How Ireland’s circular economy tech is supporting Australia’s green goals

Enterprise Ireland-backed companies are making a big impact Down Under

A view of Sydney Harbour at night with the opera house

Niall Casey

It is now well understood by businesses and policy makers that a move to a circular economy is essential to building a sustainable, low-carbon, resource-efficient and competitive society.

The idea of a circular economy is based on three principles: redesigning products and processes to reduce waste and pollution, keeping products and materials in use for longer, and shifting from an extraction to regeneration approach to natural systems.

This shift requires a mindset change in how we manufacture, deliver and dispose of products. Crucial to this is ‘closing the loop’ of product lifecycles via changes in design and increased waste prevention, re-use and recycling.

In an effort to accelerate this shift, Australia has set a target to achieve an 80pc recovery rate from all waste streams by 2030. This is in addition to setting a goal to reduce by 10pc the waste generated per person and banning the export of waste plastic, paper, glass and tyres altogether.

These are not easy goals. Australia is vast and a large part of its supply chain operates from overseas.

The ‘circular economy’ continues to gain momentum throughout Australia

The Australians believe smart solutions using the latest technology can assist them in achieving sustainability targets and transition businesses to a smarter way of managing waste.

This trend offers opportunities for Irish enterprise. We are home to an innovative cohort of EI-backed firms with solutions to help the circular economy.

A number of Enterprise Ireland-backed companies are already making an impact supporting Australian business achieve their goals.

Co Meath-based Turmec is a world leader in the waste processing and recycling solutions space. It specialises in the design and build of complex waste separation and processing systems.

In Australia, Turmec partnered with Rino Recycling to build a construction recycling facility. The project was one of the largest waste recovery sites in Australia, and is designed to achieve market-leading landfill diversion and recovery rates of up to 97pc.

AMCS is a leading global supplier of software to waste management and recycling businesses in the global circular economy. Its extensive digital offering helps businesses make impressive cost and time savings, and reduce emissions and vehicles used.

Superfy is an industry leader in providing cities with a full suite of smart waste hardware and software solutions to manage their entire waste network from bin to truck to depot. Its innovative solutions are helping companies like Ecobatt enhance its battery recycling, allowing it to process over 1,000 tonnes of batteries across Australia.

A key pillar of the circular economy movement is keeping products in use for longer. Corporate e-waste continues to be a strain on these goals as businesses send working hardware to the landfill over what are sometimes artificial software concerns.

The ‘Right to Repair’ movement centres around moving away from unnecessary upgrading of software and often needless redundancy of hardware. Irish companies like Origina have been working with Australian businesses to support them to utilise their hardware more effectively by extending the life and value of the associated software, keeping equipment in use for longer.

As the circular and green economy continues to gain momentum throughout Australia, Irish companies have proven themselves to be indispensable innovation partners.

Niall Casey is senior advisor, industrial & sustainability, with Enterprise Ireland Australia/NZ

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