Professor Edward Kosior, renowned industry expert on plastic material recovery, who was recently featured on the PKN Podcast, brings his expertise to the table in this exclusive article for PKN on what’s required to transform Australia’s plastic waste ecosystem.
We closed 2023 on an exciting note as the Australian Federal Government endorsed the Solving Plastic Waste Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) bid [see breakout on facing page]. Combined with contributions from partners, the total resources available to this project are worth $140.6 million, a fund that offers the Australian packaging and recycling industries a truly unique opportunity to harness academia to develop transformational circular economy solutions.
CRC programmes are university-guided projects that engage with industry and government and this latest bid was led by Griffith University. Having spent half of my working life in academia and the other half in industry, I feel well placed to offer a cautionary perspective regarding how impactful this CRC bid will be.
Industry-driven is the only way forward
Whilst the resulting close collaboration between academia and industry does indeed have the potential to fast-track innovative solutions tailored to industry’s very specific roadblocks, this will only gain traction if it is truly industry driven.
Traditionally it has been the other way around. Universities receive the funding and then go to industry with a specific research topic in mind. Whilst the research in question is without doubt always interesting, even-ground breaking at times, it does not automatically follow that it will solve any of industry’s biggest challenges.
In fact, in many instances, it may totally miss the crux of a big issue such as the recent failure of the REDcycle program to develop new and high value markets for post-consumer films. While this might not sound like blue sky research, it represented a looming problem that needed a prompt and economic solution.
Re-framing Australia’s waste eco-system
And it is this disconnect that must be addressed as soon as possible, because, as I see it, this is a golden opportunity for Australia to finally re-frame how it addresses plastic waste. Given the size of Australia, this is the perfect opportunity to explore and roll out some unique ways of solving plastic waste, starting with addressing the way we design packaging. Because, yes, simplifying packaging and designing it to be easily recycled without compromise will boost recycling rates. One notable example that missed the bus was a new milk bottle cap for high density polyethylene (HDPE) milk bottles, that switched from coloured to natural (good move) was still made from polypropylene (PP) instead of HDPE (not a good move).
Notoriously silo-inclined, the business world is not known for harnessing academia’s full potential. I have seen it happen time and again, and despite best intentions it is easy for both parties to drift back into their own, well-worn modus-operandi. Both parties need to understand how they each operate, set a clear common goal and assist in the rapid development of solutions needed by businesses, government and community.
Identifying the crucial waste issues
It is time for industry to step up and direct the research. In this instance of ‘Solving Plastic Waste’ we have a well-defined set of problems. Some are unique to Australia but pretty much all of them relate to global challenges. Identifying those top challenges to which academia can apply realistic and scalable solutions will deliver outstanding results.
We can’t afford to get caught up in smaller, niche projects that will divert the funding and resources right out of the project only to deliver small-time results that barely scratch the surface of the wider issues.
We live in a world that still relies on polymers, so besides researching polymer-alternatives, we need to re-frame our models for handling what we are currently producing. And especially revise how we design plastic products and packaging for the Circular Economy.
Expanding leadership’s vision
CRC’s leadership must be prepared to shake the foundations of our current waste management system. This is not about creating a sandpit in which innovation can be explored on a small scale. The vision must be much bigger to keep pace with the challenges. We need to create the right atmosphere for the business world to generate solutions that solve the big problems facing Australia and the world.
One of my key suggestions would be to establish an advanced sorting centre located in an industrial setting where the business world and academia can run trials in an industrial environment. This would be the hub from which research can be undertaken and put to immediate test.
Facing hard questions
Having worked with organisations around the world has given me a rich overview of what delivers transformational results. We need to start by asking ourselves some very hard questions. What is the real potential value of the so called ‘waste’ in our waste stream? What are we really missing?
Instead of ‘addressing’ waste from the perspective of stopping it going to our oceans or landfill, shouldn’t we be going beyond that to reducing ‘waste’ creation in the first place?
A few years ago we asked ourselves some hard questions and chose to face the ‘elephants’ in the room. In so doing we identified food-grade polypropylene as one polymer that had enormous potential value yet was being turned into garden table legs. Likewise flexible plastic, which I realise is a still a sore point, and yet there are technologies to now turn this back into food-grade flexible films.
We don’t need a new wheel
This project should not be about re-inventing the wheel. Instead we need to look at the success stories around the world and introduce the best of these into Australia. We need a clean slate from which to think how best to make the CRC bid truly have a fundamental impact on the Australian waste eco-system.
We do not need to come up with a world-first, we need to let the industry’s biggest pain points lead the way.
Which brings me to the hot topic of simultaneously dealing with the most awkward polymers in our waste stream that hold high potential and rolling back to the very beginning of their lifecycle, when they are being designed for production.
This too is a pivotal issue which could be modelled into Australia’s waste management project. We need to shift away from the mindset that we are doing the best we can by turning post-consumer plastic packaging into yet another park bench (still a good idea) and create the material loops required by the circular economy back into the same or very similar application. Bottle-to-bottle, tray-to-tray, film-to-film and autopart-to-autopart.
To the heart of waste
If we recognise that the heart of the issue is to reduce our reliance on virgin polymers, the next logical step is to shift away from our fixation with converting materials from used products into new materials for other products. Historically these are lower value products. Instead we should be aiming to re-loop used products into high-quality materials and turn them into high-value products.
This would go straight to the core issue and we would simultaneously reduce waste and our reliance on virgin resources.
This kind of paradigm-shift in the current design guidelines for circular packaging would have the potential to transform recycling rates. To achieve this, products must be designed to be re-used in the same or equivalent products. And that is a whole new topic!
For the time being I would like to see Australian businesses grasping this opportunity to partner with academia. We need to be commercialising technology that is single-mindedly focused on real-world challenges. And we need to be acting fast not just for Australia, but for the world.
This article originally appeared on page 18-21 of the PKN Packaging News magazine.
