’t allow materials to be easily separated.

The roadmap
says there will need to be major improvements to the retention of resources
that are contained in products, more innovation in recycling facilities and
better product designs to limit the commingling of waste. New markets will need
to be developed and consistent standards introduced across the states.

“A
transition to a circular economy will require profound changes to industrial,
institutional, economic, social and consumption practices,” the roadmap says.

“None of these things will be possible without a national culture that thinks ‘re-use’ before ‘throw out’ and acts accordingly.

“Every channel should be used to support that vision, to change mindsets and guide behaviours both at home and at work,” the report adds.