Cosmos Editorial
Join our Cosmos Briefing The Circular Economy, Thursday 25 March.
The global economy sees unprecedented levels of resources extracted at great expense and effort, as well as polluting emissions in the process, to forge new products but all too often these then go to landfill at the end of their lives. A revolutionary, yet beguilingly simple, idea known as the circular economy would see all these products entirely recycled and their resources returned to form new products in turn. Just how realistic is the intention to transform the entire economy to realise this? And what role can Australia play in forging a new, more sustainable, approach to consumerism?
Professor Alan Duffy of The Royal Institution of Australia will host Scientia Professor Veena Sahajwalla and Professor Thomas Maschmeyer for the 45-minute session, beginning 3pm AEDT, please register here.
Sahajwalla is an internationally recognised materials scientist, engineer, and inventor revolutionising recycling science. She is renowned for pioneering the high temperature transformation of waste in the production of a new generation of ‘green materials.’ In 2018, Veena launched the world’s first e-waste micro factory and in 2019 she launched her plastics micro factory, a recycling technology breakthrough. She is producing a new generation of green materials and products made entirely, or primarily, from waste. In 2019 she was appointed inaugural Director of the Circular Economy Innovation Network by the NSW Government through its Office of Chief Scientist and Engineer.
Maschmeyer is Founding and Executive Chairman of Gelion Technologies (2015), Co-Founder of Licella Holdings (2007) and inventor of its Cat-HTRTM technology. He is also the Principal Technology Consultant for Cat-HTR licensee’s Mura Technologies and RenewELP. In 2001 he was one of the founding Professors of Avantium, a Dutch high-tech company. Most recently he was awarded Prime Minister’s Prize for Innovation (2020) – Australia’s top prize in the field. He concurrently holds the position of Professor of Chemistry at the University of Sydney, where he established and leads the Laboratory of Advanced Catalysis for Sustainability.
Read more about it in these Cosmos online articles:
• Microfactory turns recycling on its head
• A ‘circular economy’ and why we need one
• E-waste is surging but recycling isn’t
• A new world, saved by circles