Search

Conference to explore how Aust can reach 2030 waste target

We are an online community created around a smart and easy to access information hub which is focused on providing proven global and local insights about sustainability

11 Oct, 2024

This post was originally published on Sustainability Matters

The Waste Management and Resource Recovery Association of Australia’s (WMRR) inaugural Australian Resource Recovery Conference, to be held at the Adelaide Convention Centre on 16–17 October 2024, will explore how the nation can meet its 2030 target of an 80% resource recovery rate.

“Currently, Australia generates around 76 million tonnes of waste material a year and recovers only 45 million tonnes for a resource recovery rate of 63%,” said WMRR CEO Gayle Sloan. “This means the nation needs a net increase in resource recovery rate by about 1.5 million tonnes a year if it is to reach its 80% target by 2030.”

Sloan said this would require a huge shift in behaviour and action across the entire value chain given that, to date, per capita waste material continues to increase.

“Achieving this means there needs to be both a paradigm shift and behaviour change to address unnecessary consumption and overproduction of products in the first place,” she explained.

“There also needs to be a drive to create market demand for recycled materials, a reduction in the reliance on virgin material, and investment in all stages of extending life (reuse, repair) to increase local remanufacturing capacity and grow both Australian jobs and skills.”

This new national conference aims to bring together operators, practitioners, policymakers, regulators and product developers from across the country to discuss all aspects of material recovery, the manufacturing of products and maintaining a circular economy. At the same time, it will examine the waste recovery industry’s role in addressing emissions and biodiversity loss.

Keynote speakers include South Australian Deputy Premier Susan Close; SEC Newgate’s Sue Vercoe; CSIRO Environment’s Dr Heinz Schandl; Greens Spokesman on Waste and Recycling Senator Peter Whish-Wilson; and Green Industries SA CEO Josh Wheeler. There will also be a virtual address from Reloop co-founder and CEO Clarissa Morawski on lessons from Europe.

There will be eight technical and specialist sessions covering regulation; planning, infrastructure and investment; data insights; product and market development; education and behaviour change; regional and remote; innovation and technology; and disaster recovery.

“One of the challenges for the WARR industry is to educate the community that recycling doesn’t end when material goes in the recycling bin,” Sloan said. “It needs to extend to what people purchase in order to create the circularity required to make the system work as effectively as possible.

“Consumers, business and government should actively choose to buy recycled. Consumers need to use their purchasing power to influence business to use products made from recycled materials, be it packaging, compost or building products — the list goes on and on. Ask the question ‘is this made from recycled material and if not, why not?’

“The benefits of this are twofold — it is good for Australian green jobs and good for the planet.”

For more information, including the full program, click here.

Image credit: iStock.com/Rawpixel

Pass over the stars to rate this post. Your opinion is always welcome.
[Total: 0 Average: 0]

You may also like…

In Vivid Reliquaries, Stan Squirewell Layers Anonymous Portraits and Patterned Textiles

In Vivid Reliquaries, Stan Squirewell Layers Anonymous Portraits and Patterned Textiles

Through intimate, mixed-media collages, Stan Squirewell excavates the stories of those who might otherwise be lost in anonymity.
Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $7 per month. The article In Vivid Reliquaries, Stan Squirewell Layers Anonymous Portraits and Patterned Textiles appeared first on Colossal.

Land water loss causes sea level rise in 21st century

Land water loss causes sea level rise in 21st century

An international team of scientists, led jointly by The University of Melbourne and Seoul National University, has found global water storage on land has plummeted since the start of the 21st century, overtaking glacier melt as the leading cause of sea level rise and measurably shifting the Earth’s pole of rotation.

Published in Science, the research combined global soil moisture data estimated by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecast (ECMWF) Reanalysis v5 (ERA5), global mean sea level measurements and observations of Earth’s pole movement in order to estimate changes in terrestrial (land) water storage (TWS) from 1979 to 2016.

“The study raises critical questions about the main drivers of declining water storage on land and whether global lands will continue to become drier,” University of Melbourne author Professor Dongryeol Ryu said.

“Water constantly cycles between land and oceans, but the current rate of water loss from land is outpacing its replenishment. This is potentially irreversible because it’s unlikely this trend will reverse if global temperatures and evaporative demand continue to rise at their current rates. Without substantial changes in climate patterns, the imbalance in the water cycle is likely to persist, leading to a net loss of water from land to oceans over time.”

Between 2000 and 2002, soil moisture decreased by around 1614 gigatonnes (1 Gt equals 1 km3 of water) — nearly double Greenland’s ice loss of about 900 Gt in 2002–2006. From 2003 to 2016, soil moisture depletion continued, with an additional 1009 Gt lost.

Soil moisture had not recovered as of 2021, with little likelihood of recovery under present climate conditions. The authors say this decline is corroborated by independent observations of global mean sea level rise (~4.4 mm) and Earth’s polar shift (~45 cm in 2003–2012).

Water loss was most pronounced across East and Central Asia, Central Africa, and North and South America. In Australia, the growing depletion has impacted parts of Western Australia and south-eastern Australia, including western Victoria, although the Northern Territory and Queensland saw a small replenishment of soil moisture.

Image credit: iStock.com/ZU_09

0 Comments