Articles

Title: New UK Initiative to Develop the Next Generation Of Sustainable Composite Materials

Summary: A new initiative brings together the UK’s composites expertise to quickly turn research breakthroughs into industrial applications.

Title: Advances in Chemical Recycling Cut Plastic Waste

Summary: With growing pressure from regulatory and consumer sectors, Südpack is increasingly focused on chemical recycling of plastic waste and developing high-tech packaging films from the recovered raw materials.

Title: NSW Circular Report Flags Massive Job Opportunities in Circular Economy

Summary: NSW Circular has released a new report, The Circular Economy Opportunity in NSW, which sets out the evidence for why transitioning from a linear to a circular economy will be vital for job creation and economic recovery post-COVID-19.

Title: ‘Living Lab’ Showcases Circular Economy Concept To Construction Industry

Summary: Curtin University’s recently launched Legacy Living Lab (L3) is the first modular building in Western Australia to be designed with circular economy principles. Created by Timothy O’Grady, Roberto Minunno and Professor Greg Morrison, in collaboration with a range of industry partners, L3 is designed to be flexible, sustainable and can be fully disassembled

Title: NTU Scientists Invent Glue Activated By Magnetic Field

Summary: A potential boon to green manufacturing, the new glue saves on energy, time and space.

Title: Understanding The Shift Towards A Successful Circular Economy

Summary: Five key learnings from the 2nd Australian Circular Economy Conference

Title: The Start-up That Believes Seaweed Can Change The World

Summary: Sustainably farmed seaweed could help meet growing demand for plant-based food and environmentally friendly packaging.

Title: Bans On Plastic Straws, Plates And Cutlery Come In As China Ramps Up Its War On Plastic To Reduce The Volume Of Waste The Country Generates

Summary: Chengdu has announced a ban on the use of plastic straws in restaurants, cafes, and tea houses, while Guangzhou outlaws use of plastic tableware.

Title: Closing The Circle On Waste

Summary: Engineers and environmentalists support a circular economy that designs waste into the loop.

Title: Applications Open For Tasmanian RMF Plastics Grant Program

Summary: Tasmanian businesses are being encouraged to bring forward new ideas and new technologies for tackling the country’s growing plastic waste challenge, with the Recycling Modernisation Fund (Plastics) Grants Program now open.

Title: Soft Plastic Packaging Recycled Into Sustainable Concrete

Summary: RMIT research has helped create concrete made with soft plastic in a redeveloped carpark – the first time the circular-economy technology has been used in an Australian commercial project.

Title: Recycling Roadmap' sets course to improve plastics recycling in UK

Summary: The report from the British Plastics Federation compiles currently available data on recycling and projects what the U.K. recycling industry could achieve over the next decade.

Title: Novamont, BioBag Join Forces For Circular Economy

Summary: Italian supplier Novamont has acquired Australia’s BioBag Group. The acquisition will help strengthen the two producers’ contribution to the global circular economy.

Title: Bugisu Project Coffee Is Putting An End To Waste And Turning Profits Into Microfinance

Summary: Global waste is expected to increase by 70 per cent over the next 30 years unless we take action now.

Title: Successful circular economy 'trailblazers' do these 5 things:

Summary: A new report by the World Economic Forum and ScaleUpNation shares research-based insights into what helps circular trailblazers successfully change entire industries

Title: The CSIRO National Circular economy roadmap for plastics, glass, paper and tyres has been released

Summary: This much-needed report clearly makes the case for an integrated circular economy strategy to meet Australia's intrinsically linked environmental, economic and social needs.

Title: Meet Australia's first homegrown, poo-loving superbugs that are cleaning Brisbane's sewage

Summary: A superbug that feeds on nutrients in sewage water to clean it has been grown from scratch at a wastewater plant in Brisbane.

Title: Building the cities of the future

Summary: Mastercard has partnered with Smart Dubai and Expo 2020 Dubai to release this 2021 survey on human technology and the drive toward sustainability, by looking at the needs and wants of UAE citizens.

Title: CISL launches handbook to help businesses translate nature loss into financial risk

Summary: New guide from the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership breaks down commercial risks resulting from nature loss

Title: Companies should try collaboration – not coercion – when dealing with their suppliers

Summary: There is growing consensus among both managers and scholars that corporations need to work with their suppliers to enhance their social and environmental performance.

