What would a federal minister for the circular economy mean for the construction industry?

This is a question that keeps me up at night.

As CEO of the Australian Council of Recycling (ACOR), I represent companies that are committed to transforming our take-make-waste systems into resource loops. But I spent a decade championing sustainability in the built environment and understand the enormity of the circularity challenge for construction.

By 2060, the volume of materials used worldwide is expected to rise to an eye-watering 167 Gt – up from 79 Gt in 2011. The OECD estimates that the materials use per person per day will balloon from 33 kilograms in 2011 to 45 kilograms in 2060. This represents a 36.5 percent increase. Around half of the material usage will be sand, gravel and limestone – the construction industry’s building blocks.

This is not something happening ‘over there’. Australia’s capital cities have some of the highest growth rates in the developed world. Growth brings demand for more materials. But it also creates mountains of waste and Australia’s construction industry sends around 20 million tonnes of waste to landfills each year.

We instinctively understand the consequences of the take-make-waste model, but the recently released 2021 State of the Environment Report, lays the future out for us in black and white. “The state and trend of the environment of Australia is poor and deteriorating because of increasing pressures from climate change, habitat loss, invasive species, pollution and resource extraction,” reads the report’s very first line.

This year, there is one thread running throughout the report: the inextricable connection between the built environment and its environmental impacts. The State of the Environment Report also sends a clear signal that we must “rethink and redesign how resources that are traditionally considered to be ‘waste’ are redeployed.”

There is a growing movement amongst manufacturers and designers to take responsibility for their products at end-of-life, with a suite of both mandatory and voluntary product stewardship initiatives rolled out across Australia. If more people are asking where their coffee cups and batteries end up, it follows that they will start to ask those same questions of the high-rise development down the street.

We have some inspiring examples of how Australia’s construction industry can embed circular principles into projects.

Downer’s perpetually recyclable Reconophalt™ is the first road surfacing material in Australia containing high recycled content derived from recovered soft plastics, glass and toner.

Victorian-based Pact transforms hard-to-recycle soft plastics into high-strength infrastructure solutions that mimic materials such as steel or concrete, but are lighter and easier to install.

ResourceCo collects asphalt, concrete, bricks and rubble from construction sites around Australia and turns what others see as waste material into a range of recycled aggregates and asphalt products.

And Repurpose It recycles a range of waste construction materials, including timber and bark which becomes quality garden mulches and soil conditioners.

These examples illustrate how circular thinking works. Materials are no longer at the “end-of-life” and instead at “end-of-this-life” – waiting to be reimagined and remanufactured into another product.

Construction companies can cultivate a ‘closed loop’ mindset by getting their own houses in order. This means sorting ‘waste’ properly and ensuring recyclable material streams aren’t contaminated with asbestos or other nasties. It means procuring services that provide proof that material is recycled, by asking waste management contractors where material goes when it leaves site.

ACOR is championing the establishment of an Australian Resource Recovery Code Board, based on the model of the Australian Building Codes Board. This body would deliver a national framework for resource recovery and recycling that advances circular economy outcomes. These two boards could work together to consolidate circular economy requirements into the National Construction Code, driving productivity improvements and encouraging innovation along the length of the construction supply chain.

We also believe a Federal Minister for Resource Recovery and Circular Economy would drive a whole-of-government approach to resource recovery, recycling, sustainable procurement and product stewardship. Leadership at the federal level would shift the national focus from waste management and instead examine every aspect from design to thoughtful disassembly or deconstruction to, reuse and recycling.

The State of the Environment Report does not paint a pretty picture. But the situation is not hopeless. Australia’s construction industry is bursting at the seams with innovative, hard-working people who are always looking to do better on their next project. Stepping towards a circular economy can help us decouple growth from environmental deterioration and do better on each and every project.

Suzanne Toumbourou is the Chief Executive Officer of the Australian Council of Recycling

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