EPW-Mission-webinar

Ending_Plastic_Waste_Mission_Webinar_9_5_2022

 

 

[Image appears of Chris Krishna-Pillay talking to the camera and the participants can be seen in the bar at the bottom of the screen]

 

Chris Krishna-Pillay: Hello everybody. Welcome to this very special Ending Plastic Waste webinar. My name is Chris Krishna-Pillay. Thank you so much for joining us here at this time. Before I begin let me first acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the land from which I am broadcasting today, the Bunurong people, and I pay my respects to their Elders past and present, and I extend that respect to the Traditional Owners of the lands on which we have both speakers and guests right across the country today.

 

Before we get any deeper into this, there’s a couple of things I need to ask of everybody who’s joining us today and that is, please join us today in as many ways as you possibly can. So, you’re in the webinar so that’s a thumbs up, that’s a good start. On the right hand side of the screen you’re looking at now there’s a Chat function. It looks a bit like a speech bubble, if you hop in there that’s the best place to go for conversations, getting things off your chest, ideas. That’s the best place for that stuff.

 

[Image continues to show Chris continuing to talk to the camera and the participants can be seen in the bar at the bottom of the screen]

 

If you have a question specifically for any of our presenters, and I would encourage you to do that as well, you need to use the Q&A function which looks more like a question mark. If you click on that, pop your question in there it will go into the system and arrive somewhere at a screen in front of me, and hopefully I’ll be able to get you on air, or at least your question to air, and get a response to it as quickly as possible. So, the Chat’s for conversation and problems if you have any of a technical nature, and the Q&A is for questions which we will try and answer.

 

If you think about plastics, the utility and the ambiguity of them means that this is going to be a big challenge, which is why we’re taking it on, and it’s why we have the, the army of people that we’re, we’re about to hear from on hand to address it. But to give you a sense of how that fits together and exactly how that challenge is being articulated, and how one starts with a, with a problem as big as this, I’ll hand you first to the Mission Lead for the Ending Plastic Waste Mission, over now to Deb Lau.

 

[Image changes to show Deb Lau talking to the camera and the participants can be seen in the bar at the bottom of the screen]

 

Deb Lau: Thanks very much Chris.

 

[Image changes to show a new slide showing a photo of a plastic cup and other plastic waste on the shore, and text appears: our Mission, An 80% reduction in plastic waste entering the Australian environment by 2030]

 

I’m just going to check first that you can see what you need to be seeing. That’s great. And thanks everyone for joining us today and I’m really pleased that everyone could be here. We’re going to talk about our Ending Plastic Waste Mission. And the Ending Plastic Waste Mission is one of CSIRO’s portfolio of missions. CSIRO’s missions are really aimed at achieving impact at scale for national and global challenges and plastic waste really is a global challenge.

 

Our goal through the mission though is to aim to reduce 80% of plastic waste entering the Australian environment by 2030 and we aim to do that through collaborations addressing materials and technology development and using data to inform policy and decision making. And we really need to do that through a co-ordinated effort of partnerships. We need science industry collaboration, and we need that across government, industry, not for profit sector, and the Australian community.

 

So, with our partners that we have currently right across all of those different sectors, we currently have $52 million co-invested in projects and these are focussed on changing the way we make, use, recycle and dispose of plastics, and that will build our, build Australia’s circular economy. And so, we’re going to hear about some of those projects from our speakers today, those projects right around the plastics value chain.

 

[Image changes to show a new slide depicting the breakup of plastic use and plastic waste, and pictures of a bottle, a rubbish truck, a plastic bag, and a pile of rubbish appear, and text appears: Why, Plastic use, Three-quarters of the rubbish found along Australia’s coastline is plastic, 84% of plastic used in Australia is sent to landfill and only 12% is recycled, One million tonnes of Australia’s annual plastic consumption is single-use plastic, Use of plastic globally is anticipated to double by 2040]

 

So, why are we doing this? We are doing this because we know that plastic has a significantly detrimental impact to our environment. It impacts marine life, ecosystems, and there’s ongoing studies into looking at what it can do to human health. And we’re doing this because of the magnitude of the issue. Each year, $90 billion tonnes of primary materials are extracted and used, and only 9% of those recycled. So, it’s a real wasted resource. And this isn’t going to end. The scale of global plastics production is predicted to double by 2040 and we need to address plastic pollution at the source and we need to change our relationship with plastics. We need to transform it from a waste into a commodity. We need to transition it into circular pathways from those linear pathways. If we move away into this new dynamic we’ll be able to transform what’s currently going into landfill into economic returns and at the same time we’ll be protecting our environment. So, how do we address such a wicked problem?

 

[Image changes to show a new slide showing a line graph explaining Land-based plastic leakage under different scenarios, and text heading and text appears: Single-solution strategies cannot stop plastic pollution, The System Change Scenario would achieve about an 80% reduction in annual plastic leakage into the ocean relative to Business-as-Usual, exceeding all other modelled scenarios]

 

We know there’s an exponential increase in plastic production and we also know that there’s no single strategy or solution which is going to stop plastic leaking into the environment. So, what we need is a suite of solutions. So, just recycling, just substituting materials, just collecting or disposing, that’s not going to get us to where we need to be. We actually need to combine all of those different methods. We need technical, economic, social, and environmentally appropriate solutions.

 

[Image changes to show a new slide showing a diagram showing ways to reduce plastic waste in the different areas, and text appears: How, Reduce 130 (30%), Substitute 71 (17%), Recycle 84 (20%), Dispose 101 (23%), Mismanaged 44 (10%)]

 

Right across the plastic value chain we need these multiple strategies.  So, what are these multiple strategies?

 

[Image shows an upside down hierarchy triangle appearing on the right of the diagram, and text appears on the triangle from the top down: Avoid – Refuse, Reduce, Re-use, Repair; Substitute; Recycle; Dispose; Pollution]

 

It’s well recognised there’s a hierarchy of approaches and they can all impact and reduce plastic waste. The most effective one is to avoid or reduce use as much as possible and that really relies on us changing behaviours, creating new systems, and developing new use models. Australian households are the largest plastic waste contributor, producing 40% of all plastic waste – that’s 1.2 million tonnes per annum. And they provide a significant opportunity to reduce plastic waste through individual behavioural change.

 

In industry, and with business, we can change practices through procurement and sustainability strategies. But in addition to changing and avoiding plastic use, we can substitute with new materials, and we could create new recycling strategies. Science and technology can support the development of these new materials and processes that are needed for upstream which is new chemical design, and downstream which is decomposition solutions.

 

[Text appears at the bottom of the slide: Monitoring, metrics & information for decision making]

 

But underpinning that, is the need to measure, monitor, and understand the flow and fate of plastic in the entire economy and the environment.