Title: Nature left alone offers more than if we exploit it

Summary: Save nature, save money. It’s a simple argument. Wilderness cleared and ploughed offers us less than nature left alone.

Title: Circular economy could be worth $2 trillion - PwC report

Summary: A report by PwC states that Australia’s circular economy could be worth up to $2 trillion by 2040, and also save up to 165 million tonnes of CO2 entering the atmosphere. Titled, Building a more Circular Australia, the report explores the opportunity for Australia to establish a framework for sustainable growth using the circular economy methodology.

Title: Circularity — a crucial part of product development

Summary: Mats W Lundberg, head of sustainability at global engineering group Sandvik, looks at why circularity needs to be considered from the initial design process, otherwise it’s already too late.

Title: ‘Single-use plastics’ to be phased out in Australia from 2025 include plastic utensils and straws

Summary: National agreement on items covered by ban should provide businesses with certainty and ease consumer confusion.

Title: More reasons for optimism on climate change than we’ve seen for decades: 2 climate experts explain

Summary: It’s unusual for researchers who study our catastrophically changing climate to use the words “optimism” and “climate change” in the same sentence. But what if we were to come to a tipping point for climate action?

Title: How spending on sustainable infrastructure will lift Australia up

Summary: Right now, Australia has a once-in-a-generation opportunity to make our country more resilient, prosperous and sustainable. That’s because Australia has some serious cash in the kitty for infrastructure: $225 billion to be spent across four years to June 2023. And Infrastructure Australia is helping make every dollar work.

Title: How insect hotels and honey highways are helping bee populations in the Netherlands

Summary: The Netherlands' national pollinator strategy, which was signed by 43 government and non-government partners, was designed to help stabilize or even grow bee populations, as well as increase their distribution around the country. A recent survey suggests the move might be paying off.

Title: Can tiny forests breathe fresh air into our cities?

Summary: After gaining popularity across Asia, small, dense ecosystems are taking root in Europe's urban areas. Advocates say they improve biodiversity, air quality and even our well-being. But do they live up to the hype?

Title: In Historic Ruling, Dutch Court Rules Shell Must Abide by Paris Agreement

Summary: In a first-of-its-kind ruling, a court of law has held a private company responsible for its contributions to the climate crisis. The court at The Hague in the Netherlands ruled Thursday that fossil-fuel giant Royal Dutch Shell must reduce its emissions by 45 percent by 2030.

Title: WA government unveils plan to ban single-use plastic items by 2022

Summary: The West Australian government has brought forward a plan to abolish single-use plastics, vowing to ban a range of items — including plastic plates, bowls, cups, cutlery and takeaway polystyrene food containers — by the end of the year.

Title: Why the next five years are an opportunity to buy us time to solve climate change

Summary: In Australia we’ve been talking about climate change for over a century. But strip away all the politics, and the maths tells a different story: reducing emissions now will buy us more time to get to zero, but inaction dramatically cuts the time we have to act.

Title: Ecomimicry: the nature-inspired approach to design that could be the antidote to urban ‘blandscapes’

Summary: When the starting point is a square of sterile grey, adding any greenery might seem to be the best option. But the “any green is good” mantra misses opportunities to rewild our urban landscapes with the complex mosaics of nooks and crannies that help nature proliferate. Far from being praised, blandscaping should be seen as the ecological equivalent of gentrification.

Title: ‘Environmental accounting’ could revolutionise nature conservation, but Australia has squandered its potential

Summary: Environmental accounting could be a game changer for conserving nature, but the account released by the ABS falls flat. It’s yet another example of Australia’s environmental policy culture: we develop or adopt good ideas, but then just tinker with them, or even discard them.

Title: How Aboriginal culture can teach us how to live with less and tread more lightly

Summary: If you're looking to live more sustainably, ancient Aboriginal culture could give you some ideas for treading more lightly on the planet. Mr Thomas is executive director of Wayapa Wuurrk, an earth connection practice based on ancient Indigenous wisdom that focuses on taking care of the Earth for the wellbeing of all. "It's an earth connection practice based on earth mindfulness, meditation, physical movements but also the practicality of how we can take care of Mother Earth," he said.

Title: Meeting Paris Agreement Goals Would Create 8 Million New Energy Jobs, Study Finds

Summary: One of the chief arguments against transitioning away from fossil fuels and towards a zero-carbon economy is that it would cost the world energy jobs. But is such a fear really justified? To find out, an international team of researchers set out to determine how meeting the Paris agreement goals would impact the global balance of energy-sector employment.

