On the second day of the Sustainable Financing for Waste Management Study Tour, participants joined the Enviro Conference 2022. The 2-day event is aimed at exploring the circular economy and the role that industry, government and communities can play to ensure sound waste management.

Let’s start by understanding what the circular economy is.

In our current economy, we take natural resources from the Earth, make products with them, and then throw them away as waste. This ‘take-make-waste’ process is linear and has led to the pollution crisis that we face today. A circular economy, in contrast, is a model for rethinking consumption and production entirely, and it aims at preventing waste from being produced in the first place.

So how does it work?

The circular economy is driven by design and is based on three key principles: 1) design out waste and pollution by using innovative materials and operating in closed-loop systems; 2) keep products and materials in use by using materials that are recyclable or compostable; and 3) regenerate natural systems by saving the organic inputs from waste and using them to either generate energy or produce organic fertiliser to promote healthy soils. Because the circular economy helps to minimise the consumption of raw materials and lowers emissions, it plays an important role in tackling the three planetary crises of climate change, biodiversity loss, and the pollution pandemic. The circular economy is underpinned by a transition to renewable energy and materials, and in this way decouples economic activity from the consumption of finite resources, meaning it’s good for business, good for people, and good for the environment.

Of course, achieving a circular economy is not so simple, and that’s what #Enviro22 is aimed at discussing. The first day of the conference explored a variety of topics in plenary and breakout sessions, from frameworks and metrics, design, concepts of repair and share, and reuse. With a variety of experts and stakeholders sharing their experiences and ideas, the conference provided an opportunity for participants to dig deep into these issues and really understand how the principles of the circular economy can be applied.

This is particularly important for island states who face challenges in accessing financial capital, securing access to markets for circular products or services, and have limited technological capacity.

‘Today was great,’ commented one study tour participant. ‘A lot of these concepts are quite abstract and it’s been useful to break them down to really start understanding what they mean and how they can be applied in our own context.’

‘I was particularly interested in understanding what people are doing with waste, and how they make this economically viable,’ another study tour participant commented. ‘The circular economy is difficult to achieve and even though we have a very different situation to Australia, it’s been good to see how this can be applied across different sectors. It’s given me some ideas, which I think will help me to become more effective with the work I’m doing in my own country.’

It was another day jam packed with information, but the study tour participants had the opportunity to enjoy a formal dinner at the Australian National Museum, celebrating the rich cultural history of Australia and paying tribute to the ancestors, past, present and future, who have enabled this important exchange to take place.