 

[Image changes to show a new slide showing a photo of a roadside stall of plastic containers in an Asian country, and text appears on the left: International reach, Indo-Pacific Plastic Innovation Network, Indonesia Hub launch, Vietnam Hub launching soon, Mekong Hub in design phase, The Indo-Pacific Oceans Initiative between Australia and India, The India-Australia Industry and Research Collaboration for Reducing Plastic Waste, ASEAN/IORA country partnerships via UN EP]

 

We also recognise that plastic is not just a domestic issue. It’s an international challenge and generating these knowledge sharing opportunities with a, and partnering with our country neighbours will create far reaching change. Our Indo Pacific Plastics Innovation Network Is a series of country based hubs and these are structured innovation programmes, bilateral programmes with Australia and each of those countries that will develop innovations to address locally identified challenges. So, challenges that are specific to those particular countries or regions.

 

We’re also working around the Indo Pacific region with India, and both Australia and India are committed to take action to reduce plastic waste. We’re also working with India to produce a roadmap, and we’ll hear more about that from Andrea later in the webinar. But I’ll pass now over to Denise Hardesty, who’s leading our country partnerships with the UN Environment Programme. Denise has been working on international plastics research for many, many years and leads our programme on information and data for decision making. This research helps us understand what plastic pollution is where, and what types of rubbish end up in our environment to help inform the best approaches and locations for intervention. Thanks Denise.

 

[Image changes to show a new slide showing a photo of an object recognition digital view of pieces of waste in the environment, and text appears: Information for decision making – Denise Hardesty, Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning capabilities, Sensor technology, Knowledge to help inform decision-making and policy]

 

Denise Hardesty: Thanks so much Deb and thanks everybody for being here today. I think the place I really want to start is just to let everyone know that this body of work is all about turning data into information that we can use to make the best decisions with the best available knowledge. We also know that people don’t make decisions based solely on data and information and so it’s really important to be bringing in a whole breadth and wealth of different perspectives and approaches to understand really how we as humans make decisions. And this area of work really builds on a body of research we’ve been carrying out for around 15 years.  It includes everything from object recognition through machine learning and artificial intelligence approaches to identify floating plastic in waterways both in Australia and beyond.

 

[Image flicks to the next slide and then flicks back to the previous slide again]

 

And our research really integrates artificial intelligence on ground, if you could go back one Deb that would be great thanks, field data, geospatial analysis, statistical inference and policy evaluation. We are, and we have been measuring plastic losses into the environment and we’re really trying to challenge and turn that data into actual law information. Our science has ben used by local government and international bodies to help them implement their appropriate solutions and place based responses and policies. And using this data to help address plastic pollution really enables decision makers to take effective actions to reduce waste and increase that interdiction, or interception of plastic well and truly beyond and before it gets out into the environment. And by integrating new, low cost data collection methods such as sensors and analytical tools, we’re really able to help provide reliable and robust solutions to generate new opportunities within Australia and beyond. Next slide.

 

[Image changes to show a new slide showing a photo of plastic waste on a beach, and text appears: If we measure it, we can manage it, Understand it – design for it, Participate in it – influence it, Use it – circularise it (reuse/repurpose)]

 

I think it’s really important to note that our work is founded on the principle that if we measure it we can manage it. And that means that if we, as community members, can understand it, and as scientists, and researchers, and industry participants, we can actually start to design better for it, and by participating in it, in our society, in the decision making processes, we can help to influence it. And by using products, packaging, the whole array and suite of plastic products across the supply chain and value chain, we know that we really need and want to start seeing that fundamental change, and from that linear to that much more circular approach. So, by reusing, repurposing, we are going to have smarter, safer, more cost-effective ways forward. Next slide.

 

[Image changes to show a new slide showing a photo of three workers on the shore of a river conducting a plastic pollution survey, and text appears: Plastic pollution surveys, Building capacity and conducting extensive plastic pollution surveys in Australia and internationally]

 

Some of our major work that we’re doing has been to carry out on ground litter surveys, collecting data and information at inland, at rivers, in coastal areas, and in near shore floating coastal marine environments around Australia. And this helps us to provide and really have that national baseline snapshot of waste leakage into the environment. We want to know about what’s happening here in Australia, and importantly what’s happening in other countries around the world because we know the transboundary nature of this issue. And this information is really critical for understanding the distribution of plastic waste, its regional impacts etc, and we’ve teamed up with Conservation Volunteers Australia and other key partners around the country to really help address this question.

 

We’re also working in many other countries that have been identified as some of the top 20 polluters, including South Africa, South Korea, Taiwan, and just many of our regional partners to help support them in their decision making. And this helps us to understand how much and the types of waste that are lost into the environment. Next slide.

 

[Image changes to show a new slide showing a photo of a sensor over a gross pollutant trap, and text appears on the left: Smart sensors and decision support, automated sensors to support management of gross pollutant traps (GPTs) and rubbish found in stormwater drains]

 

So, in this last minute before I hand over to Albert, I just want to highlight some of the work we’ve been doing with sensor technologies to improve waste management on the frontline. We’re working with councils and state bodies around Australia to support the really frontline waste managers that are handling our waste after it gets caught in the environment, and then it sometimes gets lost back out into the environment through our stormwater drains and gross pollutant traps.

 

These devices are used to prevent waste and sediments from flowing into the environment but the maintenance can be really costly and time consuming. So, using autonomous sensor networks to help bring maintenance costs down and to increase cost effectiveness means we’re able to help secure the health and safety, the reduction of waste leaking into the environment, all before it becomes that problem, and that sensors with the accompanying decision support tool that we’re developing allows us real time and near real time reporting to understand how full are the different assets, how much rubbish is in these stormwater drains. And this helps councils to optimise their management actions telling them which traps are nearly full to help save time and increase efficiency. So, with a mix of on ground empirical estimates, of data being collected, and Smart sensor technology, and other technology we’re really able to understand and change the game of plastics being lost into the environment. Next slide please. And over to my colleague.

 

[Image changes to show a new slide showing a photo of rows of cylindrical packs, and text appears beneath: Revolutionising packaging – Albert Ardevol Grau, Recycling, reusing, redesigning; Eliminating plastic packaging through better design, materials and logistics]

 

Albert Ardevol Grau: Thank you Denise. So, packaging is one of the largest uses of plastic material. Here we aim to revolutionise packaging by recycling, reusing, redesigning, and eliminating plastic in packaging. Our research will help Australia make its 2025 target to make 100% of packaging in Australia reusable, recyclable, or compostable. Different plastics need different solutions of course. So, for instance PET commonly used for packaging is different to managing plastics such as PVC, mostly commonly used for building industry or manufacturing. We’re investigating better designs and better logistics and better materials for packaging. Adding glutamate polymer materials to substitute and therefore reduce the use of one use plastics in packaging on clothes. These poly based materials are compostable or biodegradable and therefore they reduce their impact on the environment.

