Remanufacturing can drive innovation, support local industries, create jobs and deliver environmental and social benefits.
The multi-billion-dollar critical minerals pact signed between Australia and the US last week is designed to ensure the supply of raw materials to create products we increasingly need for everyday life, such as phones, EVs, medical devices and defence technology.
Amid the controversy surrounding the detrimental effects of extracting and processing those minerals, UNSW Scientia Professor Veena Sahajwalla FIEAust CPEng wants to highlight that we have many of these minerals, already extracted and processed, in our rubbish.
Australians generate around 20 kg of e-waste per person every year, about three times the global average. Sahajwalla said the way Australians readily embrace technology is a good thing, not least because of the potential inherent in the world’s fastest growing waste stream.
“When you stop and reflect on it, we could all come up with a whole range of different types of rare earth elements and critical metals,” Sahajwalla said. “Could this be an opportunity for Australia to look at manufacturing from a different lens?
“In the past, recycling would have been just seen as a small little extra on the side, but could this be a whole new resource when it comes to the circular economy that we’re redefining and rethinking?”
She gave the example of cobalt. Instead of it being mined and refined in preparation for use in batteries, it is possible to recycle the lithium cobalt oxide from batteries ready for immediate reuse.
“So why would we not see that ability to harvest those elements in that form? Yes, it is different to what was mined. But the benefit is that it’s better. It’s already in a form that you can control.
“In Australia, we’ve got an amazing commitment from communities that say, ‘I’m going to drop off my battery and do the right thing.’ So we are effectively the community owners of these resources. We’re already doing the hard work of the first step of collection. Now we have the opportunity to regenerate cobalt out of our waste batteries.”
Copper is another example of an expensive resource; up to 60 kg is used per EV.
“We see there is a level of demand, but there’s a flip side of the equation that says if we’ve got these kinds of EV batteries, then we’ve got an opportunity to build our own supply chains right here in Australia,” Sahajwalla said. “As a lot of these materials come offline because they’re no longer in a functioning state, do we see that battery now as waste, or do we see it as a resource?
“In my mind, it’s not a waste because all those important elements are still in there.”
The critical mineral deal between Australia and the US focuses on mining, but Sahajwalla believes reclaimed resources should be part of the conversation, produced by micro factories with the support of her team.
She said Australia could lead the world in designing remanufacturing technologies for what will basically be new resources, and that there are strong economic arguments for better recognising the potential value embedded in specific components.
For example, the copper from a circuit board is more concentrated than that which is newly mined, making it effectively a new supply chain option.
READ: Turning waste coffee grounds into green steel is all in a day’s work for Veena Sahajwalla
New frontier
Copper and cobalt are just two examples of why, instead of relegating waste to landfills, incinerators or stockpiles, Sahajwalla argues remanufacturing can drive innovation, support local industries, create jobs and deliver environmental and social benefits.
She highlighted the support the Sustainable Materials Research and Technology (SMaRT) Centre receives from the Australian Research Council, which allows it to do both the deep fundamental science – and determine how that science can then be applied to producing green metals.
From her attendance at international academic conferences and expos, Sahajwalla said people are impressed with Australian remanufacturing innovations, especially those that involve partnerships with local governments and industries.
Her team’s pioneering MICROfactorieTM technologies include discarded mattresses being turned into green ceramic tiles in Sydney’s south-west, reclaimed aluminium being reformed into new aerosol cans in Taree in regional NSW, and in Sydney’s north, e-waste is being remanufactured into 3D printing filament.
“We are lucky that we have people with such passion in [the] community,” Sahajwalla said. “There are people in industry or in communities who may not be the ones who are doing the research or tech development but are equally passionate about the fact that this is what it takes in terms of collaboration, and this is where new jobs are going to come from.
“This is a whole new frontier in terms of humans developing technology with humanity. We as humans bring both our head and our heart into conversations, and to me both of those elements are important if we’re going to deliver benefits for our environment as well as for our economy.
“We need to remind ourselves about the purpose. Economies of purpose are so much deeper than just saying ‘we have to make money’. Jobs and caring for humanity and our planet is the way I like to think about it and as Australians, we do feel strongly about caring for planet and people, and we should continue to do so.”
Watch Veena Sahajwalla describe how to create sustainable materials and products from waste in an EA OnDemand webinar.
