Imagine if we could derive many of the raw materials and resources our industries need from waste? Instead of viewing waste as a growing global burden, we could reap huge cost and environmental savings by ‘mining’ the world’s landfills. We could, for example, transform stockpiles of waste tyres by using them for producing high quality steel.
UNSW’s ARC Laureate Professor Veena Sahajwalla, a global pioneer in the development of new ‘green materials’, will be visiting Canberra tomoorw (18/10) to explain how her research team is revolutionising recycling science.
Professor Sahajwalla’s award winning ‘green steelmaking’ process has already been commercialised in Australia and internationally; transforming over two million used tyres to date in Australia alone. Recently, Professor Sahajwalla unveiled a new process to safely transform toxic e-waste into valuable metal alloys, a unique solution to one of the world’s fastest growing and most challenging waste burdens.
Unlike conventional recycling that, for example, turns glass back into more glass, Professor Sahajwalla is investigating waste at its elemental level. The world’s waste mountains are packed with useful elements like carbon, hydrogen, silicon and metals. By redirecting waste back into our industrial processes it can be transformed in the production of previously unimaginable value-added materials and products.
Tomorrow (18/10) at the Shine Dome from 5.30pm, Professor Sahajwalla will present the science that is making this revolution in recycling and waste transformation possible and share her vision for a waste-free future.
Join us as Professor Sahajwalla reveals new opportunities to ‘mine’ the world’s landfills for resources and to reimagine even complex wastes - like mixed plastics, glass and e-waste – to simultaneously reduce costs to businesses, alleviating pressure on natural resources and landfills, save energy and cut greenhouse emissions.
Tickets are $10, and can be booked by visiting https://science.org.au/events.
This event is delivered as part of the public lecture series run by the Australian Academy of Science. Previous talks from this year’s theme, Bots, Booze and Bacteria, can be found on the Academy’s YouTube channel.
Professor Sahajwalla will be available for interviews, please contact Dion Pretorius on 0418 281 777 to arrange.
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