Title: Nutrient-rich human waste poised to sustain agriculture, improve economies

Summary: The future connection between human waste, sanitation technology and sustainable agriculture is becoming more evident. According to a civil and environmental engineering professor, countries could be moving closer to using human waste as fertilizer, closing the loop to more circular, sustainable economies.

Title: Ending subsidies that harm nature could create millions of green jobs, WWF says

Summary: Tens of millions of green jobs could be created if governments diverted one year's worth of the subsidies that are harming ecosystems and wildlife into spending that protects and restores nature, environmental group WWF said on Thursday. In a report, WWF examined the potential impact on employment of channelling into greener activities the annual $500 billion governments now put into damaging subsidies that support things like fossil fuels, over-fishing and unsustainable agriculture.

Title: Climate change solution could come from 'electrifying everything', Australian inventor Saul Griffith says

Summary: Speaking from San Francisco, Sydney-born inventor Saul Griffith explains how Australia can rapidly get most of the way to net zero emissions using existing technology. Also an entrepreneur and adviser to US presidential campaigns, Dr Griffith is one of the most prominent global advocates for an approach best summed up as "electrify everything".

Title: Pollution to products? Recycled carbon emissions are coming to consumer shelves

Summary: long-forgotten industrial fermentation process is allowing a small share of climate-changing carbon pollution to be turned into household products, with the first items available this year. Backers say the process, known as gas fermentation, uses carbon captured from the air, industrial smokestacks, municipal solid waste or other sources to create "green chemicals" that can be turned into plastics, soaps, fabrics, perfumes and more.

Title: ‘Conservation should be seen as what communities have always done’, says John Kamanga

Summary: Efforts to protect wildlife and landscapes have generally been shifting away from “fortress conservation” — where local people are excluded from the lands they’ve traditionally managed — toward more inclusive approaches. Among these latter approaches are community conservancies, which have been expanding around the world, but have especially gained traction in East Africa.

Title: Our kerbside rubbish to be recycled to make Melbourne's tram stops

Summary: Melbourne's iconic trams could soon be stopping to pick up their passengers from tram stops made with roadside rubbish. "It can be easily installed without a significant disruption to traffic flowing through those tram stops, which are generally used by trams as well as road users."

Title: Superbonus! Italy's green growth gambit lines homes and pockets

Summary: Under a scheme introduced in July last year the Italian government pays an eye-watering 110% of the cost of turning buildings green, from insulation to solar panels to replacing old-fashioned boilers and window fittings.

Title: Climate change. We get it... it’s a mess you don’t want to think about.

Summary: If you take this big problem and break it down into smaller pieces, you find Australians are already coming up with solutions that, if scaled up, have the potential to turbocharge the transition.

Title: Urban farms where you least expect them - at bus stops

Summary: Singapore plans to produce 30 per cent of our nutritional needs locally and sustainably by 2030, but not many Singaporeans know much about the high-tech farms that produce them. A new campaign by sovereign wealth fund GIC to raise the profile of urban farms in Singapore aims to change that, with seven bus stops islandwide sprouting vegetables such as kailan, butterhead lettuce and Chinese cabbage.

Title: Invest in nature and reap cash benefits, World Economic Forum urges cities

Summary: Cities worldwide should invest more in expanding green spaces and nurturing natural systems that provide water, food and clean air - not just to keep residents healthy and tackle climate-change risks but to boost their economies, researchers said on Monday. Yet despite the benefits of green urban improvements, little money is spent on them, they said in a report released by the BiodiverCities by 2030 initiative.

Title: A global plastic treaty - that tackles production as well as waste - is within reach, says UN

Summary: United Nations negotiators have agreed a roadmap for a global plastic treaty that would address plastic production and design, according to a draft resolution seen by Reuters, in what delegates said was a key step to agreeing an ambitious deal.

Title: The circular economy: how it can lead us on a path to real change

Summary: The linear 'take, make, waste' economy assumes a constant supply of natural resources to make products which are then disposed of after use. The concept of a 'circular economy' has emerged to address the crisis that is a major driver of global warming, but it is far from clearly defined. We instead need to create a true circular economy through systems change, in order to deliver a truly waste-free world.