 

We’re exploring [14.04] and blotching technologies for new business models in logistics on the delivery of goods. We’re also developing new and efficient biotechnological catalysts for plastic recycling, and to degrade microplastics. Overall we aim to recycle and recover the full value of the plastic waste to help protect the environment while promoting new industrial applications.

 

[Image changes to show a new slide showing a photo of a researcher holding up a petri dish of tiny bioplastic particles, and text appears: Bioderived plastics – 100% compostable and biodegradable packaging]

 

In the spirit of what Deb was saying before, to turn the waste into a commodity. The intended useful life of plastic and packaging is about one year. However, 95% of packaging material value is discarded after one single use. We’re supporting the development of biodegradable and compostable packing which is more sustainable. We’re partnering with the Murdoch University to establish a bioplastics simulation hub. This hub will develop a new generation of 100% compostable biodegraded packaging which can be used then for sustainable production of bottles, cups and wrappers.

 

So many plastics already exist in the market too but most of them would need UV light to break down. Our compostable bioplastics will break down in compost, landfill, or rainwater without leaving a trace.  

Compostable bioplastic demand is predicted to increase rapidly as global concerns around plastic pollution and fossil fuel resources increasing problems of finding the right alternative. The first key focus area will be a $12 million co-investment with a Western Australian based biotechnology company, Ecopha, to develop a new process for [15.43] production using compostable bioplastics, derived from waste products from the food industry. New bioplastics innovation through the hub will provide industry with new promising innovation opportunities and build sustainable economic opportunities to grow Australia’s bio manufacturing industries. The hub will open in July at this stage.

 

[Image changes to show a new slide showing a photo of a sample piece of bioplastic being held in front of some plants, and text appears on the left: Seaweed-derived bioplastics, Testing ULUU products, a start-up based in Western Australia]

 

We are also working with a start-up based in Western Australia to test and develop seaweed based bioplastics. ULUU, which is what this company is called, is making a class of biomaterials called polyhydroxyalkanoates using seaweeds as a raw material. So these natural polymers mimic the petrochemical plastics properties very well. For instance, they are very strong, and they are water insoluble. To generate the product ULUU uses two step processes. Firstly, the seaweed is converted into tubers and then the tubers are fermented in vats to produce the natural polyesters.

 

[Image shows several slides flicking through and then returning to the previous slide again]

 

The period in the composition of this copolymer is crucial to determine the physical properties of the final product. We have developed a wide range of testing assays, to analyse the bioplastic, and optimise the production conditions to tailor the material properties and as a result they can be used in the manufacturing of different products with a special focus in plastic packaging.

 

[Image changes to show a new slide showing a photo of a spinning model of enzymes used to break down plastics, and text appears: Enzymes to break down plastics, Several enzymes have been found to degrade certain plastics, Engineering new enzymes that can degrade various plastic polymers, including PET, most commonly used for food packaging]

 

And despite importance on the increased use of bioplastics, most of the current plastics are [17.18] from my understanding and they are very difficult to degrade. Their outstanding properties and chemical stability make them very good for storage, packaging and durability of the products, but hampers the disposal and recycling of the material. An alternative to all of this classic recycling process comes from the biotechnology. Several enzymes, like the one shown here, have been found to be able to bind and degrade certain plastics into their constituent elements.

 

But the low turnover in terms of the release of the natural enzymes hinders their use for industrial recycling applications. So, based on these natural enzymes we are using computational algorithm tools, and a structural based rational design to engineer new enzymes with improved properties. These enzymes can degrade various plastic materials by deep polymerisation in [18.09] conditions making them suitable for upcycling or to tackle the problem of microplastics.

 

With these enzymes we can recover the building blocks of the polymer and rebuild the full value and quality of the original material giving back its real value to the plastic waste. From replacing the oil based plastic from packaging to upcycling the waste and recycling facilities, we are reducing and managing the plastic material during its lifecycle.

 

[Image changes to show a new slide showing a photo of a female looking up at bales of plastic waste on a shelf in a warehouse, and text appears: Waste innovation, Sarah King, Applying circular economy principles to generate effective solutions for plastics recycling and reuse across the supply chain, Niche industry solutions, decision support systems, and value-added products]

 

And thank you. So, over to you Sarah.

 

Sarah King: Thank you very much. Sarah King here, so just a bit of my background. I have a Masters in Corporate Sustainability, a PhD in the Circular Economy, and my research launched Aspire, so Australia’s first circular economy marketplace. Waste innovation is my programme, and this is taking really a circular economy approach to addressing some of these plastics challenges. So, not just recycling, also looking at options up the supply chain, and for example different business models. I did a count and within the projects in this programme, we engage with six different business units in CSIRO, and that just means we have a very multidisciplinary approach to the projects in this area and that means we take a very systems based perspective and draw on all of those different skills and expertise. And that’s not just something in my programme of course. That’s indicative of how we approach our mission work, and how we approach our work in CSIRO.

 

[Image changes to show a new slide showing a photo of a hand holding a handful of tiny plastic pieces, and text appears on the left: Advanced recycling, Tackling hard to recycle plastics to prevent them ending up in landfill]

 

So, I’m going to talk about some of the work we do in addressing challenging and niche products and I’m going to go through four examples. And this is the first one, advanced recycling, also known as chemical or feedstock recycling. Now, when we were working on the national roadmap, Circular Economy Roadmap for Plastics, and looking at how we can go from 12% to 50% by 2030 we, it became clear that we can’t achieve that by mechanical recycling alone and so within CSIRO we did some work to look at what advanced recycling is, what that family of technologies are, and how they can be implemented in Australia. And if you Google, here’s the report that we produced – and it’s not going to show very well on my screen, so I won’t bother – if you Google CSIRO and Advanced Recycling you will find that report talks about these technologies.

 

[Image changes to show a new slide showing a photo of a two people next to a fishing net, and text appears: Ghost nets, Partnering with Director of National Parks to scope a new recycling pathway in the Gulf of Carpentaria and Torres Strait regions]

 

The next example that we have, the next project is ghost nets. Now, these are lost or abandoned fishing net on our beaches here in Australia and around the world. They are a total menace to the environment that they land on and also we’re looking specifically at the Gulf of Carpentaria and Torres Strait regions, and they’re a menace to the environment, and they’re a real challenge for our communities as well. There’s been a lot of work done looking at where these go, where these nets land, and Denise has been involved in some of that work, but we’re looking specifically at what kind of recycling options and technology processing options and supply chains can we have in this region partnering with Director of National Parks, and a shout out to anyone on the line, if you do have technologies you think might be applicable to these remote regions and this waste material, please, please drop me a line, get in contact.

