Waste initiatives

A young female vendor sells plastic cans for carrying holy water at a market around the river Ganga, India.

Australia and India waste experts aim to put the fantastic back into plastic

An ambitious project between the two countries to reduce plastic waste could bring global solutions.

Supercharging Australia’s lithium-ion battery recycling industry

Australia could have a $3.1 billion industry in lithium-ion battery recycling, according to a new report.

CSIRO's Deborah Lau looking at the camera with her hands in a bag of small fragments of plastic

Reimagining the future of plastics

With our oceans littered with trillions of pieces of rubbish, how do we solve the plastic pollution crisis?

Pictures of discarded computer circuit boards. Biomining is an innovative way of mining valuable metals from printed circuit boards like these, which usually end up in landfill.

Motherboards as mother lode

Did you know there is up to 100 times more gold in a tonne of mobile phones than in a tonne of gold ore? Microbes could underpin a new urban biomining industry, where gold, silver, copper and other e-waste metals are extracted more cleanly and more economically than through conventional mining.

Picture of bundles of recycled paper. The roadmap recommends reducing single-use paper.

Waste not, want not

Researchers are supporting Australia's move to a zero-waste culture with science. The first step has been a circular economy roadmap to reduce plastic, glass, tyres and paper waste.

Woman looking a phone

The waste problem hiding in your mobile phone

The allure of new technology has created a little talked about waste problem. Lithium ion batteries power many of our devices yet are not recycled effectively, if at all. In order to close the loop on battery resources, Australian researchers are looking ahead and creating sustainable technologies to recycle these batteries.

pile of rubbish mainly made up of plastic drink bottles

The future of waste management

Forging trust between the waste industry and the Australian community will be critical for implementing new sustainable waste management solutions.

A woman and a child in a garden

An unexpected crisis that could change our cities

COVID-19 is a health and economic crisis that’s taken the world by surprise. Yet this wicked problem may also be an opportunity for Australia to invest in new types of urban infrastructure to make cities smarter, greener, safer, and healthier.

Biodegradable versus compostable – knowing your eco-plastics

As the world moves to ban single-use plastics, biodegradable plastics are increasingly in focus as an environmentally friendly alternative. However, some plastics degrade into microplastics, others take ages to disappear from the environment, and in certain conditions they produce powerful greenhouse gases.