 

[Image changes to show a new slide showing a flow diagram moving through Fossil feedstock to Monomer production, to Polymer production, to Waste plastic, to Collection or Landfill, to Advanced recycling, and text appears: Life cycle assessment, Quantifying the environmental impact of the production of Qenos circular PE produced in Australia compared to virgin PE]

 

Our engagement starts in coming weeks. The next project we have, we’re very excited about. We’re partnering with Qenos and another research agency to look at the lifecycle assessment for advanced recycling technologies, so plastics, through advanced recycling back into plastics again. Now, this allows us to look at the, take an evidence based approach to looking at and understanding and quantifying these environmental impacts using advanced recycling technologies and comparing them to a fossil, a more traditional fossil feedstock pathway that you can see here. So, we’re very excited to get going on that project.

 

[Image changes to show a new slide showing a photo of a disposable nappy on the right, and text appears on the left: Nappy recycling, Partnering with Kimberley-Clark to identify feasible and economic pathways for the recycling of disposable nappies]

 

And the last one I have to talk about is disposable nappies. Now, not every family can use cloth or washable nappies. So, disposable nappies are, you know, very convenient, very common. I was at the waste conference last week and it’s around 6% of our landfill bins in some areas. So, this product is challenging. It has plastics, it has fluff pulp, it has organic waste. So, it’s a real niche product for us to look at, and we’ve done a collaboration here with Kimberley Clark and support, supported by Green Industries South Australia to look at this product. We estimate that in South Australia there’s around 20,000 tonnes of disposable nappies produced every year. They take 200 to 500 years to break down in landfill and our project looked at reviewing household and commercial collection options in combination with technologies to understand what options are suitable for recycling in, particularly in South Australia, but in Australia.

 

[Image changes to show a new slide showing a photo of a hand placing a bottle in a bin, and text appears: Social and behavioural change, Andrea Walton, Generating value for plastics through fundamental changes in human behaviour]

 

So, thank you very much for your time. I’ll hand over to Andrea.

 

Chris Krishna-Pillay: Actually I might, I might butt in there before you start Andrea. We’ve got a bunch of questions coming through and if it’s alright with you I might try and knock a few off before we get too carried away because the queue in my experience doesn’t get any smaller.

 

[Image changes to show Chris talking to the camera and the participants can be seen in the bar at the bottom of the screen]

 

It’s, you know, it’s a bit like disposable nappies, the questions don’t go anywhere. They just keep building up and building up, and who would have thought that a soiled nappy could become worse than just being a soiled nappy. Thanks for that Sarah. Question for Deb I think first. Just a clarification question here, when you say 80% reduction to land, is that to landfill, or to environments like waterways, or something different?

 

[Image changes to show Deb talking to the camera and the participants can be seen in the bar at the bottom of the screen]

 

Deb Lau: Oh thanks Chris. Happy to clarify. Yes, so what we’re aiming to do is see a reduction of plastic waste in the Australian environment by 80% from what it is currently.

 

[Image changes to show Chris talking to the camera and the participants can be seen in the bar at the bottom of the screen]

 

Chris Krishna-Pillay: OK, that is very clear.

 

[Image changes to show Deb talking to the camera and the participants can be seen in the bar at the bottom of the screen]

 

Deb Lau: But and… well, but we want to see that by 2030.

 

[Image changes to show Chris talking to the camera and the participants can be seen in the bar at the bottom of the screen]

 

Chris Krishna-Pillay: OK, and by the way, and no pressure, are there, between now and 2030 are there sort of, I mean, how does anyone know how it’s going? How do we track that? I mean we arrive at 2030 and we go yay, or boo. Is there any way of getting, of saying, of monitoring I guess?

 

[Image changes to show Deb smiling at the camera and the participants can be seen in the bar at the bottom of the screen]

 

Deb Lau: There is a way and Denise has the perfect answer.

 

[Image changes to show Denise talking to the camera and the participants can be seen in the bar at the bottom of the screen]

 

Denise Hardesty: So, Chris since that one’s been, that’s exactly what we’re doing, right. We need to measure and have that national baseline and that allows us to measure change. So, then we can go out and survey areas. We can look at a local level, we can look at a state level. We can look at a national level, and then we can actually measure and compare the change through time, which is why we’re so focussed on the next, you know, six to 12 months, going our there, putting those hard numbers together, getting that on the ground information and working with so many partners and citizen scientists around the country to answer exactly that because we need to measure that change, or else how will we know when we’ve hit the mark or how far we need to go.

 

[Image changes to show Chris talking to the camera and the participants can be seen in the bar at the bottom of the screen]

 

Chris Krishna-Pillay: Splendid. Thank you very much indeed. I have a question here I think for Albert as well. Al, you referred to enzymes being used in packaging or to break down packaging. The question is simply, how and where will those enzymes be deployed?

 

[Image changes to show Albert talking to the camera and the participants can be seen in the bar at the bottom of the screen]

 

Albert Ardevol Grau: I’m very happy with this question because I’m personally involved in this research and I would say that these enzymes can be used in many, many different places. So, at the moment and at the point at which technology is nowadays, these enzymes are mostly used for recycling of sorted PET material. That is because the value that they can give then from the monomers, it’s very easy to recover then the monomers, and the value of these monomers are very useful for then rebuilding new plastic materials. So, at the moment they’re deployed in basically contained recycling plastic factories or companies.

 

How are we going to develop in the future? I can see many applications. One very clear to me would be in the laundry detergent industry because that is one place where we already have a lot of enzymes working to clean our clothes basically. We know that microplastics, so fibres that are released in the washing machines, are one of the main pollutants in microplastics. And so, degrading these microplastics before they reach the environment would be a very good application as well for these sort of enzymes. But the list could go on for the rest of the time that we have, so I’m going to stop here.

 

[Image changes to show Chris talking to the camera and the participants can be seen in the bar at the bottom of the screen]

 

Chris Krishna-Pillay: That’s tremendous, thank you very much indeed. It does seem like a lot of potential. OK now, you know, I did bump my way into a flow of people with expertise so I’ll let them loose again now if that’s OK with everybody else. I note that as we move into our next speaker that, that we invented plastics, that is humans. This is, you know, apart from the very useful naturally occurring ones, we invented the ones that are a problem and it’s our use of them and our demand of them, and our dealing with their waste that is the problem we’re trying to address in this mission. So, how do we fix the people, I guess, is the question we’re looking at now. And to give you a sense of how that’s going to be addressed, I’ll happily hand you to Andrea Walton.

 

[Image changes to show a new slide showing a photo of a hand placing a bottle into a bin, and text appears: Social and behaviour change, Andrea Walton, Generating value for plastics through fundamental changes in human behaviour]

 

Andrea Walton: Thanks Chris. Yes, my name’s Andrea Walton, and I’m a social scientist from CSIRO’s, Land and Water. So, I’m working on another area which is all about social and behavioural change and this is really addressing all those behaviours like purchasing choices, reducing and avoiding plastic consumption, substituting with an alternative product, re-using, and increasing our recycling and recovery of plastic waste. So, it’s all about how plastic is consumed, used and disposed of. So, we call all of these behaviours that are needed for increasing the circularity of plastic as Sarah mentioned earlier.

 

[Image flicks to the next slide and then back to the original slide again]

 

And so, it includes not only the activities as well – we’re not quite there yet Deb but anyway – it includes not only the activities and behaviours of households and, but also of businesses and organisations. So, I’ve worked with other social and economic scientists and I’m going to give you some examples of how we can tackle these issues with our technical colleagues. So, Deb if you go on to the next one thank you, that would be great.

 

[Image changes to show a new slide showing a photo of playground equipment, and text appears: Sustainable procurement, Support development of new markets for recycled materials, Reduce consumption of problematic plastic, Investigation opportunities to assist knowledge sharing and decision-making]

 

OK, so sustainable or circular procurement can help support development of new markets for recycled materials. So, this is an example here of a playground made from recycled plastic. And so, it’s especially through public procurement of products and goods containing recycled content, or materials that can be used in projects such as new roads, or other new developments. Sustainable procurement can also reduce problematic plastic, the consumption of that, and how particularly single use plastic, and difficult to recycle plastic, and so in turn that reduces plastic that goes to landfill and ends up in waste. So, we have two small projects that is investigating opportunities to assist with sustainable procurement decision-making and knowledge sharing. If you go on to the next one thanks Deb.

 

[Image changes to show a new slide showing a photo of a recycling sign on the side of a bin, and text appears: Understanding community expectations, Investigating community attitudes and perceptions of waste and resource recovery, Exploring factors important for social acceptability of new technologies and initiatives, Guiding the community engagement needed to support responsible development]

 

So, understanding community expectations is another important area when it comes to recycling and resource recovery that involves new technologies. So, our research in this area is investigating community attitudes and perceptions of the waste and resource recovery sector and the new innovations and approaches that industry are developing and deploying to tackle the plastic waste issue. So, we’re also exploring the factors that are really important for social acceptability of new technologies and initiatives and this means understanding the things that are really important to communities about these novel technologies. This information can be used to improve industry practices and guide the community engagement needed to support responsible deployment of anything new or new initiatives. So, we’re undertaking a project at the moment that is looking at public perceptions and attitudes around advanced recycling of plastic. If we go on to the next one thanks Deb.

 

[Image changes to show a new slide showing a photo of hands sorting through plastic bottles tops, and text appears on the left: India-Australia Partnership, Creating a road map for a circular economy of plastics in India]

 

So, another area of work is, work that we’ve been doing, a project with our colleagues over in India, and this is looking at a project creating a roadmap for looking at the social and behavioural enablers needed to support reduced plastic waste and increasing recycling and recovery of plastic. So, the social and behavioural enablers are just one component of the project because even with the person’s best intentions in the world to change their behaviour, it’s really critical to understand the policy settings, making sure there’s sufficient physical infrastructure, and the capacity of the waste and resource recovery sector, the ways that we can measure them, and new product design. The list goes on and on of how we’ve got to tackle this problem.

 

This project that we’re looking at is particularly looking at packaging and just as I said before realising that the social and behavioural change are just one important part of the overall systemwide changes that are needed. So, the project in India addresses many of these issues and involves six research institutions, three from Australia and three from India, and one of the main outputs will be a roadmap that will be demonstrating the increased circularity of plastic, and demonstration projects where we hope to bring new technologies and ideas that could be relevant to the Australian context in Australian industries. So, I’m going to hand over to Qamar now.

 

[Image changes to show a new slide showing a conveyer belt of plastic waste, and text appears: Supporting best practice, Qamar Schuyler, Advising on the development and implementation of standards and best practices to support business, industry and the public in reusing and recycling plastics]

 

Qamar Shuyler: Thanks very much Andrea. So, we’ve heard now from a bunch of people, and there are lots of levers that we can use to reduce our plastic waste. So, in this body of work, we’re focussing specifically on how we can leverage standards and best practices to support business, industry and the public in reusing and recycling plastics.

 

So, standards is not something that often inspires people with lots of excitement like oh human behaviour change, or ooh we can look at data collection. So, I’d like to just kind of give a few examples of where standards could actually change the landscape that we’re dealing with. For example, we could standardise guidelines for what goes into a kerbside recycling bin. That would ensure that consumers have a clear and consistent set of guidelines so there’s less contamination. They’re not confused about what is supposed to go into that bin, which would allow better recycling of plastic.

 

We could also set standards for the contents of recycled plastics, which not only ensures clean products for the health and wellbeing of Australians, but can also increase the quantity of plastic that is able to be recycled. And in some cases, there are vast differences between states and even between neighbouring councils as to what kinds of recycled products can be used, for example, in pipes or in pipe fittings. So, this can lead to a lack of industry certainty and a reluctance to use recycled materials. So standards, there are lots of different types of standards that can be brought to bear on this particular topic. But to understand how we, how we can use standards, the first step is understanding where standards do and do not exist. So, Deb if you could go to the next slide please.

 

[Image changes to show a new slide depicting a diagram of the circular economy of standards for plastic waste, and text appears on the left: Mapping standards landscape, Mapping pathways for Australia to take a leading role in the development of plastic standards to support a plastics circular economy]

 

We need to know where there might be opportunities to develop and implement standards to reduce plastic waste. So, the one project that we’ve been working on is creating a map, a description of what standards exist in different parts of the plastic value chain. So, on this particular diagram – it might be a little bit hard for you to see depending on how large things are – but the take home message, all you need to know right now is the little black dots are international standards and the clear dots, where you don’t see very many of them those are the Australian standards in specific. And to orient you here, this map is based around a typical diagram of a circular economy. At the top we start with design. We move clockwise around the circle to manufacturing, consumer use, recycling and reuse.

 

And you’ll note that because we’re focussing specifically on plastics, we’ve got this kind of offshoot coming off the bottom, and that’s standards for waste energy and compostability, which along with landfilling essentially remove plastics from the value chain. They’re still creating something better than waste if you’re doing waste to energy of compostable plastics, but they’re still outside of that returning those circular plastics back to the beginning.

 

So, what can we tell from this map? Well, first of all we can immediately see that there are significantly more standards internationally than what we see here in Australia. Out of the nearly 100 or so standards, we found over 80 of them were international standards, less than ten were Australian, and there were a handful that were international standards that had been mirrored here in Australia, which means there’s a lot of opportunity to better use standards here in Australia to influence our plastic waste streams.

 

Now, I will note that we have restricted this mapping. We’re not including specific standards for specific products. So this is really kind of more general standards about plastics and about how they pass through that circular economy. The next thing you can see by looking at this map is that we have, we do have plastic standards across multiple parts of that circular economy but what we can see is that the existing standards fall predominantly into three areas, first manufacturing which are all those green boxes that you see. Then recycling which are the darker purple boxes over on the left hand side. And there are also quite a few standards that fall out of the bottom there around compostable or biodegradable plastics. So, next slide please Deb.

 

[Image changes to show a new slide depicting an upside down triangle showing the waste hierarchy, and text appears on the left and on the triangle: Mapping standards landscape, Mapping pathways for Australia to take a leading role in the development of plastic standards to support a circular economy, Avoidance, Reuse, Recycling, Energy Recovery, Containment, Landfill]

 

The thing is that when we compare what standards have been implemented by, with what we say our waste priorities are there’s a disconnect. So, you’ve seen something, this image, something similar to it in Deb’s presentation, and this is a waste hierarchy. It’s used by many states in Australia, and we can see that at the top of that hierarchy, the top priority in terms of waste is avoiding and reusing waste. That’s well above recycling which is where, again where we saw most of the existing standards, and certainly well above disposing or composting of waste. So, this means there’s a real opportunity to use standards and best practices to drive some of those higher priority areas, or higher priority streams avoiding or reducing waste, or reusing which should more accurately termed our plastic resources. Next slide please.

 

[Image changes to show a new slide showing a photo of small plastic particles being held in hands, and text appears: PVC recycling, Chemical analysis of PVC and development of material specifications to improve recycling rates and value]

 

One other project that I’d like to touch on, and it’s a project that we’re doing funded by Sustainability Victoria, and in conjunction with the PVC industry and specifically with our partner Think Fencing, and we’re looking at how we can use standards and best practices as well as developing technology to help recycle PVC. So, rigid PVC or hard PVC is a very commonly used polymer in the construction industry. It’s used in things like pipes, window frames, formwork. A lot of it’s very long lived. So, pipes might stay in the ground for, you know, decades before they come out and potentially, or sometimes don’t come out. But that, when we do get that waste PVC it’s very difficult to recycle because it comes in many, many different formulations. So, we interviewed people from across the PVC value chain. We’ve got a report entitled PVC Recycling in Australia which has a lot more detail – you can find that on our website – and it outlined pathways for improved PVC recycling. But in speaking to industry, one of the barriers to recycling that we’ve found is that without knowing what is in a sample of flaked PVC or chopped up PVC like the one you see here, it’s really hard to recycle it into a new product.

 

So, we are working on developing a chemical analyser to assess the composition and characteristics of that sample of PVC, so that we can give that information, recyclers can use that information to tell them what needs to be added back into that material to produce the desired output. And as part of this project, we’re also working with industry to develop material specifications which can help improve the quality of the quality assurance between recyclers and manufacturers, which helps prevent PVC ending up in landfill and increases its value. So, multiple wins there. And that brings me to the end. I will turn that over to Chris and then Deb.

 

[Image changes to show a new slide showing the logos of the CSIRO partners, and text appears: Our partners]

 

Chris Krishna-Pillay: Have you got that Deb. That’s me first and now it’s you.

 

Deb Lau: Thank you Chris. And thank you everyone for the overviews in the different work areas that we’ve just talked through. And as we mentioned through our talks, we are working with a lot of partners because we know that there’s no way that we can achieve the goals that we need without that co-ordinated effort between government, industry, the not-for-profit sector, and the Australian community. So, it’s super important that we’re working with these partners right across business, and peak industry bodies, and really pleased that today we have Director for Sustainability from the Australian Food and Grocery Council with us, Barry Cosier. So, really looking forward to hearing a few words from Barry. Thank you.

 

[Image changes to show a new slide showing a diagram on the left showing the Australia Post Life Cycle Assessment of Paper vs Plastic Satchels, and text appears on the left: Australian Food and Grocery Council, Collaboration between industry and research to meet market needs]

 

Barry Cosier: Thanks Deborah, yeah thanks for your time this afternoon. I’m just going to have a little five minute spiel just about soft plastics. It’s a highly used plastic in food packaging. As an industry, we’re in a bit of a dilemma when we look at soft plastics. If you have a look at that chart on the right hand side there, I’m not going to talk in detail, but soft plastics has a comparatively low emissions footprint compared to other materials. So, if you look at the inner circles there, the orange and the red, that’s a lifecycle assessment of soft plastics that was undertaken for Australia Post. And if you look at the outer blue lines on those various criteria of greenhouse gases, energy, water and land use and so on, that’s the emissions footprint of a cardboard box by comparison. So, you’ve got a low carbon, a low footprint, a low emissions footprint of soft plastics.

 

Also due to the barrier properties, it’s a superior product for eliminating or reducing food waste, and increasing food safety. So, as a food industry, our primary, one of our primary goals is to supply food safe products and to ensure the health and safety. So, again soft plastics is a real benefit there. As a result about a third of all plastic packaging placed on the market is in the form of a soft plastic. So, whilst it’s got all those features, the issue we’re having is very limited collection services available at the moment, unless we’ve all heard of REDcycle, it’s about 6% of what’s put on the market. So, you’ve got all these environmental benefits but we’re not getting it back into the loop, and if it’s not going back into the loop we can’t buy it back as food grade recycled content, and put it back into packaging.

 

[Image changes to show a new slide showing a photo of fruit in a bio compostable bag, and text appears on the left: Technological solutions, Develop end markets, Investment confidence, Economic gaps, Supply chain]

 

So, no circularity, and that’s also a big hindrance for industry to achieve the national packaging targets. So, what’s the solution. The AFGC is creating a national plastics recycling scheme where we’re aiming to increase the collection and processing of soft plastics with the aim of getting it back into food grade packaging through the use of advanced recycling. So, I’ve heard the word collaboration a bit before with all the different partners, so unlike a lot of product stewardship schemes, and if I look at the container deposit schemes, really good schemes but they’re a collection scheme. They don’t really look so much at the processing. That’s happened outside of the schemes with partnerships between the beverage companies and packaging companies. Inherent in our scheme design is we’re looking at the end markets, and we’ve been collaborating with the whole supply chain on how do we collect material to get it back through into a food grade resin through our, through companies such as [43.44] and Qenos.

 

So, we’re working on that and one of the aims is to increase investment confidence so the end market infrastructure can be built and then also there’s some gaps in the supply chain. So, how do you, how do you decontaminate the soft plastics so it’s already ready for advanced recycling? So, our scheme is aiming at a whole supply chain scheme. And we’re currently working through the process of assessing the economic gaps in the supply chain, identifying where the market failure is, and that’s when we’ll start to direct [44.23]. So, that’s a quick fly through in five minutes of, I guess, the dilemma industry’s facing, and I guess the technological solutions that we want to do to make soft plastics circular and keep them out of the environment and out of landfill. Thank you.

 

Deb Lau: Thanks Barry.

 

[Image changes to show a new slide showing a photo of Deb Lau and another male next to a large hopper of plastic covered electrical wire, and text appears on the left: Work with us, Partners, Collaborators, Investors, Clients, Advocates, Supporters]

 

Chris Krishna-Pillay: Thank you very much Barry. Go ahead Deb.

 

Deb Lau: Well I was just going to, to wrap up by saying that we really see, you know, this programme of work in addressing plastic waste as being the innovation catalyst. So, really CSIRO being that connector, bringing in research, and industry, and government and community together, and really looking forward to working with a range of collaborators to help us achieve that goal of 80% reduction of plastic waste entering the environment by 2030, the one that we clarified earlier on. And reinforcing that it really needs us to be working together to end plastic waste. So, I wanted to thank everyone for joining us today. We do have some questions and I’ll pass over to Chris to take us through them. Thanks Chris.

 

[Image changes to show a new slide showing an image of a group of people, and text appears: Thank you, More questions? We’re on a mission to achieve an 80% reduction in plastic waste ending up in our environment by 2030]

 

Chris Krishna-Pillay: No, my pleasure so far. Let me throw this one I think to Sarah, but obviously the invitation’s open to anybody who wants to jump in and add to this.

 

[Image changes to show Chris talking to the camera and the participants can be seen in the bar at the bottom of the screen]

 

The question is this, what will be the impact of new biopolymers and biodegradable plastics on existing recycling infrastructure? What is the risk to contamination of existing recycling processes?

 

[Image changes to show Sarah talking to the camera and the participants can be seen in the bar at the bottom of the screen]

 

Sarah King: Albert might also have an answer to this one, but introducing compostables into our traditional collection pathway, what we really need to ensure is that we, when we do introduce alternatives that they fit within a collection and a processing pathway that is suitable for that material. So, with compostable, ideally you want them to be processed using industrial compostable facilities, and for those facilities to be available. Different solution if we are producing a biodegradable solution as well. So, if anyone’s got anything else they’d like to add to that question I’ll hand over to you now.

 

[Image changes to show Chris listening and then the image changes to show Albert talking to the camera and the participants can be seen in the bar at the bottom of the screen]

 

Albert Ardevol Grau: Yeah, just want to say, if the, so that is the best of course, that is the best option if it can be collected and recycled properly. In the case of they’re not sorted properly and not collected properly, if they go to the advanced recycling process I think, and you will correct me, in that case it is not such a big deal because the process that will lead to the depolymerisation of poly [47.10], for instance, would also work with these compostable plastics. So, in a way it’s a bit of a waste because they have, they didn’t need to go through that pathway, but it wouldn’t be a problem either.

 

[Image changes to show Chris talking to the camera and the participants can be seen in the bar at the bottom of the screen]

 

Chris Krishna-Pillay: While you’re there Albert, another question. How long do the compostable, biodegradable plastics last on the shelf? So, the question’s really, how useful would they be for long term storage, is that an option?

 

[Image changes to show Albert talking to the camera and the participants can be seen in the bar at the bottom of the screen]

 

Albert Ardevol Grau: Yes so that of course would depend on the, the bioplastic in particular. In terms of how long should they last, and how long they should decompose, I think that Qamar might be a better person to answer because that would go into what their standards would be.

 

[Image changes to show Qamar talking to the camera and the participants can be seen in the bar at the bottom of the screen]

 

Qamar Shuyler: Yeah, sorry I don’t have a particular answer on that, on that question either. I think, I get it, it really depends on how they’re created and what the purpose is for them. I don’t know offhand what the longest lasting product might be.

 

[Image changes to show Chris listening and then the image changes to show Albert talking to the camera and the participants can be seen in the bar at the bottom of the screen]

 

 Albert Ardevol Grau: So just as, as Sarah was saying before, most of these compostable plastics are designed, for instance PLA, they’re designed to go into industry or composting facilities. And in these conditions then they degrade, then they degrade I think in six months to one year. I would say that these conditions because these conditions have a certain moisture, and a certain temperature and certain mechanical process. Out of these conditions they last for much longer but I can’t tell you exactly how much.

 

[Image changes to show Chris talking to the camera and the participants can be seen in the bar at the bottom of the screen]

 

Chris Krishna-Pillay. OK, thank you very much. I think I’m going to direct this to Denise. The question is, are remote sensing platforms an option for monitoring plastics? The questioner goes on to say to note that drones is a very talked about option at the moment but are they something that is being deployed in the plastics monitoring, or the plastic waste monitoring area.

 

[Image changes to show Denise talking to the camera and the participants can be seen in the bar at the bottom of the screen]

 

Denise Hardesty: So, the short answer to that question is yes. There’s definitely a role and an option and opportunity for drones. However it’s not quite as quick and simple and straightforward as people might think. So, we can take the images with drones but then you either have to have a person to sift through the data and, you know, the data and make sense of what they are recording. And right now, the time and complexity for artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms and building those models, it’s actually quite difficult to be able to use in as structured way as we might like.

 

At the same time we are seeing and are using satellite imagery to identify large objects or really, you know, there’s another group that has developed a robot sensing tool that is publicly available through Minderoo Foundation for, you know waste dump sites and that sort of thing. So, very promising technology that’s something we actually even looked into 15 years ago. We’ve explored further much more recently than that. However, I think it’s not quite the silver bullet in terms of a monitoring tool that many people would love it to be, although there’s certainly promise and some approaches that we’re looking at within that as well. Thanks Chris.

 

[Image changes to show Chris talking to the camera and the participants can be seen in the bar at the bottom of the screen]

 

Chris Krishna-Pillay: Thank you. Andrea, a question here, two questions here actually. One is simply asking, where can we get more information about the work in India?

 

[Image changes to show Andrea talking to the camera and the participants can be seen in the bar at the bottom of the screen]

 

Andrea Walton: Yes, so there’s a, there’s a website on the CSIRO site that actually is specific to the India project and there are, we can sort of put a connection to that through our Ending Plastic Waste Mission.

 

[Image changes to show Chris talking to the camera and the participants can be seen in the bar at the bottom of the screen]

 

Chris Krishna-Pillay: OK, thank you. And one of the participants is interested in your thoughts on the use of recycled plastics, or environmental material, hang on a second, that provide potential pathways for entering the environment, for example, soft fall in playgrounds.

 

[Image changes to show Andrea talking to the camera and the participants can be seen in the bar at the bottom of the screen]

 

Andrea Walton: So, are we talking, so I think that question is related to the sort of contaminants potentially?

 

Chris Krishna-Pillay: I think so. That’s how I’m interpreting it, yes.

 

Andrea Walton: So, maybe Deb if there’s something you want to say there. So, as a social scientist it’s not my sort of area really that’s looking at those possible contaminants that are released into the environment, however there is, that’s another area within CSIRO that are potentially looking at that sort of thing. I don’t know Deb if you wanted to add anything more.

 

[Image changes to show Deb talking to the camera and the participants can be seen in the bar at the bottom of the screen]

 

Deb Lau: Yeah thanks Andrea, and I think that points to some concerns or, you know, on awareness that’s really needed around how we use these new materials in new ways, as we look to use recycled content for new applications for things like railways sleepers, or as aggregate in road base, or cement, in infrastructure projects, or new products like park benches. So, these are new, these are totally new directions for using plastic waste, and it’s a pretty much, you know, it’s in a new environment for use, or a new context for use that hasn’t been around as much as, you know, the traditional way. So, that’s where we really need to do a lot more work.

 

That’s where approaches like testing, long term sort of eco toxicity monitoring, looking at the impacts and fate and flow of microplastics and decomposed or chemical materials through the environment. That’s where still a lot of work needs to be done and remains. I think that points to a lot of the work that is done in the standards area around understanding the decomposition mechanisms and rates and implications for those microplastic materials, but also the chemicals, or and potentially, you know, toxic concentrations if they reach those thresholds. So, I would say that’s because, you know, the entire planet is moving in this new direction with new materials. That’s where there’s a lot of work that still needs to be done.

 

[Image changes to show Chris talking to the camera and the participants can be seen in the bar at the bottom of the screen]

 

Chris Krishna-Pillay: Thank you.

 

Denise Hardesty: Chris can I just add one brief comment to that?

 

[Image changes to show Denise talking to the camera and the participants can be seen in the bar at the bottom of the screen]

 

I think it’s such an important question and comment from the audience and really the responses from, from this team here. I think we’re all mindful that the world’s changing really quickly and our use of plastics is changing really quickly, and it’s a very dynamic space, and it’s important to be mindful that we don’t end up with unintended consequences with the development of this new vast potential, you know, polymer, polymer mix or composition because plastics literally are tens to hundreds of thousands of different compounds joined in so many different areas, and so as we look for standards and best practices and social drivers and, you know, recycling of materials and polymer chemistry, it’s really complex.

 

And, so just reminding all of us, you know, our listeners, our audience, and all of us today that we do want to be quite mindful of potential unintended consequences. We also aren’t so [54.31] our mission that we can see the future but that means as Deb was highlighting, that need for caution, for consideration in, you know, in what’s developed, in what some of the responses are for playground equipment or for, you know, some of these other things that Andrea was mentioning as well. Thanks.

 

[Image changes to show Sarah talking to the camera and the participants can be seen in the bar at the bottom of the screen]

 

Sarah King: Can I add to that? Because building on that Denise, and I’ve seen a couple of questions come through that talk about are you doing things that are looking at collection systems, and what about alternative compostable nappies, and we’ve talked about the pathways. One of the things that became, that becomes really clear when you look at advanced recycling technologies or even when we looked at the collection and technology combination with nappies is that you need to be mindful that if you produce a new technology, you also should consider, or we should be considering, we are considering the collection pathway that sits alongside that. So, for example with advanced recycling technologies, investment and infrastructure would be significant and they take 100,000 tonnes per annum of plastics but where is that going to come from.

 

Do we need to improve things like the REDcycle collection, if you take your soft plastics to supermarkets can that be expanded? There are other collection opportunities that allow for you to put your soft plastics in your household bin and you have bag in a bag collection systems that go to your MRF, but then there’s challenges around that because we’ve been telling people for a long time not to put soft plastics in the bin. So, I think, you know, what we know with the mission is that not only is there not one single silver bullet solution, but also that we need to mindful that we consider that when we implement one system and one solution, or one technology, that that connects from a system perspective into that supply chain, and how does it disrupt it, and how does it change it, and how do we ensure that that’s successful. So, yeah you’ve got a systems thinker here from my perspective. So, I’m always thinking in systems but just wanted to make sure that’s really important as a factor that we’re including in our mission.

 

[Image changes to show Chris talking to the camera and the participants can be seen in the bar at the bottom of the screen]

 

Chris Krishna Pillay: Thanks Sarah. I’m going to try and squeeze one more question in if I can. It goes, it goes to Denise, at least at first pass, and I quote, “What do the Smart sensors in GPTs actually measure? Is this an off the shelf product? Do they need to be calibrated for individual settings and context etc? And what are the approximate CAPEX and OPEX costs?”

 

[Image changes to show Denise talking to the camera and the participants can be seen in the bar at the bottom of the screen]

 

Denise Hardesty: So, I’m guessing that that one came from an internal CSIRO person which, because capital expenditure is part of the question there. We are using an adapted sensor system. So, it’s not off the shelf and yet it’s not fully bespoke either. So, there’s a lot of programming, design, and everything that’s going into it. There has been no CAPEX funding support for this project at the moment and actually we’re trialling it. We have sensors that have been in devices on the ground in Hobart because this is a collaboration with Hobart City Council.

 

So, I’m more than happy to take further follow-up, you know, around details of this product, about details of this project, and noting that we do not expect this to be something that ultimately is retained within or sits within the CSIRO. We hope this ends up being an independent, you know, enterprise once, once it’s made its way fully and comprehensively through that, you know, Stage 2, Stage 3 design. But it’s terrific because we are also looking to work with a number of other councils and other states and territories around the country in the coming months. Thanks.

 

[Image changes to show Chris talking to the camera and the participants can be seen in the bar at the bottom of the screen]

 

Chris Krishna-Pillay: Awesome, thank you. Alright folks we’re very nearly out of time so I won’t try and jam in too many more questions in there even though there are more questions in there. Please if we haven’t got to your question don’t feel bad. It’s just time, it waits for no person. If you would like us to follow up that question, the best thing to do is to get into the CSIRO Enquiries, and if the system is working the way I’m hoping it is, there’ll be a link/information about that in the Chat function around about now. So, CSIRO Enquiries is the place to go if you want us to follow up on anything, and in fact if you want to follow up with any of our speakers or with the mission generally about, how you can be involved, what you can help with what’s going on, CSIRO Enquiries is the best place to go for that too. They’ll be able to direct you in your questions and ideas to the right place.

 

We had a question pop up earlier on about sharing of slides etc. What I can tell you as a matter of, well I’m going to just say it now so it becomes, it becomes fact now, it becomes law, is that a recording of this webcast will be available in the next day or so, oh hopefully, on the CSIRO website. If you hop on there and again a link to that may be occurring in the Chat now too if all things are going to plan. So, if you want to go back and have a look at this and refresh stuff, or indeed share that, that link with colleagues and friends you’ll be able to do that as well. So, thank you all very much indeed for joining us and for those questions and for your interest. A big thank you as well to all of our presenters. Thank you Denise, thank you Sarah, thank you Deb, thank you Barry, thank you Andrea, thank you Qamar, thank you Albert. Thank you all for a fantastic webcast. We’ll see you all next time. Bye for now.

 

[Image shows Chris smiling on the screen and the participants can be seen in the bar at the bottom of the screen]